The horrifying incidents of children dying and many falling sick after consuming the unhygienic and poisonous mid-day meals across the country led the Supreme Court on Friday to take notice and seek a response from Centre and States on evolving a mechanism to ensure quality control in order to prevent further deaths.
The Bench headed by Chief Justice P Sathasivam directed Centre and all States to report steps taken by them to prevent future incidents such as was witnessed in Bihar where 22 children died after consuming the poisonous food served to them. The order came on a set of two PIls filed by Antarrashtriya Manav Adhikar Manch and advocate Sanjeeb Panigrahy.
The PIls complained of lack of effective monitoring and evaluation of quality of food served to students. “In over 12 lakh government-run and aided schools, children receive free, cooked lunch every day but they are constantly exposed to risk of food poisoning and other related health hazards due to lack of infrastructure and proper monitoring of the scheme,” the PIl stated.
Also, the mid-day meal content was falling short of standards set by Supreme Court requiring a minimum content of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein each day of school for a minimum of 200 days. To add to this was lack of cleanliness and hygiene in preparation of food. In this regard, the PIls sought regular financial and social audit of the scheme, which was in the interest of students, whose right to life was under threat.