Sir — This refers to recent reports that a snake was found in the mid-day meals given to school children in Bihar. Earlier, 11 school children had died and 50 others fell sick after taking poisonous mid-day meals. Complaints about insects, frogs, lizards, rats etc, found in mid-day meals funded by State Governments as the world’s largest school-lunch programme daily to about 12 crore school children, have become common.
There are frequent reports of sub-standard raw material like rice and pulses with lot of foreign ingredients being used to cook mid-day meal in schools. Only packaged food within the expiry date as mentioned on the packs should be served in schools to ensure hygiene. It will also take care of peculiar food habits of some children, like wanting food without onion and garlic.
Members of civil society have expressed the fear that accepting a suggestion to provide packaged biscuits procured from private companies in the mid-day meal scheme may be at the behest of the influential private sector lobby. But in case such food comes from a sponsored programme from the corporate sector, there is no harm in accepting the offer. We must accept the reality.