Mid-day meals could not be served to children in thousand of schools in Bihar on Thursday as three lakh primary teachers refused to supervise cooking, claiming that they were appointed to teach and not to carry out non-academic duties.
The development comes close on the heels of death of 23 children after they took mid-day meal in Saran recently. The mid-day meal scheme, a flagship programme of UPA Government, covers nearly 70,000 schools of the State providing food to 1.25 crore children. The agitating teachers got a boost as the Allahabad High court on Thursday observed that the duty of schoolteachers and principals was to teach students and not to supervise cooking of meals.
The HC was hearing a Public Interest litigation(PIl) filed by Meerut-based UP Pradhanacharya Parishad. The PIl had challenged an order of the District Inspector of Schools, dated June 19, whereby the earlier system of NGOs being entrusted with preparing mid-day meals was scrapped and principals were directed to get the food prepared in their respective schools under their personal supervision.
The petitioners had contended that the new system would interfere with the duties of teachers in Meerut. Directing the State Government to submit its policy with regard to mid-day meals on August 5, the HC ordered that in Meerut, the previous system (of NGOs preparing mid-day meals) would continue until further orders. Meanwhile, the Bihar Government tried to put a brave face and said it will approach the Supreme Court to seek a direction to the teachers to end the boycott.
The Government contends that the mid-day meal scheme in the country was introduced following the Supreme CourtRs s order, and hence the schoolchildren have got a legal entitlement to the meals. The State Government admitted that implementation of mid-day meal programme was affected in at least 8,900 schools. The number of affected schools might go up as the final reports from various districts were yet to reach the State headquarters.
Teachers are adamant that they will not call off their strike unless they are relieved of all non-academic duties, including implementation of the midday day meal scheme. General Secretary of Bihar Primary Teachers Association MP Shahi claimed that the boycott had evoked good response in all districts, particularly in Saran, Muzaffarpur, Supaul, Purnea and Sheohar.
He said that even parents were not in favour of their children eating mid-day meals after the Saran tragedy. Teachers want they should not be deputed for the non-academic work like supervision of mid-day meals, conducting census, preparing voters list and supervising building construction. State Principal Secretary (Education Department) Amarjeet Sinha told the media that at least 20 per cent schools were affected by teachersRs agitation. The scheme is affected in at least 10 per cent of schools on any normal day due to lack of adequate foodgrains and some administrative hiccups.
Appealing to teachers to call off their agitation, he said that their demand for keeping them off the non-academic duties is a policy matter and the entire structure of the mid-day meal scheme could not be changed overnight. Meanwhile, the Chief Judicial Magistrate of Chhapra, Akhilanand Dubey, sent the Head Mistress of the Government Primary School at Dharmasti Gandaman village in Saran district, Meena Kumari, to the judicial custody till August 5.