Mid Day Meal Needs To Be Nutritious But UP Schools Serve Dead Rats And Namak-Roti
In recent times, the UP administration has been serving its schoolchildren, midday meals, that are definitely not nutritious by any standards.
The Uttar Pradesh government seems to have an uncanny knack of being in news for wrong reasons most of the times.
Renaming cities for no legitimate reason whatsoever to ensuring government-aided school children not getting nutritious food, they do it with sheer nonchalance, pun intended.
In recent times, the UP administration has been serving its schoolchildren, midday meals, that are definitely not nutritious by any standards.
Putting that to perspective, the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of School Education & Literacy) has clearly outlined basic ingredients of what mid day meal should include as shown in the image below.
No balanced diet but a dead rat instead
In what can be described as criminal negligence, a dead rat was reportedly found in dal being served to the students at a school in Uttar Pradesh's Muzaffarnagar on December 3.
According to a report by NDTV, several students had already consumed the meal and had taken ill before the dead rat was spotted. The incident took place in Janta Inter College government school at Pachenda in Mustafabad area in Uttar Pradesh. Many students were taken to the hospital while many others reported they felt uneasy.
As per reports, a dead rat was allegedly found in mid-day meal served to students at Janta Inter college in UP's Muzaffarnagar district. Condition of 9 students deteriorated after consuming the meal following which they were rushed to district hospital. @BJP4UP @UPGovt pic.twitter.com/JAoY7UCt50
¡ª ???????? ???? (@livingforpeace2) December 3, 2019
The news portal report added the meal was meant for Class 6-8 students and was prepared by an NGO called Jan Kalyan Sanstha Committee which is based in Hapur, a town about 90 kilometres from Muzaffarnagar.
The dead rat isn't the only aberration in regards to the UP administration mid-day meal scheme lapses.
Serving milk but with some adulterated love
Not too long ago, November 25 to be precise, a government primary school was accused of serving the students diluted milk under the mid-day meal scheme. Authorities at the government primary school, Salai Banwa in Chopan of the tribal Sonbhadra district allegedly added one litre of milk to a bucket full of water and served it to as many as 85 children.
After Mirzapur's Namak-Roti, one litre of milk was diluted and later distributed to 81 kids as part of mid-day meal at a primary school in UP's Sonbhadra district. A video has also surfaced on social media following which probe was ordered by local authorities. pic.twitter.com/pmmrFlkJjI
¡ª Piyush Rai (@Benarasiyaa) November 29, 2019
The children at the primary school were required to be given a glass full of milk in their mid-day meal to make their diet wholesome.
To make their diet wholesome and complete, the children at the primary school were supposed to be given a glass full of milk in their mid-day meal but what they got was a glass full of diluted milk.
This is not it, kids were even served salt and roti
Another incident that highlights the lackadaisical attitude of the UP administration with regard to the mid-day meal scheme is when the poor children had to consume roti and salt. A video that was doing the rounds on social media showed children from Mirzapur school sitting on the floor and eating rotis with salt.
Salt-Roti and turmeric water for the Kids of U.P but coats for the Cows of UP.
¡ª Khushboo (@Khush_boozing) November 24, 2019
Wow!
Not the HRD Ministry website, even the Uttar Pradesh Mid Day Meal Authority website has a mid-day menu that includes pulses, vegetables, rice and rotis, along with fruits and milk, to be served to students.
The least our children deserve is nutritious and a healthy diet and the governments should ensure they get it.
