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Delhi no model for midday meal scheme -Manash Pratim Gohain & Risha Chitlangia
-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Rattled by the midday meal tragedy in Bihar in which 23 children have died, the Delhi government and the municipal corporations swung into action on Thursday. Officials of the Directorate of Education (DoE) led by Marcel Ekka, deputy director of the midday meal programme, visited many schools to take stock. Officials said, unlike other states, the situation in the national capital is better as none of the samples collected in the past two years has been declared unfit for human consumption. The main concern here is of nutritional value, they said.

In the past year, a lot of samples collected from municipal schools have been found deficient in nutritional content. Recently, nearly 50% of the samples collected from South corporation schools failed the nutrition test but officials blame the testing methodology adopted by the laboratory for it. "The lab is testing wet samples. Earlier, they used to test dry samples. We have decided to hire a new lab for testing food samples. We are soon going to float tenders for it,'' said Satish Upadhyay, chairman of South corporation's education committee who inspected MDM kitchens on Thursday. But North and East corporations claim none of the samples collected from their kitchens has ever failed the quality test.

MDM samples from Delhi government schools and aided schools are tested at the Shriram Institute for Industrial Research. DoE officials say none of these samples has failed the test but the results of wet testing are short of the prescribed nutritional level. However, the dry sample tests show higher level of nutrition. "The wet sample testing, which is an advanced testing methodology, shows that the standards of the meals need to be raised and the parameters need to be changed. We are complying with norms set by the Ministry of Human Resource Development, which is reviewing the parameters and is likely to set new standards," said a senior official of the department of education.

The Delhi government had recently renewed the contracts of all the NGOs involved in the MDM programme despite negative reports from laboratories. The government and the municipal agencies provide midday meals to nearly 13 lakh students in more than 3,000 schools in the city. While the civic agencies claim the food served is hot and nutritious, parents and students have a different take on it. "The dal or chhole is watery and the rice is often half-cooked,'' said a student of a municipal school in Chandni Chowk. Teachers agree that quality is not maintained. "We are supposed to give a report to the department on the quality of food served. These people often don't wear gloves and caps while serving food,'' said a teacher with a North corporation school.

The nutritional inadequacy of the meals is not surprising as, on a plate of rajma-rice or aloo-puri for primary students, Rs 3.11 is all that the government spends. The meal has a high calorie and protein count, but experts say it is deficient in vitamins and micro-nutrients. Instead of including vegetables and fruits in the meal, the civic agencies are pushing supplements. They provide iron and folic acid tablets to children in all municipal schools.

In corporation schools, every primary student gets 250 grams of food each day. In government schools, if the food is rice based a student gets 250 grams at the primary level and 375 grams at the upper-primary level. But nutritionists say although this food provides 350-450 calories and 12 grams of protein, it lacks essential micro-nutrients and vitamins.