Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 150
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Deprecated (16384): The ArrayAccess methods will be removed in 4.0.0.Use getParam(), getData() and getQuery() instead. - /home/brlfuser/public_html/src/Controller/ArtileDetailController.php, line: 151
 You can disable deprecation warnings by setting `Error.errorLevel` to `E_ALL & ~E_USER_DEPRECATED` in your config/app.php. [CORE/src/Core/functions.php, line 311]
Warning (512): Unable to emit headers. Headers sent in file=/home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php line=853 [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 48]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 148]
Warning (2): Cannot modify header information - headers already sent by (output started at /home/brlfuser/public_html/vendor/cakephp/cakephp/src/Error/Debugger.php:853) [CORE/src/Http/ResponseEmitter.php, line 181]
LATEST NEWS UPDATES | Delhi's mid-day meal dilemma: 80 per cent of the food cooked for students is sub-standard -Neha Pushkarna

Delhi's mid-day meal dilemma: 80 per cent of the food cooked for students is sub-standard -Neha Pushkarna

Share this article Share this article
published Published on Jul 19, 2013   modified Modified on Jul 19, 2013
-India Today


A Chhapra like tragedy is waiting to happen in the capital.

Delhi has made a mess of its Mid-day Meal Scheme: only 50 of the 280 samples taken in 2012-13 from centralised kitchens run by Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to provide midday meals in government schools in the capital met prescribed standards.

In other words, more than 80 per cent of the food cooked for primary school students from Class 1 through 8 in government and government-aided schools just isn't good enough to eat. And quality is only half the story, for Delhi covers just about 63 per cent of the students it should under the mid-day meal scheme (MDMS). Bihar, in comparison, covers 67 per cent. Delhi also lags in the utilisation of funds.

"As per the report received from Delhi, the food being served there was one of the worst. The ministry has directed them besides other states to immediately improve the quality of food," said a senior official from the Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD). The capital was among the low performers in the ministry's quarterly progress report for the January-March quarter of the last academic session.

Improve quality

Following the analysis, Dr Amarjit Singh, Additional Secretary at MHRD, wrote to all states on July 8 where he mentioned that Delhi needed to improve the quality of meals and coverage of students getting the midday meals. He wrote, "The recent visits of Joint Review Missions for Himachal Pradesh, Delhi and Gujarat have brought out a few critical issues. While the coverage of children under the MDMS is less than the national average in Delhi and Gujarat, 30-40 per cent of the sampled children were found with low Body Mass Index."

According to the norms of the MDMS revised in 2007, the meal served each day should provide at least 450 calories and 12 grams of protein to primary children (classes I to V) and 700 gram and 20 gram protein to upper primary children (classes VI to VIII).

"Delhi government sends samples from NGO kitchens to Shri Ram Institute for Industrial Research on a monthly basis. Though the samples have been found deficient in nutrients, the state should explain why they haven't asked the suppliers to take corrective measures," said an official from the Centre for Study of Developing Societies, which is the monitoring institution for midday meals in Delhi.

Test trouble

State government officials have a different take, however, on the low standards of food served in Delhi schools every afternoon. State Education Minister Kiran Walia said the dismal results were caused by a change in the testing method. The government decided to test the actual wet samples from the kitchen instead of first drying them up, which led to the calculation tion of low calorific and protein values. "The quantity of calorie content and protein value changes if the sample is liquid and not dry. I was concerned about the problem and wrote to the Centre soon after I took over to know if we should use dry samples or with curries. We haven't got a reply till now," said Walia.

"We collect four samples from every kitchen every month for testing. Till two years ago, we used to dry the samples to test the quantity of nutrients. But to upgrade the quality check and make it more stringent, we decided to test the samples as they were collected," explained a senior Delhi government official.


India Today, 19 July, 2013, http://indiatoday.intoday.in/story/delhis-mid-day-meal-misery-only-50-out-of-280-food-samples-passed-quality-test/1/291998.html


Related Articles

 

Write Comments

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

*

Video Archives

Archives

share on Facebook
Twitter
RSS
Feedback
Read Later

Contact Form

Please enter security code
      Close