-The Hindu     Women are essential for the success of schemes like the mid-day meal programme. Improving their wages and working conditions would be better than blaming them when things go wrong. Mahatma Gandhi once declared, "A nation's greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members." By this yardstick, India does not fare well. Consider recent headlines alone: 23 Bihari children die after eating poisoned midday meals at their schools. Six-year-old...

-PTI Lucknow: After incidents of dead lizard and insecticides being detected in mid-day meals, frogs have now been found in the meal served at two primary schools in Moradabad and Chitrakoot districts of Uttar Pradesh, prompting authorities to order an inquiry. A dead frog was found in "Khichdi" served to students at primary school in Dilari block yesterday and four children were taken ill after consuming the meal, official sources said. In Chitrakoot,...

-Live Mint We need to further strengthen and resource the mid-day meal scheme, and not consider its curtailment or dilution The bone-chilling tragedy of 22 children dying in Chhapra in rural Bihar after having their mid-day meal at a government school has rightly shaken the public conscience. But we should resist the temptation of simplistic knee-jerk conclusions, or from attributing blame to the local officials alone or to the state administration....

-AFP PATNA: Thousands of school children were refusing free meals in Bihar, fearful of being poisoned, after 22 children died from eating lunch apparently contaminated with insecticide, officials said on Thursday. The children, aged four to 12, died after eating lentils, vegetables and rice cooked at a village school in Bihar on Tuesday, sparking violent protests and an investigation into the cause. Some 30 children remain ill in hospitals in the state capital...

-Down to Earth   Another incident of poisoning caused by mid-day meal reported from Bihar's Madhubani district Barely 24 hours after 22 children died of poisoning after consuming the mid-day meal served at a primary school in Chapra district of Bihar, one child died and 20 were admitted to hospital after being administered date expired vitamin A dose in Gaya district in the state. Around 40 children of Bigha village were administered vitamin A...