[sadhuji]

It was shocking to learn that the mid day meals meant for school children are of such poor quality that the children who partook of them in Moradabad in UP have fallen sick. This scheme was introduced to act as an incentive for urging children to attend school.

In families where two square meals a day are unheard of, this scheme if put to correct use could improve the literacy rates of the under privileged and the downtrodden. Unfortunately, those in authority who are entrusted with arranging and distribution of these meals are not bothered about the noble intentions of the Government. They treat this as just one more avenue for making easy money. The food grains earmarked per child along with the basic ingredients for cooking are made available based on statistics per school. The qualities are seldom ensured and the amount and ratio of the ingredients are never adhered to.  The kids, for whom these meals are meant, cannot make out the difference and those who control the inventory and handle the items are contented to dole out meals as if they are doling out alms from their personal funds. Use of sub standard ingredients lead to illness and that, then, becomes a different story altogether. Like the cases of starvation deaths that are passed off as deaths due to eating foodstuff that are not meant for human consumption – foodstuffs like wild berries, roots of trees, eggs of insects etcetera.

Yes, in this country of ours that boasts of huge IT empires, billionaires and 17,000 plus Sensex index we still co-exist with these curses. Thanks to the determination of those in power they always have a group of persons at hand who are illiterate, who are staunch believers in superstition and who are intentionally kept as far away from civilization as possible – to be exploited to the maximum and made to do all the dirty work.