Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has rejected a proposal to serve eggs to children at the anganwadis in some of the state's malnourished tribal areas.
Activists say the decision has been made with an eye to religious sentiments of people. Vegetarians comprise 35% people of the state, the chief minister himself is among them.
"We do not want to introduce anything which is controversial, something to which people object. So instead of egg we will provide the children with milk," said Narottam Mishra, state government spokesperson.
A survey by the National Family Health reveals that 60% of the children below the age of five years are underweight in Madhya Pradesh. For the past six years, activists have been pushing for the inclusion of eggs in the food distributed by anganwadis, but the state government has steadfastly refused.
This time, the proposal had come from the Women and Child Development department as a pilot project in the tribal areas of Hoshangabad, Mandla and Alirajpur, where malnutrition rates are quite high.
"The government is opposing eggs in anganwadis to please a selected group of vegetarians. It is wrong and children should get adequate nutrition," said economist and activist Jean Dreze.
Activists claim providing milk to 80 lakh children daily and maintaining its quality is an impossible task. Providing eggs, on the other hand, is a more viable option as they are high on protein and fats.
Other non-BJP states like Bihar, Odisha, West Bengal, Andhra, Telangana and Karnataka serve eggs in anganwadi meals under the Integrated Child Development Services. The exception is Jharkhand, which has a BJP government, but serves eggs because of malnutrition problem.