A woman sits beside a child at a hospital in Patna who fell sick after eating the mid-day meal. (AP)
Patna:
Bihar is struggling with the crushing weight of a tragedy that saw 23 children die after a poisoned free lunch in their school.
School principals and cooks who prepare the free mid-day meal have been ordered to taste the food before it's served to young students.
The principal of a government school on the outskirts of Patna has run into trouble today for ordering in jalebis for nearly 300 students. The cooks in charge of prepping the students' lunch didn't show up to work today. So the headmistress had 15 kilos of jalebis delivered which were distributed for lunch.
The sub-inspector in charge of supervising the mid-day meal scheme in the region has issued the principal with a showcause notice since jalebis are not on the menu sanctioned for the mid-day meal scheme.
India's mid-day meal scheme is one of the world's biggest school nutrition programs. State governments have the freedom to decide on menus and timings of the meals, depending on local conditions and availability of food rations. It was first introduced in the 1960s in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school.
Since then, the program has been replicated across the country, covering some 120 million schoolchildren. It's part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition, which the government says nearly half of the country's children suffer from.
School principals and cooks who prepare the free mid-day meal have been ordered to taste the food before it's served to young students.
The principal of a government school on the outskirts of Patna has run into trouble today for ordering in jalebis for nearly 300 students. The cooks in charge of prepping the students' lunch didn't show up to work today. So the headmistress had 15 kilos of jalebis delivered which were distributed for lunch.
The sub-inspector in charge of supervising the mid-day meal scheme in the region has issued the principal with a showcause notice since jalebis are not on the menu sanctioned for the mid-day meal scheme.
India's mid-day meal scheme is one of the world's biggest school nutrition programs. State governments have the freedom to decide on menus and timings of the meals, depending on local conditions and availability of food rations. It was first introduced in the 1960s in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school.
Since then, the program has been replicated across the country, covering some 120 million schoolchildren. It's part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition, which the government says nearly half of the country's children suffer from.
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