Midday meals served to children in primary schools often are of inferior quality causing them to fall ill sometimes. Write an article in not more than 120 words stating the measures to be taken such as quality control, involvement of local community, checking of false enrolment of students, strict supervision etc. so that the students may get nutritious food. You are Pulkit/ Prerna.

MEASURES TO CHECK MIDDAY MEALS IN SCHOOLS

Prerna

Recently, the timeline is seen to be flooded with complaints against the poor quality of midday meals in schools. Introspection has shown the food to be contaminated with fungus and poor quality rice that is bereft of any nutrients. Anti parties have rallied against the ruling party to dislocate it from its empire. Higher authorities have condemned the lower ones for their insincerity while the lower ones have taxed the subjugated class for such malfunctioning. But, no one has ever talked about the possible remedies to check such problems.

If the problem lies in producing the quality of food, the government has to open more funds to the officials. However, there should be an organization to check the proper utilization of funds for the purpose only. The quality control office should look into this to examine, detect and preserve the quality of food. But, the process needs the aid of the communities present at the very grassroots’ level. These are the local communities that should be provided with the responsibility to participate and mingle with the Panchayat that disposes such decisions. It is these local communities that can look after and report to the organizing body about the initial and developed loopholes in the process. Besides, the school authorities need to cease the illegal and false enrollment of students in the schools. Often, the school authorities prepare data that contain an increasingly high number of students in its institution. This is done to procure a large sum from the government to meet their personal needs. The surplus food in the midday meals is sold illegally in trains, platforms or roadside stalls to boost other chain of business. While sometimes, the demand for midday meals cannot be met due to the excess of students in an institution, which then calls for personal financial contribution from the employees of the school. This gives rise to chaos in the system.

Keeping these problems and remedies, the government can reestablish the midday meals with certain renovations. We should always keep in mind that the most innocent victims of this corruption are these children who are either suffering from malnutrition or have got enrolled themselves in schools just for some food.