Tirupati: The state government’s recent directives to government schools to give three eggs per week to students is overburdening the self-help group women who run the mid-day meal scheme in the state schools. The government had issued a circular in October on providing an additional egg to give students better nutritious food. It increased the menu charge for high school students from Rs 6.78 to Rs 7.18 per student, and from Rs 6.58 to Rs 7 for each upper primary student.
Following directives, the mandal education officers and headmasters of government schools instructed the SHGs to implement it with immediate effect, which has become a burden to these groups. The cooking agencies should provide rice, sambar or vegetable, dal, rasam or buttermilk every day to the student as mid day meal. In addition to this, three eggs should be provided to students every week. There are 2,89,458 students studying in 4,804 government schools across the district. Some of these schools are served by SHGs while the others are provided food by the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (Iskcon).
The women groups adhere to the menu under the supervision of headmasters, and the food is prepared on the school premises. It is first tasted by the headmaster, who lodges a complaint if the quality is poor. In the case of Iskcon, the food is prepared in big kitchens at Tirupati and Chinnagottigallu and supplied to the schools in vans. There are several complaints made by the headmasters and the students’ parents about the quality and taste of food being served by Iskcon, which were ignored by the district authorities.
Iskcon does not follow the menu stipulated by the government and provides only sambar rice to the students. Instead of eggs it is serves groundnut candy, which it maintains is as nutritious. According to Ms Swaroopa Rani, state general secretary of the Mid-day Meal Workers Association, the menu charges which are given by the government are not sufficient to provide quality food. As each egg costs about Rs 5, it is not possible to supply rice and other dishes at a cost of Rs 2 per student, she said. The government should allot a separate fund for serving eggs to the student, she demanded and wanted officials to respond soon.
