Karnataka’s mid-day meal scheme, which provides hot cooked lunches to 6.1 million children in 55,113 state government and government-aided primary schools, has come under a cloud following the horrible deaths of two six-year-olds within the space of ten days in September. On September 17, a class II girl child was burnt to death after she fell into a scalding pot as lunch was being served in a government upper primary school in Chikkaballapur district. Earlier on September 7, a six-year-old boy student suffered a similar fate in Belgaum district. The tragic death of these tiny tots attracted 36 pt headlines in local newspapers, prompting the state government to go into damage control mode.

On September 18, the state’s department of public instruction (DPI) suspended eight employees in both schools including the headmasters and cooks, and simultaneously issued a circular detailing new safety guidelines to all government schools statewide. Among the safety norms prescribed are proscription of cooking utensils for serving lunch; ban on serving meals in kitchens — meals should be served only in classrooms or school corridors, and mandatory supervision of the lunch service by either class teachers, physical education teachers, headmasters or cooks. Moreover, the circular instructs deputy directors of public instruction, block education officers, and zilla panchayat officers to regularly monitor the mid-day meal scheme within their jurisdiction.

“The objective of the safety circular is to improve the monitoring and implementation of the mid-day meal scheme which covers 6.1 million children across the state. Kitchen staff in all primary schools have been asked to strictly follow the safety guidelines, and teachers have also been instructed to supervise the lunch hour service, especially for children in lower primary school. Moreover in accordance with a Union HRD ministry circular, we will shortly begin training school cooks to enhance the nutrition value of the mid-day meal. Karnataka’s mid-day meal scheme is one of the largest in the country and we have been very successful in increasing enrolment and retaining children in primary education. We are committed to providing children a nutritious cooked lunch in safe school environments,” says S. Jayakumar, joint director of public instruction in charge of the state’s mid-day meal scheme.

However informed educationists in this southern state are unanimous that it will take more than circulars and statements of intent to raise safety standards in the state’s ramshackle government primaries, most of whom are bereft of kitchens, drinking water and proper storage facilities. More than 20 percent of the state’s 55,113 government primaries lack separate kitchens and storerooms, with meals cooked in classrooms or under open skies. In more fortunate schools, class-rooms share space with rudimentary kitchens. Only a handful have separate kitchens, and grains and utensil storage rooms.

According to education department sources, 8,724 school kitchens need to be constructed immediately at a cost of Rs.84 crore which is yet to be sanctioned by the state government. In addition to poor infrastructure, there’s a perennial shortage of cooks and aides, and poor and negligent implementation of the mid-day scheme with over-burdened teachers resentful about having to bear the additional responsibility of delivering safe and nutritious meals.

“The state’s mid-day meal programme requires rigorous distribution, management and monitoring systems. Teachers and headmasters can’t be expected to serve or supervise the mid-day meal. They are already over-burdened with a lot of non-academic work and their priority should be improving learning outcomes. Therefore the state government must recruit more cooks, helpers and mid-day meal organisers, and invest in construction of safe and hygienic kitchens and storage rooms. Moreover, there should be regular monitoring of noon meal centres by education department officials. These root causes of the decline of the state’s mid-day meal scheme have to be addressed to prevent accidents,” says Prof. A.S. Seetharamu, senior consultant, Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Karnataka, and former professor of education at the Institute of Social and Economic Change (ISEC), Bangalore.

Yet at bottom the mid-day meal scheme and primary education in general requires a substantially higher budgetary allocation for pre-primary and primary education. In the state government’s budget for 2013-14, the newly elected Congress government led by chief minister M. Siddaramaiah, allocated Rs.15,599 crore — a mere 3.39 percent of the state’s GDP — for primary and secondary education. With teachers’ salaries absorbing 92 percent of this outlay, there’s little left for investment in infrastructure, especially clean and hygienic kitchens and additional personnel.

Safety guideline circulars, imposition of additional duties on already over-worked teachers and diktats to negligent education officials, will do little to improve the quality and efficiency of the mid-day meal scheme unless the annual education outlay (Centre plus states) is raised to 6 percent of GDP as recommended by the Kothari Committee way back in 1966. Meanwhile for the 6.1 million children enrolled in the state’s 55,113 government primaries, the mid-day meal will remain a boon and bane with preventable tragedies attracting ritual lamentation

Sangeetha Samuel (Bangalore)