Background
Across India, the Midday Meal Scheme provides roughly 120 million children with free lunch, making it the world's most extensive school lunch program. [6] In spite of corruption involved in implementing the scheme, it aims to fight widespread poverty and improve children's school attendance and health as a large number of India's children suffer from malnutrition. [7] [8]
Bihar in northern India is among the nation's poorest states. [9] According to Mashrakh residents, students have suffered from food poisoning after eating school lunches on multiple occasions. [10] P. K. Shahi, Bihar's education minister, said complaints about food quality were not uncommon, but there had been no reported incidents of widespread food poisoning during his tenure. [7] The nonprofit Hare Krishna Food for Life describes the meal programmes in Bihar and neighbouring Uttar Pradesh as "the worst in India." Public health is poor in general, with most water sources contaminated, and hospitals underfunded. [4]
The primary school Dharmashati-Mata Mandir, in the village of Gandaman, was established in 2010. At the time of the incident, 89 children were registered with the school. [11] The food material for Midday Meals was stored at the house of the headmistress as the school did not have sufficient infrastructure. [12]
Incident
On 16 July 2013, children aged between four and twelve years at the Dharmashati Mata primary school complained that their lunch, served as a part of the Midday Meal Scheme, tasted odd. [4] The headmistress rebuked children who questioned the food. [7] Earlier, headmistress Meena Kumari had been informed by the school's cook that the new cooking oil was discoloured and smelled odd. [10] Kumari replied that the oil was purchased at a local grocery store and safe to use. [9] [10] The cook, who was also hospitalized by the poisoning, later told reporters that it looked like there was "an accumulation of residual waste at the bottom [of the oil jar]". [9] The meal cooked at the school that day consisted of soya beans, rice and potato curry. [9]
Thirty minutes after eating the meal, the children complained of stomach pain and soon after were taken ill with vomiting and diarrhoea. The number of sick children overwhelmed the school and the local medical system. Some of the sick children were sent home, forcing their parents to seek help on their own. [4] According to the official count, 23 children died as a result of the contaminated food. [1] Parents and local villagers said at least 27 had died. [2] Sixteen children died on-site, and four others were declared dead upon arrival at the local hospital. Others died in hospital. Among the dead were two children of one of the schools cooks, Panna Devi; her third child survived. [12] [13] A total of 48 students fell ill from the contaminated food. Three remained in a critical condition as of 17 July. [9] Thirty-one children were moved from the local hospital to Patna Medical College Hospital (PMCH) for further treatment. [7]
Cause
Initial indications were that the food was contaminated by an organophosphate, a class of chemicals commonly found in insecticides, pesticides and herbicides. [7] A local government administrator commented "It appears to be a case of poisoning but we will have to wait for forensic reports ... Had it been a case of natural food poisoning, so many children would not have died." [9] Dr Amar Kant Jha, superintendent of PMCH in Patna, said that the survivors were emitting toxic vapours, which led his team to suspect almost immediately that they had been poisoned with an organophosphate. [14]
Late on 17 July, officials stated that they believed the cooking oil had been placed in a container formerly used to store insecticides. [4] According to state officials, the school's headmistress had bought the cooking oil used in the food from a grocery store owned by her husband. [1] On 20 July police said that a forensic report confirmed the cooking oil contained "very toxic" levels of monocrotophos, an agricultural pesticide. [3] [15]
Reactions
Nineteen of the children's bodies were buried on or near school grounds in protest. Across Bihar, numerous students refused to eat their meals in the days following the incident. [1] On 17 July, hundreds of Mashrakh residents took to the streets in protest. [10] Demonstrators lit fires and burned effigies of Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. [9] The flames damaged four police vehicles. [10] Others threw stones at the police station and chanted slogans denouncing the government. [9] Some villagers demanded that the Midday Meal program be scrapped. [2] Angry protesters carrying sticks and poles blocked roads and rail lines. [10] Desks and chairs from the school were taken and smashed, while the kitchen area was destroyed. [2] In nearby Chhapra, multiple arson attacks were reported, including reports that a crowd set fire to a bus, but no injuries were reported from either city. [1] [2] [4] [10]
Bihar State Education Minister Shahi commented that many people involved in the program were looking for easy money and that "it is just not possible to taste meals in all the 73,000 schools before children eat the food." [4] He also alleged that the contaminated oil had been purchased from a member of a rival political party. [2] Opposition party members accused the ruling Janata Dal (United) party of acting too slowly [9] and called for a general strike. [7]
The Bihar government promised a thorough investigation and offered INR 200,000 (US$3,400) compensation for families of the dead children. Kumar called an emergency meeting and dispatched forensic experts to Mashrakh. [10] The headmistress and her husband fled after the deaths became public knowledge, and the administrative authority suspended her. [9] [10] A First Information Report was filed against the headmistress for criminal negligence, and police began searching for her. A district magistrate told the BBC that her property would be confiscated if she did not surrender to the authorities. [3] [12] She was apprehended by police in Chhapra on 24 July and held on suspicion of murder and criminal conspiracy. [16] [17] In October 2013 the headmistress and her husband were charged with murder and faced the death penalty if convicted. [18]
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to meals:
Indian cuisine consists of a variety of regional and traditional cuisines native to the Indian subcontinent. Given the diversity in soil, climate, culture, ethnic groups, and occupations, these cuisines vary substantially and use locally available spices, herbs, vegetables, and fruits.
A ploughman's lunch is an originally British cold meal based around bread, cheese, and fresh or pickled onions. Additional items can be added, such as ham, green salad, hard boiled eggs, and apple, and usual accompaniments are butter and a sweet pickle such as Branston. As its name suggests, it is most commonly eaten at lunchtime. It is particularly associated with pubs, and often served with beer; the saltiness of the cheese was noted to enhance the "relish of the beer."
Bengali cuisine is the culinary style of Bengal, that comprises Bangladesh and the Indian state of West Bengal, and Assam's Karimganj district. The cuisine has been shaped by the region's diverse history and climate. It is known for its varied use of flavours including mustard oil, as well as the spread of its confectioneries and desserts. There is a strong emphasis on rice as a staple, with fish traditionally the most common protein. Freshwater fish are preferred to seafish, although barramundi, known as bhetki, is also common. Meat is also a common protein among Bengalis with chicken, mutton meat being the most popular. Beef is popular within the muslim community. In more recent times, lentils have begun to form a significant part of the diet. Many Bengali food traditions draw from social activities, such as adda, Poila Boishakh and Durga Puja.
Foodborne illness is any illness resulting from the contamination of food by pathogenic bacteria, viruses, or parasites, as well as prions, and toxins such as aflatoxins in peanuts, poisonous mushrooms, and various species of beans that have not been boiled for at least 10 minutes.
A free lunch is the providing of a meal at no cost, usually as a sales enticement to attract customers and increase revenues from other business. The practice was once common in saloons and taverns in many places in the United States, with the phrase appearing frequently in U.S. literature from about 1870 to the late 1920s. These establishments included a "free" lunch, which varied from rudimentary to quite elaborate, with the purchase of at least one drink. These free lunches were typically worth more than the price of a single drink. The saloon-keeper relied on the expectation that most customers would buy more than one drink, and that the practice would build patronage for other times of day.
The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The scheme has been renamed as PM-POSHAN Scheme. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in government primary and upper primary schools, government aided Anganwadis, Madarsa and Maqtabs. Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
Tiffin is a South Asian English word for a type of meal. It refers to a light breakfast or a light tea-time meal at about 3 p.m., consisting of typical tea-time foods. In certain parts of India, it can also refer to the midday luncheon or, in some regions of the Indian subcontinent, a between-meal snack. When used in place of the word "lunch", however, it does not necessarily mean a light meal.
A school meal is a meal provided to students and sometimes teachers at a school, typically in the middle or beginning of the school day. Countries around the world offer various kinds of school meal programs, and altogether, these are among the world's largest social safety nets. An estimated 380 million school children around the world receive meals at their respective schools. The extent of school feeding coverage varies from country to country, and as of 2020, the aggregate coverage rate worldwide is estimated to be 27%.
The etiquette of Indian dining and socializing varies with the region in India.
Monocrotophos is an organophosphate insecticide. It is acutely toxic to birds and humans, so it has been banned in the U.S., the E.U., India and many other countries.
Literacy in India is a key for social-economic progress. The 2011 census, indicated a 2001–2011 literacy growth of 97.2%, which is slower than the growth seen during the previous decade. An old analytical 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy at then-current rate of progress.
Cooking in the Danger Zone is a documentary television series produced by the BBC and presented by Stefan Gates.
Lunch is a meal eaten around the middle of the day. It is commonly the second meal of the day, after breakfast, but before dinner, and varies in size by culture and region.
Food safety incidents in China have received increased international media scrutiny following the reform and opening of the country, and its joining the World Trade Organization. Urban areas have become more aware of food safety as their incomes rise. Food safety agencies in China have overlapping duties.
Mashrakh is a Block and town of Saran District in the western part of Bihar, India. It is located on the right bank of Ghoghari river. It is situated at 40 km from Chhapra and 98 km from state capital Patna. There are 17 Panchayats in Mashrakh Block.
The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to cuisines:
A meal is an occasion that takes place at a certain time and includes consumption of food. The English names used for specific meals vary, depending on the speaker's culture, the time of day, or the size of the meal. A meal is different from a snack in that meals are generally larger, more varied, and more filling.
India 