BENGALURU: While the government is ramping up efforts to reopen schools the state from January 1, although partially, there will be no hot mid-day meal as before. Instead, students will be asked to carry their own food from home. The government has planned to extend the distribution of ration kits, which they are now giving retrospectively for the lockdown months when students were denied the meals.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Suresh Kumar on Saturday said the department clarified in the Karnataka High Court in the previous week, that delivering mid-day meals was not possible, and hence ration kits will be given to houses of students. Schools will reopen for Classes 10 and 12, and students in Classes 6-9 will attend Vidyagama classes from January 1. Classes will be held only for three periods in a day, he clarified.
Health and education experts are of the opinion that both the partial opening of schools and the substitution of the mid-day meals with food kits is counter-productive. Educationist Niranjanaradhya VP told TNIE that the government has already been urged to start all classes from pre-primary to Class 12. Moreover, it schools shouldn't just be confined to classes, but children should be provided with hot milk, mid-day meal and nutrition supplements.
Classes should be held for the full day, otherwise, it would result in an increase in child labour, bonded child labour, child trafficking and child marriage. The primary obligation of the state is protect the rights of children, he added. "It would have been good if hot cooked meals were served in schools. Neither was that done, nor was ration given for several months till the issue was raised by civil society.
Only now have they started supplying grains. So there is no commitment by the government to the health and nutrition of school children at all," said Cynthia Stephen, social policy researcher and Dalit activist.
Plus the distribution of food grains saves the government the effort and expense of cooking and serving food. "It's a crying shame," she added.
Talking about the already debilitating condition of children's health, Dr Sylvia Karpagam, a public health doctor and researcher, said that schools were to be providers not just of 12-20 grams of protein to children, but also Vitamin A drops and de-worming tablets. Children are at the risk of micro-nutrient deficiencies resulting in rickets, Marasmus and Kwashiorkor from Vitamin A deficiency.