Millions of Bihar school kids go without mid-day meal
26 July 2013 10:55 PM GMT
Millions of school children, mostly the poorest of the poor, in Bihar were not served their midday meal on Thursday as 300,000 school teachers began a boycott of the scheme.
Ignoring the state government’s appeal to continue their participation in the midday meal scheme, teachers began their boycott on Thursday. Ten days after the death of 23 children from eating a contaminated midday meal in Saran district, teachers are in no mood to assist the government in running the scheme.
Bihar state primary teachers’ association president Barajnandan Sharma said the teachers have boycotted the scheme. ‘With teachers staying away from the preparation and distribution of the midday meal, hundreds of thousands of children did not get it,’ he said.
Bihar midday meal director R Lakshamanan admitted that due to the teachers’ boycott, millions of children will return from school without having food. ‘We had appealed to the teachers to cooperate in running this scheme,’ Lakshamanan said.
In view of teachers demand to hand over the scheme to NGOs or some other agency, Akshay Patra, a charitable organization, had been invited to take it over in Patna and Muzaffarpur districts.
Ignoring the state government’s appeal to continue their participation in the midday meal scheme, teachers began their boycott on Thursday. Ten days after the death of 23 children from eating a contaminated midday meal in Saran district, teachers are in no mood to assist the government in running the scheme.
Bihar state primary teachers’ association president Barajnandan Sharma said the teachers have boycotted the scheme. ‘With teachers staying away from the preparation and distribution of the midday meal, hundreds of thousands of children did not get it,’ he said.
Bihar midday meal director R Lakshamanan admitted that due to the teachers’ boycott, millions of children will return from school without having food. ‘We had appealed to the teachers to cooperate in running this scheme,’ Lakshamanan said.
In view of teachers demand to hand over the scheme to NGOs or some other agency, Akshay Patra, a charitable organization, had been invited to take it over in Patna and Muzaffarpur districts.
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