Activists, parents flag concern over poor quality midday meal in Telangana

♦ Schools not seen following the mid-day meal chart

♦ Social activists, teachers and parents demand for a proper quality check before the meal is served

Hyderabad: With the recent food poisoning incidents that were reported in Telangana Minorities Residential Schools in few districts, social activists, teachers and parents raised their concern and demanded for a proper quality check before the mid-day meal is served to the children in government schools.

According to government schoolteachers and parents, the food been served to the government school students is of low quality and very unhygienic. The rice which is served is also not cooked properly. Most of the schools do not have proper supply of safe drinking water and some do not provide soaps for children to wash their hands. Proper sanitisation is not maintained in the school premises, mainly the kitchen.

Asif Hussain Sohail, president of Telangana Parents Association for Child Rights and Safety said, "Almost all the government schools are serving food in an unhygienic manner. The place where the food containers are been kept is not cleaned and containers are not been sealed properly. We have received many complaints from children regarding mid-day meals served to them. No proper quality food check is done and there is no separate committee for checking the taste and quality of the food. Many representations have been given to concerned officials but all fell in deaf ears. As the meals provided is unhygienic, there are a lot of food poisoning cases been reported in residential schools. At least now the State government should monitor on how the food is been prepared and served to the children."

M Ravinder, general secretary, Telangana Progressive Teachers Federation (TPTF) said, "As the quality of rice being severed is pathetic and rice worms, stones are found in it, recently many food poisoning cases were reported in few districts. It is the irresponsibility of the suppliers supplying uncleaned raw material, due to which children are seen suffering and starving. Also, in many schools food is been prepared in a centralised kitchen of an NGO which is been supplied in an unhygienic manner. The State government should set up a committee for checking the quality of food and should frequently visit government schools and check whether children are receiving quality food or not. The government should also have a regular check on whether the agencies are been sanctioned sufficient funds."

"As per the mid-day meal chart, rice egg and dal should be served on Monday and Thursday, vegetable curry should be served on Tuesday and Friday and on Wednesday and Saturday dal and leafy vegetables should be served. But the government schools are not seen following the chart. Same menu is been served everyday which is of very bad quality. The rice which is been served to the students is very mushy and yellowish in colour. We have many times complained to the concerned officials to check the quality of the meal they are supplying," said a teacher of Government High School.