As many as 84 students of a government school in Karnataka’s Aalakere have taken transfer certificates in protest against the serving of boiled eggs in midday meals.
The students belong to the Lingayat community, who worship Lord Shiva. Their parents are opposed to the cooking of eggs in the school, which is located close to a Shiva temple.
The discontent over the midday meal among the students and their parents at the Government Higher Primary School at Tiptur block in Tumakuru district had been simmering for a long time.
The Karnataka government offers students the choice of boiled egg, banana or chikki as part of the midday meal scheme.
The co-ed school, which has classes from I to VIII, had 124 students on its rolls, Mandya MLA Ravikumar Gowda told The Telegraph.
“Forty per cent of the students belong to the Lingayat community, who are against boiled eggs. The remaining 60 per cent belong to Vokkalinga and SC communities, who prefer to have eggs in midday meals. Following the escalation of the issue, the government decided to let the parents take a call. The parents of 84 students took transfer certificates and got their kids admitted to other public schools in the nearby villages. Lingayats are devout vegetarians who do not consume eggs,” Gowda said.
The local administration, school authorities and the parents had tried to hammer out a solution, but to no avail.
“There’s nothing we can do to change the mindset of the parents. At the same time, we cannot work against the law. It has to be either boiled egg, banana or chikki,” Gowda said.
Karnataka school education and literacy minister Madhu Bangarappa recently told the Assembly that
some parents preferred their children to skip eggs on
specific days.
“It has been decided to seek the approval of parents during admission for the child’s food preference. It’s better to have parental approval on such issues,” Bangarappa said.
There are reports that funds meant for the midday meal scheme in Karnataka were being diverted. Bangarappa has denied the allegations.
BJP MLA N. Ravikumar informed the Assembly that the Azim Premji Foundation had pledged ₹1,500 crore over three years to provide eggs to schoolchildren as part of the midday meal scheme. However, surprise checks on schools revealed that the children were not getting eggs.