Attending Himanta Biswa Sarma’s swearing-in as Assam chief minister on May 12, Suvendu Adhikari had declared in Guwahati that there was a “lot to learn” from his “elder brother”. The Bengal chief minister, however, appears to have missed a lesson.
A Bengal government decision that threatens to take the protein-rich egg off Bengal’s midday meal menu contrasts sharply with the brother BJP dispensation’s move to serve more eggs to schoolchildren in Assam to boost the nutritional content of their food.
Another irony has not been lost on many — the egg could be yolked off the plates of schoolkids at a time it has been weaponised against the vanquished political opponent of the BJP in Bengal.
According to the Bengal government budget tabled last Monday, Isckon will be engaged to provide “nutritious” midday meals in schools in the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC) area, a move that Opposition parties have flayed as imposing vegetarianism on schoolchildren. Iskcon serves only vegetarian fare and has made it clear that eggs will not be on the menu.
The Bengal government has launched the initiative as a pilot project in Calcutta schools and will take a decision on expanding it to other parts of the state.
Government representatives in Bengal have asserted that the eggless vegetarian diet will be adequately nutritious.
In Assam, however, the BJP government not only introduced eggs once a week in the midday meal in 2020 but also extended it to thrice a week in targeted areas in 2023.
Officials, teachers and cooks whom The Telegraph spoke with in Assam were unanimous in their praise for including eggs in the meal, which students look forward to as “egg day”. Eggs are substituted with soybean or paneer for vegetarian students.
“It is a sort of a feast day. Students who don’t eat the midday meal served in school partake of the food on these egg days. They look so happy,” said Bhanita Pathak Ray, a cook from Baksa district in Assam.
Eggs are served in government and government-aided schools in Assam on Wednesdays. However, schools in targeted areas — tea gardens and sandbars and flood-prone riverbanks of the Brahmaputra river in Assam (char-chaporis) — are served eggs on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays as part of the PM Poshan (erstwhile midday meal) scheme.
Eggs were first introduced once a week in the Assam midday meal in 2020 when Sarbananda Sonowal was the chief minister. Sarma not only nurtured but also boosted the scheme on September 18, 2023, by increasing the number of egg days in targeted areas. An official said the need to enhance the nutritional content of food served to children in tea garden and char-chapori areas was more than in
other places.
As many as 43,785 schools that have classes up to VIII are covered under the PM Poshan scheme in Assam, of which 2,745 are in tea garden areas and 2,048 in char-chapori areas.
However, only vegetarian food is served in 921 schools in Kamrup, Kamrup (Metro) and Jorhat as Akshaya Patra, an NGO linked to Iskcon, organises the meals in these institutions. Akshaya Patra was first involved in the midday meal scheme in Kamrup in 2010 and then in Jorhat in 2022.
“When Akshaya Patra was brought in for the first time, eggs were not even on the menu. The outfit was engaged to boost efficiency, hygiene and quality. It does not cover all schools in these three districts,” another official said. The Congress was in power when Akshaya Patra was engaged, a move opposed by midday meal cooks.
According to an official document, the midday meal scheme was launched as a centrally sponsored project on August 15, 1995, initially in 2,408 blocks in the country. The scheme was started in Assam during the 2004-05 fiscal.
Iskcon authorities in Calcutta said they would serve only vegetarian food and eggs would not be included in the menu. “The items are yet to be finalised. It will be decided once the government provides the complete list of schools and the number of students to whom the food will be served. It is a long process. However, the meals will be completely vegetarian, in keeping with our practice in other states,” said Radharaman Das, vice-president of Iskcon, Calcutta.
The Annamrita Foundation, the former food relief organisation of Iskcon, will be entrusted with serving the cooked meals, as it does in eight other states across the country, including Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Delhi and Haryana.
Das told The Telegraph that it would take time to assess the daily food requirements and prepare kitchens at strategic locations before the Foundation could begin serving midday meals in Calcutta schools.