The ambitious Anda Abhiyan, which was launched with fanfare in Jharkhand last year to provide nutrition to poor children under the midday meal scheme, has left the state with egg on its face because school authorities are unable to meet the expenses in the absence of additional funds.
Government primary and middle schools are not being able to include eggs in Friday midday meals as proposed by the Anda Abhiyan, an initiative launched by the state chapter of Right to Food Campaign to press for full-fledged implementation of the National Food Security Act and supported by the government.
"As it is, we are finding it difficult to provide normal meals to the children in view of the escalating costs of foodgrains and vegetables. How will we provide eggs? Then, there is the cost of cooking gas. Earlier, we used to get 12 LPG cylinders at subsidised rates every month. Now, we have to purchase eight LPG cylinders without any subsidy in a month as the government is not giving us any subsidy," said Sangeeta Singh, a Hindi teacher of government middle school, Karamtoli.
"There have been times when we have not been able to provide eggs to the students for two months at a stretch," she added.
Asha Kumari, school-in- charge of government middle school in Karamtoli, rued: "We are grappling with budget constraints. The allotted funds are not enough to purchase eggs. We spend it on rice, oil, vegetables and lentils. Also, we are unable to provide bananas to those children who don't take eggs."
The central government has allotted Rs 3.69 per child from Classes I to V and Rs 5.54 per child from Classes VI-VIII under its ambitious midday meal programme with an aim to provide nutritious food to the students and, in the process, stem dropouts.
Although a programme of the central government, the state has to bear a share of the cost at the ratio of 65:35.
The state government, on its part, extended support to the Anda Abhiyan and the cabinet approved approximately Rs 155 crore to provide eggs at least two-three days in a week to 35 lakh schoolchildren across Jharkhand.
But the sum was not eventually released for reasons best known to the authorities concerned.
Balram, Jharkhand's adviser to the Supreme Court-appointed commissioners for right to food, was aghast.
"It's really sad to know that the Anda Abhiyan has taken a back seat. Hopefully, the government does something to revive the scheme soon," he said.
State HRD secretary Aradhana Patnaik held out hope.
"We are making fresh attempts to provide funds for the egg scheme. A few days ago, we got the green light from the state government for providing eggs thrice a week to every child. For this, Rs 4 per child per day has been fixed. It will be overall responsibility of Mata Samitis (organisations that prepare the midday meal) to purchase the eggs and then cook them. Everything will be settled within a week or so," she hoped.
