Case Studies

The Fight for Proper Mid Day Meals

The much-hyped Mid Day Meal Scheme started by the Government aimed at providing nutrition support, is not being properly implemented, as concerned authorities are allegedly indulging into fraudulent practices. The authorities are not providing the required amount of nutritious diet to the children.

Kurara Primary School in Hamirpur district is one such example where fraudulent practices came to surface in the Mid Day Meals Programme appeared as the efforts by the authorities appeared half-hearted. The children who should be provided with 100-150 grams of rice per child per day are being given mere 30-40 grams per day. But with the intervention of Parivartan Pariyojana, an NGO, which aims at rural development, the scenario has completely changed.

The negligence of the authorities was brought into light when the students of primary school in Kurara told their parents about the unhealthy food that was being given to them. The children told their parents that they were being provided only salted rice in the name of lunch everyday. The villagers then decided to bring the matter in front of the village Panchayat and spoke to village Pradhan Bardanilal. But their efforts went in vain when the Pradhan himself tried to suppress the matter and tried to threaten the students and their families if they dared raise their voice.

After losing all hopes from the Gram Panchayat, the villagers decided to raise the issue of unhealthy and sub standard food, in the VDC (Village Development Committee) meeting of Parivartan Pariyojna, which is held once a week. Stunned by the complaints of the villagers of the low quality food being provided to their children in school, the NGO decided to inspect the Primary School.

Project Co-coordinator of Parivartan Pariyojna in Hamirpur, along with his team visited both the boys' and girls' primary school where he found out that only 53 girls out of 85 and only 51 out of 110 boys were present. What surprised them the most was that only 4 kg of salted rice was being served to a total of 104 students.

The project staff personally talked to the students on the matter and was told that they were given rice of such bad quality that they were bound to throw it to the stray dogs. The Parivartan Pariyojna team then immediately contacted the BDO (Block Development Officer) and demanded strict action against the Pradhan and early solution to the problem. The BDO at the behest of villagers and Parivartan took action against the Village Pradhan and asked him to mend his ways.

The initiative taken by the villagers and Parivartan is paying rich dividend today. Now the children are provided with nutritious diet consisting of chapatti, vegetable, proper pulses and rice. They are now provided with dalia (porridge) too. The villagers feel they would have not been able to protest against the culpable but with the support from Parivartan they were able to raise our voice and fight for their children's right. Parivartan Pariyojna has been playing an active role in the rural development and has proved beneficial to the people and the community feels the villagers.

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