Low nutrition & uric acid is the mid-day meal story in Ahmedabad

•    Traces of uric acid, suggesting mice’s urine, in uncooked tuar dal and rice meant for  mid-day meals at municipal school in Sabarmati  
•    Worms in rice meant for lunch for poor and mal-nourished schoolchildren at municipal school in Ellisbridge
•    Too many flies in the kitchen at Ellisbridge
•    Dismal amount of 2.56 grams and 1.79 grams of protein against the minimum expected protein intake of 8 to 12 grams of protein per day, in cooked food served at two different municipal schools

If you think these extracts are from some old reports on the quality of food served in the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDM), then you are mistaken.

A research paper prepared by four IIMA professors reveals the grim reality of the poor quality and unhygienic food served in the MDM in municipal schools in the city. 

The paper has tried to explore if the beneficiary children being provided safe and sufficiently nutritious food as envisaged in the mid day meal scheme. The detailed research paper ‘An Oliverian Twist to Evaluation of Mid Day Meal Scheme’ prepared by four IIMA professors — Satish Deodhar, Sweta Mahandiratta, KV Ramani and Dileep Mavalankar — was presented at an international conference at IIMA on Thursday.

The paper mentions shocking results of laboratory tests done on raw grains like rice, tuar dal and wheat and cooked rice. The tests were done at St Xavier’s College. The paper was presented at the meet on ‘Challenges of Inclusive Growth in Emerging Economies’.

The researchers inspected quality of food at three schools managed by Ahmedabad Municipal School Board in Gomtipur, Ellisbridge and Sabarmati. Quality check was done in the schools where NGO, Stri Shakti, serves the MDM and also schools where food is prepared by school authorities.