In the assembly on Wednesday, he said that rural parents couldn’t afford breakfast and that’s why their children fell sick in school, and not because of poor mid-day meals. And in the same breath he took sweeping jabs at city parents who have nothing to do with his mid-day meals by saying that they party hard and hence can’t give breakfast to their children who study in very posh private schools.
While we shall let that pass, since trivial and baseless statements and that too out of context do not deserve prolonged editorial comment, just a short admonishment, the quality of meals supplied in Goa’s schools is a subject on which the Chief Minister has himself commented on during the start of his term., And he surely wasn’t blaming parents then.
In the monsoon session (July 2012) just after he had taken charge, Parrikar had said “Even animals will not eat that food which is given to students under the scheme. The rice which is given in the pulao is not fit for animal consumption,”
He had even offered suggestions. “In states like Karnataka, institutions like ISKCON are supplying tasty and nutritious meals to around 500 schools. If schools in Goa want to enter such an arrangement and supply their own meals to students, I am open to the idea. I don’t mind paying these institutions something extra,” he said.
He had said that the menu would be completely altered to include fruits and wheat-chapatis. The checks, he said, would be more stringent, with the food being regularly subjected to inspections by specially designated food inspectors in the state education department. Food inspectors will conduct regular checks for these food items,”
In mid 2013 students from several schools had fallen ill after complaining about the poor quality of food served to them under the mid-day meal scheme. Class IV and V students from the Kamleshwar school in Pernem, where taken to a health center as they started vomiting after eating the meal was provided to them.
At the same time 23 students in a school in Ponda, fell ill after eating bhaji-pao. A probe by the Food and Drugs Authority (FDA) into yet another incident in June, where 86 students from a school in Canacona fell sick, revealed that the room where the meals were being cooked had cats and a dog litter.
Therefore Mr Parrikars almost casual dismissal on Wednesday, of instances where children have fallen ill as a direct result of food cooked in unhygienic conditions, is surprising. The Self Help Groups who run these kitchens where food is cooked, are full of those who have been placed by the local MLA or a powerful regional satrap. There are reports of funds and food grains being diverted for their personal use. The Education department inspectors, designated to check on the SHG run kitchens do not have vehicles to go for inspections. Very often when they do make it to the school, “inspection” is done from the confines of the car. These are chronic problems which the state has been unable to address.
Good hygienic meals have to be provided to children under the mandate of the law and the constitution, and if he had done so, many children would not have fallen ill as a direct result, and not because they didn’t get breakfast in the morning. It’s unfortunate that the same CM had recognized the problem and blamed the system for providing meals not fit for human consumption and in a years’ time, he passes the buck from the government to parents.
And it is an even greater shame that he got away by saying this with no a single MLA, challenging him on facts and on what he had said in this very House. The honest explanation is that no one remembered or recalled and therefore no MLA will have the right to blame the government because they chose to remain silent when the Chief Minister got away by insulting so many parents.
