Journalism of Courage
Forty students of Government Higher Primary School in Gollarahatti, in Chitradurga district, fell sick and 26 of them had to be hospitalised after eating the midday meal served at the school on Thursday afternoon.
Doddappa MC, headmaster of the school, said, “On Thursday afternoon I received calls from villagers and teachers who complained that students are falling unconscious and are vomiting. By the time I reached the school, some students had been admitted to the hospital. However, all students are okay.”
He added that food samples have been sent to the laboratory to ascertain if it was a case of food poisoning.
According to Doddappa, the school consists of 149 students from class 1-7. While many students go home during lunch time, some have the midday meals prepared in the school.
“The village authorities appointed three women to cook lunch for the school. They served rice and vegetable sambar on Thursday. Even they are clueless about the unfortunate situation, and offered to resign following the incident, but after consulting with district authorities and education officers we have decided to stop midday meals for sometime,” said Doddappa.
The Karnataka state government announced on July 20 that eggs would be part of the midday meals scheme and students would be served eggs or bananas/chikkis 46 days a year in all districts to help fight malnourishment.
Kumaraswamy, whose daughter fell sick from consuming the midday meal, complained that the school infrastructure is poor and there is no toilet facility.
“About 26 students were sent to a hospital in Davangere which is 35km away. The food poisoning case in the school is not new. Students have been complaining repeatedly about worms and insects in their meals but authorities did not take any action. The school does not even have a single toilet,” said Kumaraswamy who discharged his children from hospital yesterday.
Members of Karnataka National Student Union of India (NSUI), Congress’s student wing, protested along with the villages and AICC Secretary Mayura Jayakumar on Friday against the school management for putting the students’ lives at risk.
Abdul Salman, state secretary NSUI, said, “The school has a crumbling infrastructure and the management has been very negligent towards the students. None of the education officials including Holalkere BJP MLA Chandrappa came to the spot to assess the situation and check on the students. We will hold a protest against the MLA for his anti-student approach and the state government for denying students quality food and school infrastructure.”
