Journalism of Courage
Lakshmi Sah (11),a Class III student,sits on a mat in the Gandaman village middle school,earnestly copying down a prayer from a textbook. Next to her school bag lies a tiffin box tied up in a large handkerchief. Her mother has packed rice and aaloo-dam for her that day. She also carries a water bottle from home. Her friends Rajni,Pinky and Neha have their own their tiffin boxes.
Two months after 23 children died after having mid-day meal at the Gandaman government primary school in Chhapra,the Bihar government has been unable to resume the midday meal scheme here.
Despite several rounds of visits,by the midday meal director,the Saran district magistrate and several Education Department officials,over the past two months,the children and parents are not convinced. Food distributed at the school,they say almost in unison,is janleva (lethal).
Among the children who died in the midday meal tragedy in July was Lakshmis younger brother,Shiva Kumar,6.
Lakshmi now goes to the village middle school,as the Gandaman primary school where the deaths happened has been tagged to it. The primary school had been running from the village community hall. Post the tragedy,the government decided to tag 7,500-odd schools minus buildings of their own to nearest schools for better MDM monitoring.
At tiffin time,12.30 pm,Lakshmi,Rajni,Neha and Pinky,all survivors of the July 16 tragedy,fold the plastic mats they sit on and take a corner of another classroom to share their meal. Lakshmi,who had refused to eat the soyabean curry and rice on July 16 that is believed to have been tainted with a poisonous substance,shares her aaloo-dam with her friends,giggling.
Even students of the middle school,who were not enrolled at the primary school,are wary. Says Rajesh Kumar,a Class VIII student: We dread taking meals at the school. Piyush Kumar,a Class V student,says their parents can manage food for them.
Village middle school principal Rajkishore Sah admits parents and students are not ready for the midday meal scheme. We have assured that we will taste the food before it is served to them. We will have another meeting with the villagers soon, he says.
Guardians,however,say not one meeting has been called since the tragedy. Akhilanand Mishra,who lost his five-year-old son Ashish,says: Neither the village panchayat nor Education Department officials called us to discuss ways to convince children to eat the midday meal. Not a single affected guardian has been included in the village school committee.
Many parents wonder why the government cant give them cash in lieu of the lunch scheme.
Saran District Education Officer Madhusudan Paswan admits they have not interacted with the parents,adding: We are in the process of forming a new school committee to interact with villagers. He has no clear answers as to why no effort has been made to restore villagers confidence.
In the room where Classes VII and VIII students sit,two sacks containing rice lie at the back along with potatoes that are spread on the ground and fast rotting. While following the midday meal tragedy,the state Human Resource Department had talked about giving a box to each school for safe storage of pulses,oil and spices,Gandaman is yet to get one.
The department had also talked about construction of kitchen shades at the 6,500-odd schools in Bihar. But Gandaman uses a portion of the school building as kitchen. A half-constructed kitchen shade lies in a state of disrepair. Says the principal: We have got funds,we are not able to manage the tractors to carry construction material.
Paswan claims both the kitchen shade and storage utensils would be available soon.
Interestingly,while 185 children had been enrolled in the primary school,only 17 made the shift to the middle school,indicating numbers may have been fudged to receive funds for school uniforms and scholarship benefits at the previous school.
