Midday meal program in India-Whose interest it is serving?

 For the last several days in Karnataka, news papers were full of reports regarding the mid day school lunch program in a small village near Mysore where caste politics have caused considerable damage to the teaching environment there. The issue,  raised by this "storm in the tea cup" incidence as some people like to call it, poses a pertinent question regarding the very foundation of the concept of national school feeding programs across all the states. A honest citizen always wonders why the government is resorting to universal feeding in schools forcing all children attending a school where such a program is running to eat the "foods" cooked inside the school premises even if many of them can afford bringing good nutritious food from their home. The excuse for this program has been to try 100% attendance in the school as a part of right to education for every citizen. But the experience in this Karnataka village brings out starkly the anomaly of the program and in the face of some children refusing to eat the foods cooked in the school, authorities concerned were at a loss as to what to do next! 

Indian constitution confers on a citizen, even if he is a school going kid, the basic right to what he wants to eat or not to eat and therefore making it compulsory for all kids to eat the locally cooked foods, whatever be the reason, is coercive and unconstitutional. The "circus" going in this school to gloss over the issue is really amusing. Big politicians, religious saints and others are visiting this school and eating the same food as that being eaten by the students to show case their commitment to a "caste-less" society! The real issue is not caste or creed but the acceptability of the food to all children in the school. Why those who do not like the school foods should be "finger pointed" is baffling. In stead of making eating environment hygienic and clean, wrong emphasis is laid on eating only one food cooked locally! 

In another case reported from the city of Meerut in UP, teachers in a government school refused to eat the locally foods as they felt they are inedible! What logic is there in forcing the same food down through the throat of the hapless children is not clear. According to the rules prevalent governing school foods service, teachers are mandated to taste them before serving the same to the children and this is observed more in breach than adherence. If the teachers cannot eat the food how can the school authorities expect the children to accept them unless coercion is used. Shamelessly the school management routinely claims that complaints filed with higher authorities are routinely ignored and the situation continues, totally insensitive to the welfare of the kids! Does not this amount to criminal negligence on the part of the education department officials and local school management? Is there no solution to this systemic failure? Is it not a national blemish about which every Indian must hang his head in shame?

The concept of midday school feeding program is a novel idea, no doubt but the way it is practiced in the country needs reexamination. Every school must enroll voluntarily the names of kids wanting to be served with food during the lunch time. This should be based on economic criteria rather than on universal basis. Probably inertia on the part of the government in conducting surveys to identify families with low income who deserve free lunch in the school has resulted in opting for an easy recourse to giving food to every body without caring for the waste of resources on a worthless cause. In India there is considerable extent of suppression of income data by the citizens to get the benefit of many subsidies doled out by the governments at the central and state levels and this habit must be curbed as mercilessly as possible for the sake of the country and its honest law abiding citizens.. 

This Blogger has been raising the issue of school feeding during the last 30 years and always frowned upon the the "fresh food serving" lobby which has a powerful vested interest in making a fast buck from such programs through politician-bureaucrat-private contractor nexus. The meager budget for the food program reflects the sham that is being perpetuated in the name of education, social equity and poverty. In spite of some crazy politicians claiming that one can get a sumptuous meat for Rs 5 in this country, the ground reality is totally different. With rice costing Rs 50 per kg, edible oil price beyond Rs 70 per liter, Milk being sold at more than Rs 30 a liter, wheat flour available at prices more than Rs 40 per kg and egg Rs 5 a piece, what nutritious food can be served in the school at the ridiculously low budget of Rs 5 per head. A complete meal must have 16% proteins, at least about 400 kC of energy and adequate micro nutrients that will meet at least 50% of daily Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA). If government wants to do justice to its school feeding program it has to double its present budget if 100% of kids in all schools are to be covered. Is it feasible? 

Another mind boggling issue is how advisable it is to make the school assume responsibility associated with raw material procurement, their safe storage, cooking within the premises with crude cooking facilities, accessing safe potable water, arranging for cooking fuel etc. With most schools grossly understaffed, is it fair to load the available teachers with additional burden of looking after the feeding program? No wonder instances like that in Meerut city keep happening all over the country. Food technologists, Nutritionists, medical practitioners, policy makers and industry reps must sit together to evolve a more credible and reassuring programs that will depend on packed foods, centrally manufactured and safety packed with minimum nutritional value and stable shelf life which are amenable to easy distribution, stocking, accounting, serving with minimum risk to the health of the children. 

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

PROVIDING MILK TO KIDS AT SCHOOL-KARNATAKA PROGRAM

There are no two opinions that milk is a complete food containing practically every nutrient required for normal health. Its protein, Casein (3.5%) is one of the highest quality nutrients, next only to egg and meat while milk is one of the richest sources of Calcium, an essential building material for strong bones ( about 120 mg per 100 ml). Besides milk is also a good source of Vitamins like A, B6, B12, C,K,D,K, E, Thiamine, Niacin, Biotin, Riboflavin, Folates and Pantothenic acid. Ideally regular consumption of about 250 ml equivalent of milk a day can be expected to boost the nutritive value of the daily diet very significantly. Looking from the milk production landscape and availability for consumption, average Indian is supposed to be consuming 276 ml of milk per day which is more than what is recommended. If this is so Indians can be considered healthy. But what is the ground reality?

It is true India is the top milk producing country in the world to day with the production estimated around 130 million tons which is anticipated to go up to 170 million tons by the year 2020. The per capita availability figure hides more than what it reveals because in a state like Punjab with affluent population almost gulping a liter of milk per person a day, the same falls precipitously in few other states dropping to almost to 100 ml per day per capita. Even here well to do population with high income consume much higher quantity while poor and low income people cannot afford to buy the recommended minimum quantity due to economic compulsions. This is a classical case of low consumption among plenty! 

The operation flood program and the white revolution ushered in by late Dr V.Kurien provided the foundation for producing more than that required through technological, social and management wonders but unless the purchasing power of people is increased the milk cannot reach those who really deserve, suffering from utter malnutrition and morbidity. With the processing capacity of the cooperative dairies all over the country reaching all time high, each state milk federation is flush with milk, not knowing what to do with the surplus. To some extent fluid milk is converted into skimmed milk powder (SMP) with long life and limited market off take has created a situation where these federations are holding large stocks of SMP not knowing what to do with it. A state like Karnataka which gives Rs 4 per liter to the producer as monetary incentive for increased production has found a new way to "dispose off" the surplus milk by being "magnanimous" in buying the same for supply to school kids in government and aided schools studying from class I to X and also to Anganwadi centers to feed children between the ages 3 and 6 years. A win-win situation indeed!

According to the reports appearing in the media government has launched its ambitious Ksheera Bhagya scheme on 1 August this year under which each school attending kid is given in the morning before the start of the school 150 ml of milk procured from the nearest cooperative dairy or 20 gm of SMP for reconstitution with hot water (with no sugar) for drinking. Besides Anganwadis are supposed to be provided with adequate quantity of SMP at the rate of 15 gm per child for admixing with hot water before feeding them. According to some sources in the government total requirement of milk would be around 7-8 lakh liters per day out of which 50% could be in fluid form, rest being SMP. Measured by any yardstick this is a mammoth welfare scheme that will benefit 65 lakh school going children and 35 lakh beneficiaries in Anganwadi Centers. State administration has even thought of children below 3 years to whom milk is planned to be delivered to their homes! 

Financial out go on the above account for the government is estimated to be of the order of about Rs 1500 crore annually. For a government that wants to uplift the nutritional status of the children of the state the above amount may not be very high but what bothers many observers is the logistics involved in delivering the promised food in safe condition to the beneficiaries in time and potential for hijacking the much valued milk and milk powder for the purpose other than that is intended. Also questionable is the extent of impact such a project can create on the health of the children. According to the nutritional guidelines of ICMR, an average consumer is supposed to be taking about 250 gm of milk products every day as fluid milk and curd which is equivalent to about 30 gm of powder. Growing children will need more considering their active growth phase and it may be too much to expect any thing positive coming out of this experiment. Supplying milk three times a week is also not a good idea as this will provide a disincentive for school kids to absent themselves on days when milk is not provided. However one should not prejudge this scheme and critics must wait for at least an year before drawing their daggers against this populist scheme.

A serious worrying factor is whether safe potable water will be available in all the schools for reconstitution purpose. If not, this scheme could be an invitation for disaster as it happened in Bihar where 23 innocent kids had to loose their lives because of poison contaminated midday meals served to them. Similarly SMP does not have indefinite shelf life and if they are not stored properly they can be affected by infestation with insects compromising its safety. One of the posers to the government of Karnataka was whether all children will drink plain milk without sugar as making kids drink milk is a problem in almost all households world over. With exposure to products like Horlicks, Boost, Bournvita etc will the kids agree to drink just plain milk? It is indeed a million dollar uncertainty that has to be expected. 

Another poser is whether all the kids are to be covered as many of them must be coming from reasonably well to do families having the wherewithal to access milk daily. An alternative could be to segregate children based on their weight-height parameters and health status and offering a higher quantity every day to only those really deserving. This can stretch the resources a little more with possibility of higher impact within a short span of time. An uncertainty that may face the scheme is whether this is going to be a permanent feature of the state policy or just a short term program to tide over the immediate milk glut being experienced in the state. With general election not very far away there is a possibility that the Ksheera Bhagya scheme may face the axe once the elections are over!    

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

THE EGG FIASCO-KERALA TO SUFFER

Food safety management can be a thankless job for any government because of the sensitivity of consumers to food shortages and price rise. Recent ban on entry of eggs produced from Karnataka and Tamil Nadu by the government is expected to create a no-win situation for both the government as well as the consumers. Out of about 15 million eggs consumed every day in Kerala, bulk of it comes from Tamil Nadu, almost 90%, while Karnataka sends about a million eggs. The reported prevalence of Avian Flu in Karnataka seems to be the provocation for Kerala to put in place such a ban and it is not clear whether this ban is justifiable at all considering that this viral disease is not easily transferable through eggs to human beings. As for infecting birds in Kerala, the poultry industry in Kerala is practically non-existent and such a possibility can be discounted. While as a precaution such temporary measures are in order, prolonging it can cause acute shortage and very high prices for eggs available in the market. Besides such long time ban can throw out of business many traders dealing with egg marketing.

It is but logical to expect that scarcity of eggs is going to create shortage in the market causing all round concern with most Keralites being non-vegetarians by nature. Looking at the chronology of events, it may be recalled that the ban was imposed by the State on the eggs and poultry coming from Tamil Nadu and Karnataka a few days ago. If reports are to be believed many traders depending on egg business have shut down their outlets because of stop of flow of eggs from out side consequent to the ban and one can imagine its economic impact on the industry. According to some observers, eggs and poultry products being brought from Tamil Nadu are certified by veterinary doctors. and only broiler chicken and eggs for incubation purpose are brought from Karnataka. Also to be noted is that the bird flue was reported in a farm in Karnataka a week ago and the authorities there had taken steps to destroy the affected product. It is in this context that the industry feels the ban makes little sense. The poultry industry in Tamil Nadu is also incurring huge losses on account of the development and about 120 loads of eggs are reported to be awaiting clearance at check posts between Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Imagine the consequences of these eggs getting spoiled due to slow clearance at the border check posts. How the situation is going to be handled remains to be seen with the possibility of substantial portion of the eggs getting perished.

The price of eggs for both direct consumers as well as others like bakeries, restaurants and road side vendors is bound to shoot up due to the prevailing ban. Interestingly same eggs are being marketed in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu as these states have not banned them as a knee-jerk response to isolated detection of bird flu there. What will be a worrying factor is regarding the fate of eggs losing their quality due to disruption of the flow into Kerala. Are they going to be sorted out and fed to the market or there will be compulsory destruction of the entire lot? Who will be responsible to look into these aspects? Kerala, Tamil Nadu or Karnataka? While the right of any state to prohibit entry of unsafe foods into its territory is to be respected, same has to be exercised with utmost caution. Though the bakery industry is most vociferous in criticizing the ban as they fear that with Christmas season fast approaching their business is going to be seriously impacted, there is a general concern that Kerala will witness serious turmoil if the ban is not lifted soon.

It is interesting to note the relatively high consumption of eggs in Kerala which works out to about 4 eggs per week per person or 220 eggs per year compared to 43 eggs annual per capita consumption in whole of the country. Of course in comparison, countries like Japan, Mexico etc consume more than 300 eggs per year per person. According to the nutritional norms of the GOI, on an average a person must consume 180 eggs an year for good health. While egg consumption is generally discouraged among well fed population due to its high cholesterol content, for those who are not in their pink of health due to limited access to good food, egg is an excellent source of balanced nutrition. While population in the industrialized world need to curtail their egg consumption, in a country like India egg consumption needs to be encouraged. 

The poultry industry in Kerala is practically non existent with average daily production being about 60, 000 eggs! Coming back to the ban, it is not clear why the Kerala government has not taken pro-active steps to encourage poultry industry in that state, making the population there vulnerable to such a situation. Is it that the high humidity in most parts of the state is not conducive to poultry birds? Probably not. A puzzling factor is that when there is a huge growing market for eggs, the state depends on imports from neighboring states. It is time that the state wakes up to the real potential of poultry industry and encourage setting up huge poultry farms in the state, probably with foreign technology with high efficiency. A ban probably may not be the answer under the present circumstances and a cooperative effort among the three governments concerned can find an immediate solution, in stead of taking such unilateral action to ban the trading in eggs, putting lot of people in these states in difficulty in terms of food shortage and business loss.

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

DEMOCRACY AT "WORK"-THE KARNATAKA STYLE!

Under a democratic system of governance, "people"are supposed to be the center of attention and what ever is done by those in power are supposed to be for the benefit of the same people whom they are representing. When government does not fulfill the aspirations of the people what option one can have, though the ballot box is supposed to punish those who forfeit their confidence. But this can only be a theoretical remedy as there is a great bon homie amongst various political parties when it comes to power sharing and exploitation of the citizens. If all politicians and every political party behave against the interest of the citizen, what relevance the democracy "mantra" has in this country?

With coalition "dharma" being blamed for non-performance by governments at the center as well as at the state levels, what hope the country has for future and what type of life the coming generation will have under such deteriorating situation? It is a tragedy that the so called "aam admi", a euphoric reference to common man has no where to go to vent out his frustration and seek solutions to the mounting day to day problems that cause continuous deterioration in quality of life. On paper one has many options to approach many layers of government departments, agencies, institutions, commissions, committees etc, manned by rigid bureaucracy which rarely work unless adequately "greased". The snail paced judiciary is no solace for redressal of any grievances. No wonder such a situation is creating violent groups like "Maoists" or Naxalites which attract many people who are denied the "fruits of progress" for one reason or the other. A substantial segment of population in the country believe that violence in places like AP, Chhatisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal and Karnataka is a direct out come of neglect of poor people by the governments, local, state as well as the center. But violence, what ever be the reasons, cannot be condoned and is not known to solve any problem in this Universe.

Take the instance of Karnataka where massive floods in October 2009 in North Karnataka rendered thousands of families homeless. Though all the attention was focused on the area during the aftermath of the floods for a few days and sky high promises were made to rehabilitate the victims within a few months, nothing tangible seems to have happened at the ground level. Government and many private business conglomerates made tall promises to build new houses for rehabilitation. One of the local mining groups even announced spending Rs 500 crore to build 50000 houses "without help" from the government! According to recent reports the progress of construction in the 14 districts of North Karnataka is less than 1% in spite of a donor commitment for building 73000 houses! Ultimately it turns out that the reason for such tardy progress was government it self which could not provide land for locating the proposed houses! Imagine the mental condition of the families affected by the natural calamity being pushed to the corner by the unfulfilled promises which ended up as only as "boasts, lies and false promises".

In another instance of blatant exhibition of money power, the mining barons of North Karnataka continued to transport iron ore in thousands of trucks every day, over loaded to the extent of 100% of the laden capacity, through high ways to Mangalore port which is in a pitiable condition since last two years because the roads were designed for trucks with only 10 tons capacity. This is in spite of the ban promulgated by the district administration on such transportation to prevent collapse of the road system between Bangalore and Mangalore. Millions of commuters who use this vital link road can only curse the government for the hell they have to go through while plying on this so called high way. The lame excuse of the bureaucracy is that they are "understaffed" to check such gross violations happening under their very nose!

Other states are not far behind in their casual attitude and callousness to the citizens and one can cite hundreds of such unfulfilled promises which remain on paper. Scams and mismanagement of the affairs of the country are order of the day and there is very little hope that things will improve in the foreseeable future. In the food front the traders and middlemen seem to have a field day with food inflation, artificially created, touching 20% recently with no solution in sight. Farmers, the backbone of this agriculturally predominant country are being continuously squeezed between middle men, contractors, traders, processing industry and the retailers. No wonder the present ruling coalition rates Naxalites as the biggest threat to the security of the country because they know the ranks of those dissatisfied and frustrated are going to swell in the coming years due to the inability of the government to address their problems. Nothing short of a radical constitutional change that will end the uncertainties associated with the current political system, can usher in a new era of transparency, dedication, commitment and accountability. What India needs is not the moribund democracy as seen to day but a "meritocracy" which gives merit and competence the highest priority

V.H.POTTY
http://vhpotty.blogspot.com/
http://foodtechupdates.blogspot.com

MILKY WAY TO MILK THE TAX PAYER!

The recent announcement of a fiscal policy by Karnataka Government to provide Rs 2 per liter to milk producers as an incentive to raise production in the state raises more questions than answers. It is a season for subsidies with the largest give away by any government in the history of independent India through the loan waiver scheme announced in the recent budget by the Union Finance Minister estimated at Rs 60000 crore, supposed to alleviate the debt burden of the farmers. The spate of suicides by farmers in different parts of the country was attributed to the debt trap they were in due obviously to uneconomic and nonviable farming operations prevalent in the country. This is besides the massive subsidies being extended to the agriculture for fertilizers and to the consumers through the public distribution system. One of the reasons for the collapse of trade talks in Geneva recently was the issue of subsidies being resorted by many countries including rich ones like USA and European Union, to make their farm exports cheaper. In contrast developing countries wanted these subsidies to be scaled down drastically while they themselves retain that right to protect their poor farmers and ensure food security. On top of it, the subsidies on fossil fuels like gasoline in many countries in Asia and Africa has been blamed for the uncontrolled escalation of crude oil prices

As for milk, the great white revolution heralded by operation flood programs during seventies and eighties has made India the top producer of milk in the world to the extent of 100 million tons annually. After the opening of the milk processing to private sector in nineties many players have emerged competing successfully with cooperative sector making available milk any where and every where on demand. Export of milk products was also achieved to a limited extent, the major product being milk powder but no break-through was possible to make India a significant exporter of these products. Probably the critical role milk plays in the nutrition of vegetarians, it being the only affordable and accessible source of high quality protein and calcium, might have made any decision to allow export of milk products in large quantities. The competitiveness of Indian milk in the global context also is a debatable point at present.

How the Karnataka government came to the conclusion that dairy farmers need incentives to raise production is still a mystery. It was reported that the state is already collecting daily 1 crore liters of milk from the milk shed areas through the district cooperative societies at a price approved by the authorities and no one can remember about a milk famine at least during the last one decade. The existing capacity to process milk into products like powder is just adequate to take care of the present production and if the subsidy scheme is implemented as declared officially, the collection is estimated to increase by 100% and what steps are being taken to meet such a contingency are not yet clear. Is there a demand for such increased production within the state or in the neighboring states? The subsidy is expected to be channeled through the procurement agencies in the cooperative sector and how it is going to work without blemish is any body's guess. Is any one sure that the extra Rs 2 per liter is going to end up in the producers' hands or a host of middle men are going to emerge to siphon off this bonanza? Will it create large dairy farms who may find it attractive to take up milk production in a big way like poultry farms? Will there be a retraction of this policy in the short term and what will be its effect on dairying. No one seems to be sure about these uncertainties.

The subsidy will work out to to more than Rs 1500 crore annually if the production doubles eventually and it is a relevant question if such an outflow of public funds is really justified at all. In stead of doling out freebies under the guise of farmer welfare, it would have been much more productive if the amount was spent on more durable projects aimed at creating lasting assets to help the agricultural community. What distortions this will bring out in the economy of the state in general and the milk sector in particular will have to be seen. Many state governments like that in Tamil Nadu are already indulging in populist schemes like distribution of free cooking gas, free TV sets, rice at Rs 2 per kg, free cycles to school going children, feeding programs etc all under the guise of social welfare hiding their political agenda and where such spending spree is going to end up ultimately remains to be seen.

V.H.POTTY