Chickened out

Published : Feb 09, 2007 00:00 IST

ALL available statistics point to the gravity of the malnutrition crisis in India. The most shocking of them is a World Bank report released in May 2006, which says that the prevalence of underweight children in India is nearly double that in sub-Saharan Africa. Acute poverty, the rise in prices of essential food items and the absence of a public distribution system that is able to reach all the poor are the most obvious causes of this crisis. But in the State of Karnataka, one may add another cause to the list: the mixing of politics and religion in the fundamental question of child nutrition.

In the first half of January, Karnataka Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy announced that the 56 lakh children covered under the midday meal scheme "Akshra dasoha" would get one egg a week as a nutritional supplement. Official preparations for this had started even before the formal announcement. Directions had been sent to all the zilla panchayat chief executive officers to make preparations to implement the scheme, and tenders for the supply of eggs had been called for. The scheme had even taken off in Belgaum district. This decision had also made the poultry farmers in the State happy. While the daily production of eggs in Karnataka is about 95 lakhs, the demand is for not more than 50 lakh eggs. The Ministry of Animal Husbandry had pleaded for the inclusion of eggs in the midday meal scheme to help stem a crisis.

But the second half of the month saw Kumaraswamy doing a volte-face. The Chief Minister, who had earlier made firm assurances that there would be no question of him changing his decision on the egg issue, announced that milk would be served instead of eggs in the midday meal scheme. This was following pressure from seers of various religious institutions, who favoured the "satvik" diet of milk and fruits. More importantly, the Chief Minister was under tremendous pressure from his coalition partner, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), especially BJP leader and Deputy Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa. The two pressure groups worked in tandem with each other.

While there was a heated debate within the Cabinet, heads of Hindu and Jain religious groups held protests against the inclusion of egg. As many in the country are vegetarians, the government should not thrust its decision to distribute eggs on children, they said. Mathe Mahadevi of Basavadharma Peeta went to the extent of saying: "Religious heads have the responsibility of guiding society in religious matters."

Child rights groups, Dalit activists, farmers' leaders and intellectuals of Karnataka have opposed the stand of the seers. They have pointed out an obvious scientific fact: egg, regarded a complete meal, is a rich source of the protein and other nutrients essential for children during their growing years. They also said that eggs are the cheapest nutritious food that can be conveniently distributed without fear of adulteration, unlike milk.

They have also condemned the "saffronisation" of the food culture of the majority of Indians. Former chairman of the Karnataka Backward Classes Commission Ravivarma Kumar said that the government's volte-face on the egg issue suggested that the "government is being run by heads of mutts". He termed it an "attack on the rights of the majority by a powerful minority".

According to a survey carried out by the Education Department, about 97 per cent of children said they wanted eggs as part of their meal. V.P. Niranjan Aradhya of National Law School of India University, who heads the School Development and Monitoring Committee Coordination Forum, said: "Development issues should not be mixed with politics and religion. Denying [children] eggs would be a violation of child rights."

Though common sense seems to be overwhelmingly in favour of the inclusion of eggs, the anti-egg lobby seemed to have the upper hand at the time of this article going to print. When politics and religion come together, common sense clearly takes a backseat.

S. Bageshree
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