The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) state government of West Bengal is planning to rope in the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) – a global Hindu organisation, also known as the Hare Krishna movement – to provide cooked mid-day meals in schools falling under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation.
The decision was announced when West Bengal Finance Minister Swapan Dasgupta presented the BJP’s first budget for the state on Monday.
The move has caused a political uproar as reports suggest the new school dinners could be entirely vegetarian. Eggs, which have long been an important source of affordable nutrition in government school meal programs across India, may be off the menu.
Eggs were provided one to two days a week in the state’s school meal scheme and are now expected to be replaced with vegetarian items like paneer, kidney beans and soya-based foods, the Kolkata-based daily reported. WireReported.
Some opposition critics also see the decision as an attempt by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist BJP to change food habits in West Bengal, whose culinary traditions include non-vegetarian food.
A local member of the Rajya Sabha, the lower house of the national parliament, also raised objections to the controversy.
“Throw eggs at rivals. But deprive children of nutrition by removing eggs from mid-day meals. Impose vegetarianism. Bengal rejects this.” All India Trinamool Congress MP Derek O’Brien said in a post on Twitter.
West Bengal Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari called the changes in school menus a “nutrition and hygiene-focused reform”.
Indian media quoted the official as saying, “We are giving the responsibility of cooking the mid-day meal to ISKCON. If you have any objection, don’t say ‘Hare Krishna’ – no one will force you. You will get good food to eat. You will get pure food, there is nothing to worry about.”
The Midday Meal Scheme was introduced in 1995 for government schools in India and since then it has been providing compulsory, free school lunch to improve the nutrition levels among students.