Mid-day meal row: Eggs distributed to Sheopur tribals in Madhya Pradesh since 2016

BHOPAL: BJP may be making a hue and cry over the Congress government’s decision to add eggs in mid-day meal, but the truth is that eggs were distributed to malnourished children of Saharia tribe in Sheopur district from 2016 to 2018 — the last three years of BJP rule, when Shivraj Singh Chouhan was chief minister. The process continued under Congress rule.

Eggs are being given to malnourished Saharia children in anganwadis of the tribal blocks of Karhal and Vijapur in Sheopur in winter for the past four years.

Principal secretary, woman and child development, Anupam Rajan did not deny it and said, “There is also a proposal to distribute eggs in 89 tribal blocks to about 15 lakh tribal children. This would need about Rs 100 crore. It may start from the next fiscal.” Two senior officials closely involved in its implementation but now posted in other departments confirmed that it was started on an “experimental basis” in 2016.

There are about 200 anganwadis in both blocks. “Every anganwadi has more than 6 extremely malnourished children. So, there were about 1,400 children who benefited from the distribution of eggs,” officials said. There are over 4,000 malnourished children in Sheopur district.

BJP has been opposing eggs in mid-day meal scheme, with leader of opposition Gopal Bhargava going so far as to claim that eating non-vegetarian food will “turn children into cannibals”.

Officials told TOI that eggs began to be distributed as the “third meal” of the day to about 1,400 severely malnourished children of the two tribal blocks in 2016. Four year later, the government is now compiling a report of the impact of egg distribution on the health of the children. “As there was a BJP government in 2016, it was kept hush-hush,” said an official, requesting not to be named.

Even now, this interesting tidbit about distribution of eggs under the BJP administration is not discussed by senior government officials.

Sachin Jain, of Right to Food campaign, said, “Niti ayog has a special policy for national nutrition strategy, poultry and egg production. This is the contradiction in government functioning — animal husbandry and agriculture departments make some programmes, while woman and child development department opposes it.”

Even the economic survey of Madhya Pradesh says egg production has been going up for the past three years. “This is happening because of the realization of the nutritional value of eggs among those who eat it. Opposing distribution of eggs in anganwadis is a political matter,” he said.