Patna: Thousands of schoolchildren enrolled in more than 70,000 government primary and middle schools in Bihar have been given a new task: Grow vegetables in school gardens to get served in midday meals. At present, the school authorities have to purchase vegetables from local markets to cook meals for children.
The education department authorities issued the new directive to all schools across the state after the success of a pilot project in 100 schools in eastern Bihar’s Purnia district. Authorities said the experiments made in Purnia schools gave high yields of organic vegetables such as tomato, pumpkin, brinjal, radish, mushrooms and various types of gourds.
Schools have been asked to develop kitchen gardens on the premises while those with scarcity of land have been told to seek farmland from local villagers. The idea is to use freshly grown vegetables to ensure the children’s health.
“We have decided in principle to implement the gardening project in all primary and middle schools in the state to provide additional nutrients to the students under the midday meal scheme. The farming will be done in an organic manner,” a senior midday meal official, Vinod Kumar Singh, told the local media on Tuesday. The modalities to implement the project was being worked out, he said.
Apart from studies the children will be engaged in gardening to grow seasonal vegetables with special emphasis on greens under the guidance of schoolteachers, the official said. According to authorities, the move will not only make the children aware about the importance of green vegetables in nutrition and organic farming but will also generate interest in farming.
Authorities said they were seeking support of the Agriculture Science Centres, health department, agriculture universities and Unicef to properly implement the project and bring a new revolution in the state.
The midday meal scheme also aims to enhance attendance in school and provide them with nourishing food.
The scheme, however, has been mired in serious controversies of late with incidents of children landing in hospitals owing to little focus on hygiene becoming a routine affair. Quite many children have also lost their lives owing to sheer carelessness on the part of school administration or corruption in the scheme.
One such incident took place in July 2013 when at least 23 schoolchildren died and dozens others fell ill at a primary school at Dharmasati-Gandaman village in Saran district after being served midday meal contaminated with pesticide.
