THE MIDDLE PATH

                                                                                                        Professor R. S. Sengar

By contrast, Andhra Pradesh treats eggs as a core intervention. The state provides eggs five days a week, a major expansion under Jagan Mohan Reddy's Jagananna Gorumudda programme in 2020. The current Telugu Desam Partyled National Democratic Alliance government has renamed the scheme Dokka Seethamma Madhyana Badi Bhojanam, but retained the protein-rich diet. "Eggs are the most important protein and energy source, especially in a child's diet, but often neglected at homes," says Srinivasa Rao, director, MDM and School Sanitation, in the Andhra Pradesh school education department.

"Families who have chicken once or twice a week also don't realize the importance of eggs in daily diet. So, the inclusion of eggs in MDM is vital for a student's growth." Telangana offers eggs thrice a week, along with millet based supplements such as ragi and java. The problem there is not religion but price and supply. Egg delivery gets disrupted when market prices exceed state-provided rates or when supplier bills are pending. In both Andhra and Telangana, governments currently spend around Rs 6 per egg.

Karnataka, though, has shown how nutrition trumps all else. In 2021-22, the Bommai government introduced eggs twice a week in the Kalyana Karnataka districts as Supplementary Nutrition Food, with peanut chikki (now discontinued) or banana for children who did not eat eggs. Religious groups objected. But a study commissioned by the government found that children receiving eggs or bananas in Yadgir showed healthy weight gains over children in Gadag, where the scheme was not available. The BJP government scaled the scheme state wide in July 2022.

In 2024, the Siddaramaiah government signed a memorandum of understanding with the Azim Premji Foundation, which pledged Rs 1,500 crore over three years to provide eggs to students from LKG to Class X across all the 31 districts of the State. The frequency rose from two days to all six school days. Today, about 4.7 million students in 52,425 schools are covered under PM POSHAN in Karnataka.

Jharkhand follows an egg policy that sees the food item as a practical supplement in a state where tribal, Dalit and rural communities traditionally consume eggs. At Balika Shiksha Bhawan High School in Ranchi's Lalpur, 13-year-old Payal Kumari looks forward to Mondays and Fridays because those are egg days. "My father is a poor man. At home, we can afford egg curry only on Sundays," she says. "But in school, I get eggs twice a week. They taste really good."

Bihar is more cautious: one boiled egg every Friday, with 100 grams of seasonal fruit for children who do not eat eggs. The state has not seen a major political confrontation over eggs, but nutritionists and child-rights activists argue that one egg a week is too little for a state with high malnutrition. Child rights activist K.D. Mishra calls eggs "one of the most affordable and complete sources of protein available to children".

Uttarakhand is another exception among BJP ruled states. The Chardham circuit here makes religion big in the state, but it does not stop it from providing eggs or fruits once a week and skimmed milk twice a week from its own resources. Acknowledgment that the egg binary hardly overlaps cleanly with religion, and observances and dietary practices vary widely across the Indian landmass.

THE NUTRITION GAP

Under-5 stunting, wasting and underweight rates provide a snapshot of the nutritional challenges states face. Better school meals can help improve child nutrition

“In Tamil Nadu, educational revolution has always gone hand in hand with a nutritional revolution. In that spirit, I submitted a request to the CM to consider serving chicken Biryani once a week to government school students”.

Writer: Professor R. S. Sengar, Dean College of Biotechnology and Director Training and Placement, Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel University of Agriculture and Technology, Modipuram, Meerut.