Students of Morarji residential school in Bhadravati taluk get chicken for lunch after TH highlights deviation from prescribed menu
Students at a Morarji Desai Residential School in Karnataka were finally served non-vegetarian food after a media report highlighted that local customs had been preventing the school from following the official menu. District officials intervened to ensure the school adheres to the prescribed government hostel guidelines.
Why it matters
This highlights the tension between local cultural practices and government-mandated nutritional standards in public educational institutions.
Students of the Morarji Desai Residential School at Hanchina Siddapura, in Bhadravati taluk of Shivamogga district in Karnataka, were served chicken for lunch on July 19. The school, run under the Social Welfare Department, had reportedly been denying non-vegetarian food to the children, though it was part of the official hostel menu, due to a custom imposed by local villagers.
As a result, parents had occasionally brought home-cooked non-vegetarian food, and served it to their children on the school premises.
The Hindu carried a report on July 17 on this issue , after activists of the Karnataka Dalit Sangharsha Samiti (KDSS) demanded that the children be given the nutritious food they were entitled to.
Following the media report, Shivamogga Deputy Commissioner Prabhulinga Kavalikatti and Zilla Panchayat CEO N. Hemanth directed officers of the Social Welfare Department and the hostel principal to serve food strictly as per the prescribed menu.
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