West Bengal withdraws approval for Akshaya Patra to provide mid-day meals in four districts

The West Bengal government has withdrawn approval for the Akshaya Patra Foundation to provide mid-day meals in four districts of the State.

The Bharatiya Janata Party government’s decision to hand over the responsibility to provide mid-day meals in schools to Akshaya Patra, which has close ties to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), had created a controversy due to eggs having been taken out of the menu, with critics arguing that this would remove one of the primary protein sources for underprivileged children in State-run schools. 

Akshaya Patra has run mid-day meal programmes in parts of Karnataka. While it was set up by ISKCON leaders, the Akshaya Patra Foundation has a separate governing body, and ISKCON authorities have maintained that it has no association with the mid-day service in West Bengal.

On September 11, the West Bengal School Education Department issued an order withdrawing approval for Akshaya Patra to provide mid-day meals in four districts: Howrah, North 24 Parganas, Purulia and Purba Medinipur. However, the approval has not yet been revoked for Kolkata.

Mid-day meal overhaul

The handing over of the mid-day meal programme to Akshaya Patra was a pilot project undertaken by the West Bengal government. It started on August 1 at schools in Kolkata. However, after a heated debate over nutrition and vegetarianism, Chief Minister Suvendu Adhikari had said that eggs would be provided to the students separately. 

The government has not provided any reason for its new order revoking approval for Akshaya Patra to provide these meals. However, some heads of schools have said, on condition of anonymity, that providing students with an additional egg along with the lunch was increasing the cost of each meal.

SHG protests

In the past few weeks, there have also been protests by women’s self-help groups (SHGs), which raised the concern that their members would lose their jobs of cooking mid-day meals if the programme is handed over to Akshaya Patra across the State. 

During one of the protests last week, one SHG member said, “We can provide hot meals for every student because we cook in the schools, whereas ISKCON will bring the food from far away, and the food can get ruined. We work for such little money, and they are taking even that away. Then they accuse us of stealing from the mid-day meal supplies and funds.”