22 Indian Children Die: Poisoned By School Meal

At least 22 children are dead after eating a school meal served at a government school in Masrakh in the state of Bihar.

Twenty-eight more are suffering from food poisoning and are very sick. They have been taken to hospitals in Chhapra and Patna, the state capital. It is feared that some of them will die.

The government provides free mid-day meals as part of its campaign to ensure that all children are properly nourished and to encourage them to come to school.

There have been other complaints about the safety of the food, which is often prepared in poor sanitary conditions. This is not the first time there has been a problem, but it has never been on such a scale before.

The government has offered to pay compensation of $3,370 (200,000 Rupees) to each family and to open an official inquiry.

The response of some parents was an angry protest, resulting in several police vehicles being burned.

The education minister of Bihar, Mr P.K. Shahi, told the BBC that they had found traces of phosphorous in the food.

He said: “The doctors who have attended are of the tentative opinion that the smell coming out of the bodies of the children suggests that the food contained organo-phosphorus, which is a poisonous substance.”

He added “Now the investigators have to find out whether organo-phosphorus was accidental or there was some deliberate mischief.” He accepted that the food was not checked before it was served.

Doctors have confirmed that food poisoning was the cause of death.

“We suspect it to be poisoning caused by insecticides in vegetable or rice,” Amarjeet Sinha, a senior education official, told the BBC.

The ‘Mid-Day Meal’ scheme is the largest in the world. It feeds 120 million children in over a million schools. It originated in Madras in 1925

Photo credit: india.blogs.nytimes.com