Worms in mid-day meals: Goa child rights body serves notice to Education Department

Panaji, Sep 27 (IANS) The Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights on Wednesday served notice to the state Education Department after worms were reportedly found in mid-day meals served to children in some schools.

Officials of the Directorate of Food and Drugs Administration on Tuesday collected food samples after three schools in South Goa's Priol complained of worms being found in ‘Soya Chunks Pulao’ served as the mid-day meal.

“This is outrageous, sheer neglect and shocking, specially to notice that it was already consumed by children, despite monitoring mechanisms in place. The MDM scheme has elaborate monitoring mechanisms at state, district as well as local levels to ensure quality food is served to children under the scheme,” Peter F. Borges, Chairperson, Goa State Commission for Protection of Child Rights, in a press statement said.

“In particular, the School Management Committees (SMCs) has the responsibility to monitor the regularity and wholesomeness of the mid-day meal served to children, cleanliness in cooking and serving of the meal, timeliness in procurement of good quality ingredients, on a daily basis,” he said.

Borges said that this incident shows "complete carelessness" on the part of all those who are part of the monitoring mechanisms across all levels and demands serious action.

“The Commission called enquiry into the incident and for necessary action against those responsible as per the law. It has further called the Directorate of Education to file status of all monitoring mechanisms at various levels in place to prevent further such incidents,” Borges further said.