Let them eat cake - preferably the eggless kind

MP chief minister's refusal to allow eggs for govt school students is his Marie Antoinette moment

Earlier this week, it was reported that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan had nixed a proposal to provide eggs in aanganwadi meals on a pilot basis, primarily because it would hurt sentiments of people in a state which is reportedly 35% vegetarian. Also, he had publicly promised that egg would not be served as long as he was in charge of the state, and because of the pressure from the Jain lobby, which is influential in most north and central Indian states.
 
The really irritating part here is that these three factors take precedence over way more important ones, like the dietary needs of some of India’s poorest tribals. One can discount the fact that most politicians the world over make promises publicly and not keep most of them. One can even accept that, as the MP bureaucrats have been quoted by various publications as saying, there are alternatives to egg, like milk and bananas. What one can’t fathom is why those in power, political or otherwise, should, again and again, decide what those who aren’t should be eating?

 
This hasn’t just got my goat, it has pretty much got my beef as well. And I love beef!
 

Coming back to the more avian point, news website Scroll reported that a staggering 52% of children in MP are malnourished. Others said that the repeated pleas by activists to MP officials regarding the consumption of egg fell into deaf ears, primarily because it is a ‘sentimental issue’ with Chouhan.
 
The site also reported that only 15 states across the country provide eggs to undernourished children – some only in the Integrated Child Development Scheme anganwadis, some in the midday meal scheme for schools, and some states in both schemes. The ones which do not, include Gujarat, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Haryana, Punjab, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Himachal Pradesh, among others. See my point about a strong Jain/Vegetarian lobby?

 
What a community or a family eats is its own business. But when any government provides nutrition for a community or a family because the said community or family may not have the means to afford the nutrition for themselves, the sentiment of those who can feed themselves should not even come into the picture.
 
If studies show that a certain community needs a non-vegetarian diet to make up for lack of protein, then that diet should be provided. I don’t think a grateful hungry person would really care about shunning his or her religious beliefs as long as food is being provided.

 
This is Chouhan’s classic ‘Marie Antoinette’ moment, wherein in the high and the mighty are hopelessly out of touch with the realities of those who have nothing. The chief minister is otherwise known to be a capable administrator. But maybe this time he should take a decision not based on sentiment or calculations about future political support from an influential community, but simply on hard pragmatism.
 
As the activists who have years of experience working with tribals would tell you, some of these people in some of central India’s remotest regions lack basic nutrition, and the proper dietary supplements should be provided, irrespective of whether they comes from a plant or an animal.