Centralised kitchens fail to meet expectations

The Mid-Day meal, a flagship programme of the Indian government has always been in clutches but, the current system of centralised kitchen speaks new troubles. With the recent review reports by the Telangana Government pointing out the problems, talks of scraping the system are being proposed by the child rights activists.

The problem with centralised kitchens is that the food is cooked the night before around 11 and packed by 2 am, which then reaches various schools in and around Hyderabad by 12 pm. By this time the food is rotten and inedible; it goes directly from the packed boxes to the bin.

The Joint Review Mission on Mid Day Meal reviewed centralised kitchens run by Akshaya Patra and Nandi. “The mission was surprised to notice that centralised kitchen is serving MDM in the schools in Medak district, where proper kitchen sheds, kitchen devices and cook-cum-helpers all are available. It is hard to understand why the school based kitchens are replaced with centralised kitchen.”

“What is the purpose of these kitchens and the programme when the food is not even reaching the kids,” said Bharat Bhushan, who runs an institute called CARPED that recently surveyed schools in Medak district. On July 24, Caring Citizens Collective in collaboration with 20 other organisations surveyed schools in the districts of Telangana.

The report found that almost 50 per cent of schools lack basic infrastructure to run their own kitchens, and centralised kitchens are failing at providing proper nutritious food. With the religious affiliations of these kitchens barring them from serving eggs, even vegetables are found of poor quality.

“While the mandates suggested by the government on paper mean well and do address all the issues, unfortunately there lacks implementation,” said Dr A Laxmaiah senior deputy director at the National institute of Nutrition. To manage a centralised kitchen that feeds such a huge number of children is not easy.

And while everybody involved in the scheme agrees that it is not practical to regulate the operations every day alternative measures are being suggested. “To improve the day-to-day operations training to the people working in these kitchens is definitely needed. We need to see that a commitment towards their job exists,” said the director.

Remote areas in the state that cook without proper utensils or infrastructure are found to be serving better food than urban areas. “Hyderabad being the capital, one would expect that the facilities would be better but, it is in a much poorer state. We need to have a strong proposal to scrap the centralised kitchens,” said Asha Latha of Caring Citizen’s council.

By:Aalekhya Tadepalli