Midday meal at an Anganwadi. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat

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Midday meal at an Anganwadi. Photo: Thulasi Kakkat

THE HINDU EDITION
Mahatma Gandhi once declared, “A nation’s greatness is measured by how it treats its weakest members.” in this yardstick, India does not fare well.
A recent headlines alone: 23 Bihari children die after eating poisoned midday meals at their schools.
Six-year-old Meghala dies of pneumonia in a Bangalore slum.
Sixteen lakh Indian children have died quietly and anonymously before their fifth birthdays in the past year.
A vast number of these deaths are linked to malnutrition, whether through diseases contracted as a result of depressed immune systems, reliance on government provided meals, or fatal vitamin deficiencies that lead to insurmountable health complications.

The reason for all these is not merely the fund but the many factors which are as follows
1. A midday meal cook-cum-helper makes 1,000 rupees a month.
2. Anganwadi worker makes 4,500 rupees a month
3. Their salaries are routinely delayed by months, and they are frequently given extra, unpaid work that prevents them from paying full attention to the responsibilities for which they were hired.
4.  poor children — like their families — are caught in a net of unresponsive, inefficient policies administered by ill-treated, underpaid workers whose abilities are curtailed by their lack of access to education, training, and a living wage. So much of the corruption and inefficiency in the system could be managed if we only treated the poor — the mothers of these starving children — with dignity and respect, instead of noticing them only when something goes terribly wrong.

Imagine what anganwadi workers and helpers, ASHA workers, and midday meal cooks-cum-helpers could do if they were regularised and paid a living wage. Imagine the possibilities for all of us, not just the children they serve. Imagine a more just and giving nation, one that did right by its weakest citizens, and rose to the challenge presented by our founders. Imagine a nation where we all took responsibility for poverty and committed to ending it.
That would be a nation Gandhiji could be proud of.
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