28/03/2026
Such news echoes the success of our efforts on Protein food supplements program to the school kids .. The happiness on face of our school kids - supports such news more than anything.
I wish to thank each individuals in this kind effort who support us with their generous contributions for last 5 years. 🙏🏽🙏🏽
In a school on Kolkata’s northern fringes, a child runs from room to room chasing the smell of food. In a primary school in North Bengal, lunch for 37 students is cooked with just 300 grams of lentils. In a school in Paschim Medinipur, classes and the mid-day meal are suspended because there is no teacher.
These vignettes point to a widening crisis in West Bengal’s school meal programme. Running under the national PM POSHAN scheme, the programme is marked by poor food, falling attendance, shrinking coverage, weak oversight, and a growing mismatch between official claims and what schools are actually delivering.
At Sodpur New Colony School in North 24 Parganas, on Kolkata’s outskirts, the problems are hard to miss. The school functions from a two-storey building built with local contributions and has several rooms, but only eight students are enrolled up to Class 5, and are taught by three teachers. One room is used for classes, another houses the state government’s ‘Ma Canteen’, and a third is being used as an Anganwadi kitchen.
A primary student runs between the rooms, drawn by the aroma of the food. He is brought back and seated on a classroom bench by the mid-day meal cook, who serves him hot rice and potato-soybean curry. He says he doesn’t enjoy soybeans and instead asks for an egg. A teacher placates him with the promise of eggs in a few days.
The teacher Shirshendu Roy says the school staff can do little. “There is nothing we can do. The councillor has started two more separate kitchens in the school. We can only watch.”
Read more on thewire.in