The Hindu Business Line : MGR's midday meal scheme

The political drama in Delhi brought back memories of MGR of Tamil Nadu, who introduced the midday meal scheme for school children in 1980, and won the hearts of the people.

"Photography's commitment to realism can accommodate any style, any approach to approach matter. Sometimes it will be defined more narrowly, as making of images which resemble, and inform us about the world... While all modern forms of art claim some privileged relation to reality, the claim seems particularly justified in the case of photography..."

— Berenice Abbott

Strong signals of the political drama were just unfolding as I left India 10 days ago. The stage was set. The curtains were in order and a new set of people was in the green room with paint afresh for the roles they were to play. For some, the costumes were not new but perhaps the age, wrinkles needed touching up.

The new actors were ready, brushing up their dialogue. The side wings had many hopefuls staking their claim for entry. And somewhere behind the curtains, there were still loud noises of who should play what role. Keen to see what others say about our big democratic country having elected a new government, I glance through newspapers in Sydney. I have seen two items in the last 10 days... One was about Arundhati Roy receiving the Sydney Peace Award and the other, here it comes, a farmer in Punjab who is so eco-friendly that he eats a kg of grass everyday! Thanks.

It was way back in 1960 that I joined a newspaper and, ever since then, in some form or the other, the theme of food has been inherent in all acts and plays by our various governments... Did we not hear of `gharibi hatao,' much, much earlier? Now, of course, the same slogan comes in a different form — "Bijli, pani, sadak". How reassuring this new title is! How many acting in this political theatre are serious about the poverty at the rural level and the plight of the urban labourer?

Watching the 2004 drama unfold brought to mind a visit my colleague and I had made many years ago — 1980 to be specific — to Chingleput district, near Chennai. We made a round of visits to schools in villages run in sheds or under a tree to make a study of the Midday Meal scheme launched by the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu M.G. Ramachandran. Of course, the learned scoffed at the idea and the newspapers had dismissed it as a populist stunt. The Indian Express, Madras, decided to have a field survey before drawing conclusions. My colleague from the reporting team was just a year old in the profession, and was very enthusiastic about doing the assignment given to us by none less than the Resident Editor himself. We spent the next two days visiting several village schools and spent a lot of time talking to the children, the teachers and parents about this scheme. Slowly, the negative thoughts of the scheme we nursed gave way to a positive outlook. True, the cooking could have been more hygienic, the quality of the grains used better, the plates in which they were served cleaner... . but the villages were happy that their children were getting a much-needed meal. They were happier still at the thought of the kids showing eagerness at long last to attend school!

It is difficult for us, the city folk, to imagine what a morsel of food means to these children. Or to their parents, small farmers or farm labourers, who toil in the fields from morning to evening, having hardly any time to take care of the children. To cook a meal or finding food means a lot of hardship.

But entered the mid-day meal scheme and suddenly the three `Rs' of education assumed significance and the school suddenly became a place the child looked forward to each morning.

Twenty-five years later, I vividly remember the interiors of the districts. A dry bell and children so hungry... Added to the sambar bath that morning, were a few pieces of carrot and tomato. And I still remember my colleague's shocked, surprised look when the children said that they had never eaten a dish of carrot or tomato till that day.

True, once the meal was over, the children wanted to run back home — either to attend to the grazing of the cattle or play. But, locked rooms or sometimes a show of the stick held them back to the four walls... Those were the days of the black board revolution, but it is another story that there were no blackboards. A slate and chalk took down the basics. Surprising and comforting, the kids loved singing and it did not matter what the pitch was!

We came back convinced that the scheme by MGR had the right dimension and understanding and was not just a gimmick. His thought was not just to help spread literacy but to get the child at least one nutritious meal a day. Indian Express was certainly not PRO-MGR but the positive series on midday meals scheme showed the value structure a newspaper should have.

Once the story was out, there was many a magazine and newspaper from Faridabad and elsewhere in the north rushing down to Chennai to do the midday meal story. Yes, there was this answer to "food" and there was this constructive approach to the problem. These days, children in the schools in Tamil Nadu even get an egg twice a week. True, there is a lot of criticism of how the scheme is run but that is another matter for discussion. Yes... Bijli, pani and roti once again. An issue.

Strange, the picture of the hungry of 1980 still haunts. Sitting here in Australia, I hear the local government planning to introduce a one-time grant of A$3,000 for every child born in the country. A happy gesture.

True, our country has to go a long way before it can introduce any such social welfare measure. First, the huge population and next the urge to do something good! Did they say that by 2010 India would really be shining?

Bijli, pani, roti — let us hope it's not going to be just the slogan of this new political play/theatre.

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