The reports that a dead snake at a public school lunch caused dozens of children to fall ill by the authorities of India.
More than 100 students had ill in the northeast city of Mokama after eating last week, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said Thursday in a statement.
According to the reports, a school cook served the food for about 500 children after taking out a dead snake, said the commission, citing local media reports.
The NHRC has demanded that the Local Police provide a “detailed” report of the incident within two weeks, which is expected to include the health status of the affected children, the statement added.
If the reports are true, the case will raise a “serious problem of violation of the human rights of the students,” said the commission, added that the villagers angered by the reports, had blocked a path in protest.
Although India has achieved food sufficiency in grain production and constant economic growth, the country still represents a quarter of the world’s hungry people and houses more than 190 million people not understood, according to the United Nations.
In an attempt to combat hunger, India launched a half -day meal scheme cooked in 2001 that provided free lunch for children in public schools for at least 200 days a year, according to the country’s ministry of education.
The scheme is the world’s largest school food program, which covers more than 113 million children between the ages of 6-10, according to some estimates.
Food security complaints related to school meals are not uncommon in India. In 2013, at least 23 children were killed for free school lunch contaminated with concentrated pesticide. The students became ill a few minutes away from eating a rice and potato meal to curry, vomiting and convulsing stomach cramps.
