For smooth Ad free experience
What were to happen when the basic necessity called food would become the reason behind innocent deaths? A tragedy. Quite a bad one. Something this horrifying happened to be a real incident in one village of Bihar.
Happened on 16th July 2013
Eight years ago, news headlines flooded in reporting an incident that took many by shock. In a village situated in Bihar, 23 students from the age group of five to twelve died after consuming the meals they were given in their school. In the Gandaman village of the Saran district, a mere group of young school children would have started their day thinking about school and the food they get there, but what fell upon them was something they would have never thought of.
On July 16th, 2013 the students of Dharmashati Mata primary school complained to their headmistress Meena Kumari that the food they consumed under the Midday Meal Scheme seemed to have a rather odd taste. Ignorant of their complaints, she scolded them and sent them back to eating. What she didn't take into account was the fact that even the school's cook had notified her before of the smell that the oil stank of. If that wasn't enough, it was also discoloured and looked tainted enough to raise suspicion. Her response however seemed to deny the very obvious and all she said was "it's a store purchase brand, and it's safe".
That misunderstanding cost the life of 23 young students that day. Soon after their consumption, children started complaining of dizziness, stomach aches, and uneasiness. Their situation had worsened to such an extent that many of them had to be sent to the local hospital nearby. Children were vomiting and many even suffered through diarrhoea.
According to the official records, 23 children died due to the contaminated food with 16 of them dying on-site and the others in the hospital.
Many students were also sent off home as the number of them getting sick started increasing. The villagers complained that 27 of them had died instead. Regardless of the number of children killed, there only remained anger and rage among the villagers. It only made sense because around 48 students together had fallen sick and were sent to the hospital due to such a dangerous incident.
The Midday Meal had been famous for being the most extensive lunch program that aimed at aiding the poor children in order to come to school and get food to avoid cases of malnutrition. However, Bihar is considered to be one of the poorest states of India and therefore lacks a lot when it comes to resources and their proper development. Due to the lack of space in the school and bad infrastructure, the midday meal rations were stored at the headmistress's house.
Initial reports told that the food that was served was poisoned with a harmful substance called organophosphate. It was a substance found in insecticides.
Forensics confirmed that the food was indeed poisoned. The state officials reported that the headmistress kept the oil in some container that was previously used to store pesticides. She had bought it from her husband's grocery store and the residue contained a high level of toxins called 'monocrotophos' which are found in pesticides.
Angry villagers took it to the streets and caused many riots as an aftermath of this horrible incident. Nineteen of the children's bodies were buried either in the school ground or nearby for the sake of protesting. Fires were lit and stones were thrown denouncing the government and its schemes. An FIR was filed against the headmistress Meena Kumari and her husband who fled off and were later apprehended in Chappra.
This nightmare of an incident caused a lot of trouble and taught the government to be much more conscious about the schemes that they have been initiating. Money donations were made to somehow compensate for the loss but this event still remains one of the biggest food contamination stories of all time.
You might be interested in reading more from
