Instances ofcontaminated food served to children under the government-mandated midday meal in Bihar no longer make the media’s big-font news. Their regularity numbs the reader into indifference.

On May 7, up to 150 students of a government middle school in Bihar’s Baluaha village, in Saharsa district, fell sick and were hospitalised. The children had allegedly spotted a dead baby snake in their watery dal. They were treated at a government hospital and the local Primary Health Centre.

The district administrator suspended and lodged an FIR against two teachers and all the nine cooks of the school. Bharat Kumar Singh, who functions as both the Block Education Officer (BEO) and Block Development Officer (BDO) of Mahishi, says it is the overall responsibility of the staff to make checks. “We have started our Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) for students to eat the meal and situation is gradually improving.”

“I, along with the cooks of the school and other teachers taste the food first to build confidence among students, but they have been refusing, saying their parents have told them not to,” rues Anupama Kumari Jha, the headmistress.

But parents are nervous. “They have told us not to eat the food, so we carry food from home,” says one student, with many echoing her.

Also read: Blame game on over midday meal tragedy

What was earlier the six-days-a-week midday meal scheme in schools was rechristened the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme in 2021. Bihar’s Finance Minister Bijendra Prasad Yadav said in his budget speech for 2026-27, that 68,813 schools in the State and 1.04 crore students from Class 1-8 are covered under the scheme. Children are given hot cooked meals, either cooked on campus or brought in by an non-governmental organisation (NGO).

Over the years, there have been at least five incidents of food contamination in the children’s food in Bihar. In February 2025 about 100 children in Lakhisarai district had symptoms of food poisoning after they complained of a lizard in the food. In April 2025 over 100 children in Patna district fell ill and a snake was allegedly found in the food. In September that year, about 85 children fell sick, again after a lizard was found in the cooked vegetable.

Fixing responsibility

For Baluaha village, the base kitchen is located a kilometre away, and is run by an NGO, which says it takes all “hygiene precautions” in preparing food for the school students. “In two blocks of district nearby Mahishi and Nauhatta, our Delhi headquartered NGO supplies food to about 18,000 students every day in over 150 government schools,” says the project coordinator Mohd. Ejaz, from Bharat Ratna Dr. Bhim Rao Ambedkar Dalit Utthan Evam Siksha Samiti. He also says 67 staff members, including 16 cooks, work at the organisation to supply food to students in a 10 km radius. The meal is typically served at 9 a.m. during the morning shift of the school in summer.

 “Why was the FIR filed against me? It was the NGO that was supplying food,” says Jha. The school principal, Vikas Kumar, was on casual leave that day, she says, making her in-charge.

The state government middle school in Baluaha, some 170 kms north from of Patna, was established in 1949, and has 828 students on roll with more girl students than boys. There are 16 teachers and 9 cooks. “That day (May 7) 543 students had come to the school. A school cook, Kaili Devi, asked students not to eat the food, when she saw something in the dal,” says Jha.

By then, some of the children had started vomiting and complaining of stomach pain. “We called the local Primary Health Centre (PHC) and the police,” she says.

Kaili says, “One of the middle-school students started crying out, ‘chilla-chilla’ (earthworm). I too spotted it and asked the children not to eat the food.”

Saharsa District Programme Officer (MDM), Shalini Jagriti, says the forensics team is determining whether it was snake, earthworm, or something else. “They have taken a sample of the food and the ‘creature’for testing,” she says.

Jha is grateful the children were all discharged from the healthcare units. Even the parents of children who were not in school on that day gathered within the school campus and shouted slogans against the administration. “We were panicked,” says Jha.

One parent says, philosophically, “Life is the only thing which can never be replaced when lost.” Another says, angrily that the poor were condemned to eat whatever was handed out. “Poverty is an injustice,” he adds.

Shortcomings in the scheme delivery  

The Poshan scheme is shared in cost by the Central and State governments in a 60:40 ratio. As of May 2026, it is running in all 38 districts of Bihar.

Last year in May, after the April incident, when over 100 children had fallen sick after eating contaminated school food, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) had issued notice to the Bihar government seeking a detailed report in the matter.

In July 2013, in Dharmasati Gandaman Primary school in Masrakh block of Saran district, 23 students had died after eating contaminated midday meal. The incident had hit national and international headlines, and the school principal Meena Devi, was later sentenced to 17 years in jail, 10 years of which are on charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder and seven years for criminal negligence, though both sentences were to run consecutively, and not concurrently.

In 2023, Jan Jagriti Shakti Sangathan, a trade union of unorganised sector workers, released a report titled ‘Where are the Kids? The Curious Case of Government Schools in Bihar’. It was based on a survey of 81 schools in two districts in North Bihar, and offers glimpses into the state of education in the rural parts of the State. “While it is not clear why NGOs are involved in the first place, the lack of a uniform system for cooking midday meals causes confusion. There have been numerous reports from Bihar where children have fallen sick after eating the midday meal…,” it says.

amarnath.tewary@thehindu.co.in