Mumbai BMC school mid-day meal quality came under renewed scrutiny after members of the civic education committee alleged that students were being served substandard food and that kitchens preparing the meals were unhygienic. The allegations were raised during the committee’s meeting on Monday, where members demanded greater attention to the safety and nutritional value of food served in municipal schools.
The issue gained urgency after a piece of glass was reportedly found in a mid-day meal served at Pantnagar School in Ghatkopar during the first week of August. The incident has since led to repeated questions about the quality of meals supplied to students in Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation schools, according to the report presented at the meeting.
Shiv Sena (Uddhav Balasaheb Thackeray) member Ankit Prabhu raised the matter through an objection during the education committee meeting. He alleged that the civic administration was not taking sufficient steps to check the quality of food distributed in municipal schools. He also questioned the cleanliness of the locations where the meals are prepared.
According to the report, self-help groups involved in preparing the food have said that they do not receive good-quality ingredients from the government. The allegation places the focus not only on the food served to children, but also on the procurement and monitoring arrangements through which ingredients reach kitchens and meals are prepared.
Prabhu also suggested that the daily menu should be changed instead of serving khichdi every day. He called for changes to the mid-day meal programme based on recommendations from nutritionists. The proposal was supported by corporator Pramod Sawant during the meeting.
The discussion highlights the multiple points at which municipal oversight is required: the quality of ingredients, kitchen hygiene, preparation practices, inspection systems and the handling of complaints from schools. The reported glass fragment at the Ghatkopar school has made the question of physical contamination particularly significant, although the supplied report does not provide details of any laboratory examination, disciplinary action or inspection report related to that incident.
Prabhu criticised the civic education department, alleging that it was compromising students’ health despite the municipal corporation having an adequate administrative mechanism. The supplied report does not include a response from the BMC education department, the meal providers or the self-help groups to the allegations raised in the committee.
The committee’s discussion is expected to keep the quality of school meals on the civic education agenda. The next steps identified in the report are a closer examination of meal quality and preparation-site hygiene, along with consideration of menu changes based on nutritionists’ recommendations.
