Skip to main content

Top Govt of India institute told to withdraw report calling onion, garlic, eggs "tamasik"

Counterview Desk
A group of signatories -- 10 organizations and 94 individuals* -- including activists, academicians, lawyers, doctors, journalists and researchers, have sent an open letter to scientists of the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), asking it to withdraw its report submitted to Government of Karnataka regarding the appropriateness of the food being supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF) as part of Mid-day Meals scheme.
APF has been supplying food to 2,814 schools across six district in Karnataka as part of Mid-day meals scheme which is fully-funded by Government of India and Government of Karnataka. A sister concern of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), it has refused to include onion and garlic in the food supplied to schools because it considers these ingredients to be 'tamasik' (evoking negativity).
The signatories believe, this is in violation of not only the menu prescribed by the Government of Karnataka but also the terms of Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed by APF itself. It also violates Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) Guidelines which prohibit propagation of private beliefs through Mid-day Meal scheme, not to speak of the basic tenets of the Constitution.
Following complaints by the Karnataka State Food Commission and civil society groups, the Government directed APF to comply with the prescribed menu. Subsequently, APF approached higher officials in the State government, which sought technical advice from the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN) and the Central Food Technological Research Institute (CFTRI). While CFTRI refused to comment on most of the questions regarding nutritional adequacy, taste, diversity, safety and hygiene etc. of the food being supplied by APF in the absence of a systematic empirical study, the singatories feel, NIN offered completely unfounded and biased comments on the food supplied by APF without so much as visiting a single school or talking to a single student eating this food.
A pivotal scientific institution providing technical inputs for nutritional policy making in the country, the signatories feel, NIN providing technical inputs without any rigorous scientific field evaluation does injustice not only to its reputation as an independent institution but has the potential of adversely affecting the nutritional status of several children, some of them from extremely deprived conditions. They urge NIN to immediately withdraw the report submitted to the Government of Karnataka, pending a systematic field evaluation.

Text of the letter:

We the undersigned have held the National Institute of Nutrition in high regard for its contributions to nutrition research and evidence-building, and have the used its work as part our effort to secure right to food for all citizens of India. We are therefore dismayed at the unscientific, biased and irresponsible response sent by the Institute through its Director to the request from Government of Karnataka regarding assessment of nutritional value of food supplied by Akshaya Patra Foundation (APF).
APF has been supplying food to 2,814 schools in Karnataka as part of the Mid-day meals scheme (MDM) which, it needs to be emphasized, is a scheme fully funded by Government of India and Government of Karnataka. The scheme aims at providing students studying in the schools, a nutritious meal containing locally and culturally relevant food, which children will find tasty enough to eat in adequate quantity.
APF, on the other hand, has refused to provide eggs or use onion and garlic in the food supplied because it considers these foods as ‘tamasik’. Since onions and garlic are part of the traditional foods like sambhar in Karnataka, and hence has been included as part of the menu prescribed by the State government, their non-inclusion by APF was raised by the Karnataka State Food Commission and civil society groups.
Following this, the Government of Karnataka had asked National Institute of Nutrition and Central Food Technical Research Institute for its technical inputs on nutritional adequacy, bioavailability, diet diversity, taste and food safety and hygiene.
In their response, CFTRI has refused to comment on the nutritional quality, taste, diversity and safety of food supplied by APF instead asking for sufficient time and resources to do a proper assessment. NIN, on the other hand, to our utter shock and dismay, has made sweeping statements praising APF, without carrying out any systematic scientific study.
No empirical data was collected on the quantity and quality of ingredients used or amount consumed and amount wasted by children to certify food supplied by APF as nutritionally adequate. Instead, a paper menu submitted by APF, was considered evidence enough to comment on an aspect of the scheme which have nutritional impact on lakhs of children!
Even more shockingly, without visiting a single school or speaking to children consuming the food, NIN has taken the unwarranted liberty of commenting on the taste and safety of the food even which fly in the face of observations by State Food Commission of monotony of the food supplied by APF or media reports of children vomiting after consuming the food on some occasions.
The eagerness exhibited by NIN to offer opinions in this case, in absence of any scientific field evaluation, raises serious questions regarding NIN's credibility and independence.
In view of NIN's history and tradition of rigorous scientific research and considering that the nutritional future of the lakhs of children studying in government schools and availing mid-day meals has been undermined by the unscientific report submitted by NIN to Government of Karnataka, we urge you to withdraw the report immediately pending a systematic field evaluation of the food being supplied by APF.
---
*Click HERE for the list of signatories

Comments

Prof Prem raj Pushpakaran writes --- 2018 marks the 100 years of National Institute of Nutrition!!!
https://www.youth4work.com/y/profpremrajpushpakaran/Prof-Prem-Raj-Pushpakaran-popularity

TRENDING

Junk food push causing severe public health crisis of obesity, diabetes in India: Report

By Rajiv Shah  A new report , “The Junk Push: Rising Consumption of Ultra-processed foods in India- Policy, Politics and Reality”, public health experts, consumers groups, lawyers, youth and patient groups, has called upon the Government of India to check the soaring consumption of High Fat Sugar or Salt (HFSS) foods or ultra-processed foods (UPF), popularly called junk food.

Insider plot to kill Deendayal Upadhyay? What RSS pracharak Balraj Madhok said

By Shamsul Islam*  Balraj Madhok's died on May 2, 2016 ending an era of old guards of Hindutva politics. A senior RSS pracharak till his death was paid handsome tributes by the RSS leaders including PM Modi, himself a senior pracharak, for being a "stalwart leader of Jan Sangh. Balraj Madhok ji's ideological commitment was strong and clarity of thought immense. He was selflessly devoted to the nation and society. I had the good fortune of interacting with Balraj Madhok ji on many occasions". The RSS also issued a formal condolence message signed by the Supremo Mohan Bhagwat on behalf of all swayamsevaks, referring to his contribution of commitment to nation and society. He was a leading RSS pracharak on whom his organization relied for initiating prominent Hindutva projects. But today nobody in the RSS-BJP top hierarchy remembers/talks about Madhok as he was an insider chronicler of the immense degeneration which was spreading as an epidemic in the high echelons of th

Astonishing? Violating its own policy, Barclays 'refinanced' Adani Group's $8 billion bonds

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by two global NGOs, BankTrack and the Toxic Bonds Network, has claimed to have come up with “a disquieting truth”: that Barclays, a financial heavyweight with a “controversial” track record, is deeply entrenched in a “disturbing” alliance with “the Indian conglomerate and coal miner Adani Group.”

Modi govt intimidating US citizens critical of abuses in India: NY Christian group to Biden

Counterview Desk  the New York Council of Churches for its release of an open letter calling on the Biden administration to “speak out forcefully” against rising Hindu extremist violence targeting Christians and other minorities in India. In the letter addressed to President Biden, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and other major elected officials, the NY Council of Churches expressed "grave concern regarding escalating anti-Christian violence" throughout India, particularly in Manipur, where predominantly Christian Kuki-Zo tribals have faced hundreds of violent attacks on their villages, churches, and homes at the hands of predominantly Hindu Meitei mobs.

Buddhist shrines were 'massively destroyed' by Brahmanical rulers: Historian DN Jha

Nalanda mahavihara By Our Representative Prominent historian DN Jha, an expert in India's ancient and medieval past, in his new book , "Against the Grain: Notes on Identity, Intolerance and History", in a sharp critique of "Hindutva ideologues", who look at the ancient period of Indian history as "a golden age marked by social harmony, devoid of any religious violence", has said, "Demolition and desecration of rival religious establishments, and the appropriation of their idols, was not uncommon in India before the advent of Islam".

Link India's 'deteriorating' religious conditions with trade relations: US policymakers told

By Our Representative  Commissioners on the United States Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) raised concerns about the “sophisticated, systematic persecution” of religious minorities by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi at a hearing on India in Washington DC.

Green revolution "not sustainable", Bt cotton a failure in India: MS Swaminathan

MS Swaminathan Counterview Desk In a recent paper in the journal “Current Science”, distinguished scientist PC Kesaven and his colleague MS Swaminathan, widely regarded as the father of the Green Revolution, have argued that Bt insecticidal cotton, widely regarded as the continuation of the Green Revolution, has been a failure in India and has not provided livelihood security for mainly resource-poor, small and marginal farmers. Sharply taking on Green Revolution, the authors say, it has not been sustainable largely because of adverse environmental and social impacts, insisting on the need to move away from the simplistic output-yield paradigm that dominates much thinking. Seeking to address the concerns about local food security and sovereignty as well as on-farm and off-farm social and ecological issues associated with the Green Revolution, they argue in favour of what they call sustainable ‘Evergreen Revolution’, based on a ‘systems approach’ and ‘ecoagriculture’. Pointing ou

A Hindu alternative to Valentine's Day? 'Shiv-Parvati was first love marriage in Universe'

By Rajiv Shah*   The other day, I was searching on Google a quote on Maha Shivratri which I wanted to send to someone, a confirmed Shiv Bhakt, quite close to me -- with an underlying message to act positively instead of being negative. On top of the search, I chanced upon an article in, imagine!, a Nashik Corporation site which offered me something very unusual. 

Swami Vivekananda's views on caste and sexuality were 'painfully' regressive

By Bhaskar Sur* Swami Vivekananda now belongs more to the modern Hindu mythology than reality. It makes a daunting job to discover the real human being who knew unemployment, humiliation of losing a teaching job for 'incompetence', longed in vain for the bliss of a happy conjugal life only to suffer the consequent frustration.

Jharkhand: Attempt to create red scare for 'brutal crackdown', increase loot of resources

Counterview Desk  The civil rights group Forum Against Corporatization and Militarization in a statement on plans to crackdown on “64 democratic progressive organisations” in Jharkhand under the pretext of the need to investigate their Maoist link, has alleged that this an attempt to suppress dissent against corporate loot and create an authoritarian state.