The clear stand of Shivraj Singh Chouhan, Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh is that eggs will not be given to children as mid-day meal in Anganwadi. In order to provide nutritional and healthy food to the children, MP is taking milk out in response to eggs. This is not the first time such a debate has taken place in MP. Understanding this story of Egg vs Milk in MP is interesting in itself how the government and health activists are face to face.
This battle has already taken place before
Yes, even in the year 2015, during the government of BJP's Shivraj Singh Chauhan, the Anganwadis were clearly instructed not to dare to give eggs in the mid-day meal. But, in the year 2018, when Congress's Kamal Nath government was formed, it gave preference to eggs by changing the menu of Mid Day Meal. Shortly after the Congress government fell and the BJP government came back, the egg was again evicted this year.
Imarti Devi, one of the legislators joining hands with the BJP to topple the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh, recently said that even after joining the BJP, she will stick to her old statement and will continue to advocate eggs for children in schools and in hospitals. But, instead of making the eggs mandatory, she talked about distribution on the basis of will. Since then this issue has remained in politics.
Why is the government not able to digest eggs?
When the Kamal Nath government included eggs in the menu, then BJP MLA Gopal Bhargava, who was sitting in the opposition, said that "Eating eggs will make children man-eaters" and that the egg is "Not part of our culture anyway". In Madhya Pradesh, the same debate between vegetarianism and non-vegetarianism had taken place earlier also and hence egg never got a place in the mid-day meal during BJP government
Why is there so much ruckus on 'non-vegetarians'?
More than 40% of the population in MP is considered vegetarian. The inclusion of eggs in food is opposed by many communities, especially the Jain community, which has a strong population in the state. Leaders of the Jain community on social media have even protested against Imarti Devi from Dabra, who is fond of feeding eggs to children. Since caste vote bank politics is dominating in MP, the government considers eggs as a risk.
What is the conclusion of this milk vs egg debate?
Actually, MP is the top state in the list where malnutrition is the highest among children. In a 2015 report by National Public Radio, food rights activist Sachin Jain said that malnourished children have an easy and effective diet for protein and fat diet. After this the debate started and is going on in some other states including Madhya Pradesh.
According to Veena Shatrughan, retired deputy director from the National Institute of Nutrition, you can consider eggs as a complete food because it contains all the necessary nutrients besides vitamin C. But milk is not a complete nutrition in itself, but with it you have to take the right amount in other diets like pulses, rice, fruits, then you get complete nutrition.
According to Healthline, milk contains water: 88%, protein: 7.7 grams, carb: 11.7 grams, sugar: 12.3 grams, fiber: 0 and fat: 8 grams. While eggs contain 7 grams of high quality protein, 5 grams of fat, 1.6 grams of saturated fat. Also, eggs contain vitamins, minerals and carotenoids so it is considered to provide nutrition capable of fighting diseases similar to lutein.
How many states provide eggs to children at anganwadi centres?
At least 14 states, including some ruled by the BJP, have so far been providing eggs as a part of the ICDS.
According to the National Baseline Survey of 2014, in nine of these 14 states — Telangana, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jharkhand, Tamil Nadu, Bihar and Kerala — 95% of the population is non-vegetarian. In the remaining five states — Tripura, Karnataka, Jammu and Kashmir, Assam and Chhattisgarh — over 70% of the population is non-vegetarian.
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