Very few pointers. You’re welcome to have a completely different opinion and I can have mine also. I kept my opinion to myself but as everybody is sharing their thoughts, I think I should be sharing my view as well.
1. Egg is a cheap source of protein i.e. rich in essential amino acids. The question is not about the amount of protein, it’s about the bio availability and presence of essential amino acids. It’s not that a vegetarian diet is devoid of proteins, but you need to take a whole different variety of proteins to get the essential amino acids, which unfortunately is not very feasible for poor people of rural Bengal. Protein energy malnutrition is a proven fact, it does exist. The whole concept of a mid day meal is about providing a shot of nutrition in a single meal. Vitamin B12, another essential micro element is not very much abundant in a vegan diet.
2. Nobody takes chicken biriyani everyday. Nobody stops you from consuming lettuce while you’re having eggs. Food should have varieties, that’s the whole point. The main criticism of the midday meal programme being shifted towards a vegetarian angle is about promoting a specific food pattern, which is not proper in my opinion. The food pattern that has documented and validated health benefits is the Mediterranean diet, which is again not a vegetarian diet.
3. The question of bhakti and religion has its own place. But when ISKCON is coming as an organization to arrange a midday meal programme, they’re doing entrepreneurship here. Everybody is doing business here. Everybody knows that, except the one blindfolded with bhakti. So the first part is that the Government is denying an opportunity of employment here by shrugging off the responsibility of midday meal and handing over it to a private organization. Next I’m not aware of any tender notice, by which they’ve obtained the rights. So here again we’re seeing another fresh politics of undue benefits. Everyone is mute because it’s ISKCON and not Reliance. Even this will backfire, just wait and watch.
Today’s discussions remind me of a newspaper article, that was once in a cover of my exercise book during my school days- “মিড ডে মিলে ডিমের ঝোল, বাড়ছে ছাত্র”
During those days I actually thought these students would come to school to have meals only and not to study!! This is why our nation has no future!!
Indeed I have walked a long way😊
