At least 22 schoolchildren died in northeastern India after eating
free school lunches that contained a poison, a state official said.
More than 25 others were hospitalized in
Bihar state, said Bihar Education Minister P.K. Shahi, after ingesting an
insecticide that was in the food. One remains critical, the hospital said.
The poison was organophosphorus, a
chemical that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says is
commonly used in agriculture.
It is a nerve agent related to sarin gas,
which is used in chemical warfare, the U.S. Health Department says.
Exposure to a high dose can cause an
irregular heartbeat, difficulty breathing, paralysis and seizures.
Shahi said the school's cook had
questioned the quality of the oil she was being asked to use but was overruled
by the head teacher.
He said: "The information which has
come to me indeed suggests that the headmistress was told by the cook that
medium of cooking was not proper, and she suspected the quality of the oil. But
the headmistress rebuked her, and chastised the children, and forced them to
continue the meal."
Source has not been able to contact the
headmistress.
A program providing one free hot meal a
day to school children has proved incredibly popular as part of India'swider effort to tackle malnutrition. Children aged 6
months to 14 years get take-home rations or are provided with hot cooked food.
The wider $22 billion-a-year welfare
scheme aims to sell subsidized wheat and rice to 67% of its 1.2 billion people.
According to the Indian government's figures, nearly half of India's
children suffer from malnutrition of some sort.
Shahi said: "Twenty million children
are being served hot meals in about 73,000 elementary schools. We have been
endeavoring to improve the quality ... However, the challenge is still there
because the magnitude of this program is so huge that there are a number of
challenges."
He added: "It is really very
unfortunate. Even though I would unhesitatingly admit that there are some
quality issues before us, but this is the first incident which has happened in
the state. In the past we have received complaints regarding quality, but the
incident of this nature has happened for the first time. It has really shocked
us -- shocked the entire state."
Speaking on CNN's sister network CNN-IBN,
district magistrate Abhijit Sinha said an inquiry into the deaths had been
launched.
Source reported that the children were between the
ages of 5 and 12 and from Dahrmasati Gandawan, a village in Saran district,
Bihar state. It said their deaths Tuesday triggered violent protests Wednesday
in Chhapra, the headquarters of Saran district, and a call from politicians for
a general strike.
Madhusudan Paswan, Saran's district
education officer, said that 31 of the affected children were sent from the
local Sadar Hospital to Patna Medical College Hospital in the state capital
Tuesday night.
Source quoted Shahi as saying the deaths
were a clear result of poisoning, and an investigation would determine whether
the contamination was accidental or deliberate.
Since a landmark Supreme Court decision in
2001, all government schools in India have been required to provide free meals to students younger than 13.
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