As you may aware IBMA has submitted a proposal dated 28th November 2007 requesting for including Biscuits under the Midday Meals Scheme for the children of schools and other educational instuitions, to Shri Arjun Singh, Union Minister for HRD, Shri Mohd Ali Ashraf Fatmi and Smt D Purandareswari, Hon’ble Ministers of State for HRD as well as to Shri Arun Kumar Rath, Secretary Ministry of HRD. In this connection, I am enclosing a copy of the representation together with a news item in Business Standard dated 12 December, 2007.

Also enclosed is another news item appearing in Times of India dated 31 December, 2007 Members are requested to send us your views/suggestions in the matter so that we could pursue the issue with Central Government as well as State Governments by 15th January 2008.

MPs' recipe: Biscuits for mid-day meals
31 Dec 2007, 0044 hrs IST , Nitin Sethi & Akshaya Mukul , TNN

NEW DELHI: What's the best meal for a growing child? Biscuits, if you go by what some members of Parliament are saying. Thirty-odd MPs, across party lines, have written to the HRD ministry, advocating that biscuits should be served as lunch to 12 crore children across 9.5 lakh schools under the Rs 5,000-crore mid-day meal scheme.

If this sounds puzzling, the story has an even more curious twist. The MPs' arguments to substitute hot cooked meals -- with 450 calorie and 12g protein -- are almost a straight lift from the Mumbai-based Biscuit Manufacturers Welfare Association's (BMWA) own proposal to the HRD ministry on the midday meal scheme.

With mid-day meals now being extended to upper primary classes, which would make some 18 crore children beneficiaries by next year -- double the present number -- a mammoth budget is in the offing. No wonder, biscuit manufacturers are licking their chops in anticipation. The letters seem a testimony to the concerted effort by biscuit manufacturers to reach out to MPs in their business interests.

But in apparently lobbying the cause of biscuits as a mid-day meal, the MPs have not paid notice to Supreme Court's 2001 and subsequent orders that prohibit centralized purchase of food for the scheme in order to avoid corruption. It has also been argued that serving hot cooked meals ensures local community participation.

The HRD ministry has so far staved off pressure from both MPs and business groups. But sources say that every few months, new efforts are made to alter the present scheme.

"Most often, the argument is that cooked meal is a cause of corruption. But we have put an effective monitoring mechanism. There is no supplement to cooked meal," a source said. Sources also point out at that the SC order was a result of concerted efforts by civil society groups. "It's cast in stone. Even other countries want to emulate midday meals," sources said.

Nutritionists point out the severe disparity in terms of dietetics. "Biscuits to replace a midday meal is a bad idea," says nutrition expert Shikha Sharma. "Biscuits can by no chance replace proper meals for children. Biscuits are nothing but starch and sugar while a balanced meal includes some proteins, vitamins and vegetables.

A balanced meal needs to have all constituents required by a healthy, growing child. They need rice, dal, fruits and vegetables," says Rekha Sharma, senior vice-president, VLCC healthcare and former dietician, AIIMS.

Says Isi Kotla, former Fortis nutritionist and director, Whole food, "Biscuits are no substitute for a child's proper meal. Children need proteins and vitamins which cannot be replaced by just biscuits. No compromise should be made regarding their health."

But MPs, most representing rural India where mid-day meals have maximum presence, are unanimous about biscuits being the best substitute. So you have Samajwadi Party's Rajya Sabha MP Abu Asim Azmi writing, "Biscuits are a healthy, packaged, nutritious product which can cover many shortcomings of the present system followed by the MDM schemes."

RPI's Ramdas Athawale goes a step ahead, incorporating marketing jargon in his letter to HRD, saying, "Biscuits are a favourite snack of children and have a higher recall and acceptance among the intended beneficiaries of the MDMs."

If Athawale is so convinced about the nutritional value of biscuits, Cambridge-educated K Natwar Singh is not far behind. He argues, "Members of the defence services, state police, administrative personnel, farmers, all classes of professional and labourers continue their biscuit consumption habits nurtured since childhood."

Azmi has written several letters to HRD minister Arjun Singh offering to personally bring a "delegation of the BMWA comprising of industry leaders from Parle, Britannia, ITC, Priya Gold among others desirous of presenting their proposal before you...".

Some others are more discreet. Deepak Chopra, personal secretary to BJP leader L K Advani, has only forwarded the representation of biscuit manufacturers to the HRD minister's secretary, requesting "appropriate action in the matter".

Packaged food cos eye midday meal scheme

31 Dec 2007, 0040 hrs IST , Nitin Sethi & Akshaya Mukul , TNN

NEW DELHI: Biscuit manufacturers are not alone in trying to use the government's Rs 5,000-crore midday meal (MDM) scheme as a route for securing 12 crore children as their captive market. The ready-to-eat food industry has also made a strong pitch for a share of MDM.

As in the case of biscuits, advocacy for packaged food has come from political class as well as industry bodies like CII. Be it UP chief minister Mayawati now or HRD minister Arjun Singh's daughter a year ago, HRD sources say cooked midday meal is under constant threat.

Even women and child development minister Renuka Chowdhry is a votary of packaged food instead of cooked meal as backed by nutritionists and mandated by the Supreme Court.

While Mayawati wrote a letter on October 24, 2007 to the Prime Minister demanding that the government allow children to be fed packaged pre-cooked food, the HRD minister's daughter Veena Singh had lobbied for the same in her father's ministry in 2006.

It finally took the minister, expressing surprise at the mention of his daughter's name on official records in this regard, to stop the proposal then.

With the ministry of food processing industry also in favour of pre-cooked meals, HRD sources say ever since MDM became a flagship programme there has been relentless pressure to make the switch over.

While last year, Arjun Singh did not clear the proposal backed by his daughter, HRD sources say fresh attempts are now being made by states like UP, Goa and Arunachal Pradesh to convince the Centre about the efficacy of pre-cooked meals.

But HRD ministry sources say it is out of question to support pre-cooked meals