Should midday meals be cooked in schools or centralised kitchens? Telangana revives the debate

In late July, Telangana’s chief minister, Revanth Reddy, announced that the state government was partnering with the Hare Rama Hare Krishna Foundation to supply midday meals to schools in his constituency of Kodangal, in Vikarabad district.

On August 2, around 50 activists wrote a letter to Reddy, objecting to this move. They said that they were “deeply concerned with attempts at moving towards a centralised kitchen model in partnership with private and religious organisations, rather than strengthening the current system of local communities and women cooking in schools, in a decentralised manner”.

Telangana is not the only state in which this question has been in the news. Also this year, the one-man Justice K Chandru committee recommended in a report submitted to the Tamil Nadu government that it establish centralised kitchens in every block, where meals would be prepared for school children. On August 21, a group of activists wrote to the Tamil Nadu chief minister, MK Stalin, urging him not to implement this recommendation.

Casteism, and the question of hygiene

Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, have used centralised kitchens for midday meals since the 2000s. Others, such as Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka and Jharkhand, have more recently started to rely on them, signing agreements with NGOs and private...

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