The right to eat eggs in India's most malnourished state
An Anganwadi center near Sarangpur. Photo by Shuriah Niazi.
SARANGPUR, India — In the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh in Sarangpur, Kaushalya Mali is getting ready to distribute food to children in an Anganwadi center, a government-run daycare center in ward no. 8 of the city.
The meals are traditional Indian staples of rice and lentils, a cheap and common vegetarian lunch across India that’s being criticized in India’s most malnourished state for not providing as much protein as poultry or eggs.
In an effort to combat malnutrition of children and pregnant women, the state government proposed in October to provide eggs in the meals at the centers, upsetting some Hindu hardliners who say eating anything other than purely vegetarian meals goes against the Hindu faith.
The proposal has to be approved by the state cabinet before it can be implemented.
The Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) claims that the state government is upsetting the religious sentiments of the people. The BJP is the ruling party of India’s central government and holds the majority of legislative seats in 11 states. The party lost its majority in Madhya Pradesh in November 2018.
“Children might grow up to be cannibals if they start having non-vegetarian food since childhood,” BJP leader Gopal Bhargava said. “Even after eating eggs, if they remain malnourished then the government will serve them mutton and chicken. It is prohibited to eat non-veg in our culture. They will become man-eaters if they eat these things from childhood. The government is bent upon making them cannibals.”
Madhya Pradesh has India’s highest burden of child malnutrition. According to data from the National Family Health Survey, 42% of children under the age of five in the state are below the average height of Indian children their age, and 42.8% of children under five are underweight. Additionally, 68.9% of children suffer from anemia, caused by a lack of iron. The infant mortality rate is also the highest in the country.
The number of people who already eat eggs or meat in the state is considerable. A 2014 survey found that more than half of people in Madhya Pradesh are non-vegetarians.
Senior BJP leader Shivraj Singh Chouhan, former chief minister of the state before the Congress Party won a majority in November 2018, said during his term a similar proposal was floated but his government chose instead to provide milk to children.
Hindu custom prohibits eating meat. It prohibits killing any animals and eating meat as is mentioned in our ancient literature, Chouhan said.
The legislators did not mention that most of the milk available in Madhya Pradesh is severely altered, with urea and other harmful chemicals being added to it.
In the state’s past debates over eggs, a report of the State Food Testing Laboratory showed that in 2014 and 2015, adulterants that reduce protein levels were detected in 983 samples of milk.
The right to food and tribal customs
Tribal Indians often follow their own customs rather than Hindu rituals and live outside the traditional caste system. According to a 2011 census, 16 million tribal Indians live in the state, and most tribes have diets including eggs and meat, social worker and Right to Food activist Sachin Kumar Jain said. He has been keeping an eye on the ongoing campaign to give eggs to children for the last 10 years.
"In a state like Madhya Pradesh where malnutrition is at its peak, it is very important to include eggs in the children's diet,” Jain said. He argues that other arrangements could be made for vegetarian children.
In a state where 4.5 million children are undernourished, and 80 to 90,000 children die every year from preventable malnutrition, measures should be taken seriously to fight it, Jain said.
Under the Right to Food campaign, 26,000 common people from different districts of Madhya Pradesh have sent letters to the state government in support of giving eggs to children.
Tribal Welfare Minister Omkar Singh Markam, of the Congress Party, agreed that providing eggs is not a religious issue.
“It is also not a question of vegetarian versus non-vegetarian,” he said. “It is a question of the right to food. What I eat should be my decision and not someone else’s. I always support scientific thinking and am in favor of giving eggs to tackle malnutrition among children.”
Mandla Congress legislative representative Dr. Ashok Marsakole also said the opposition to eggs is ridiculous.
“An egg that costs just five rupees has so many qualities and is very rich in protein and other nutrients,” Marsakole said. “At least, tribal children, should not be deprived of this rich and cheap source of vitamins and protein.
Madhya Pradesh’s Women and Child Development Minister Imarti Devi also supports the proposal and said that eggs are vegetarian food, and suggestions of doctors and experts are welcomed.
“That what is good for the health of children will be done,” she said. "The egg is vegetarian and good for the health of the children. That is why this decision has been taken."
Research says children need more protein
Studies by the National Sample Survey Organization (NSSO) and the National Nutrition Monitoring Bureau show that most of the people in Madhya Pradesh do not have diverse diets providing complete proteins, considered essential to growing bodies in particular.
The NSSO in its October 2014 report said that the people get 70.7% of their protein from grains. The remaining 10.8% comes from lentils and 9% from milk.
But protein from grains is considered low quality. Milk is a good source of protein, but its high price makes it out of the reach of the poor, and the purity and quality of milk, particularly in Madhya Pradesh, is questionable.
Proponents of the eggs argue they are not only very nutritious and good for children but also cheap and safer than milk. They can be cooked easily and can promote the poultry industry.
Some private social welfare programs have already been providing eggs for years.
"We encouraged 900 Sahariya families to start poultry farming during the last two years, which has not only reduced malnutrition among children but also improved the nutritional level of women,” said Ajay Yadav, who is working among Sahariya tribals in Madhya Pradesh’s Shivpuri district.
The egg proponents say the government too often decides what is good for children, including those belonging to tribal and Dalit or deprived communities, without holding any discussion with the experts, members of the civil society or other stakeholders.
“We have been distributing eggs to children in Panna district through two child development centers for three years,” said Yusuf Baig of Prithvi Trust, a social organization working in Panna district of Madhya Pradesh. “This was welcomed by the society and this also reduced malnutrition among children in those villages.”