PANAJI: The country observes National Nutrition Week from September 1 to 7. But in the rural areas of Goa-like in rest of the country-a considerable number of students continue to report to school without breakfast each morning.
According to norms laid down by the Union government, every school-going child from classes I to VIII and studying in government and government-aided schools, should be served free, hot and cooked meals to ensure healthy growth under the midday meal scheme.
As per the guidelines, children in classes I to V should consume 450gm of calories and 12gm of proteins and students from VI to VIII should be provided food with a nutritional value of 700gm calories and 22gm proteins.A study conducted by the NGO Sangath two years ago showed that four out of every 10 male students and three out of every 10 girl students from rural Goan schools were found to be underweight.
The study titled "Nutritional status of children in five Goan rural schools" was carried out in government and government-aided schools involving students between the ages 10 to 19 years.
Of the 1,015 students who participated in the study, most were found to have energy and protein consumption which was less than the recommended daily allowance (RDA) as specified by the Indian Council of Medical Research.
The study revealed that approximately 60% secondary school students experienced hunger owing to inadequate food consumption which was also found to affect their academic performance.
The students were found to be were underweight due to the lack of food.
Another detailed study is being carried out by Sangath to probe the reason behind these findings.
In a survey conducted by the directorate of education recently, it was found that many students from urban areas had refused to avail meals because of fear of food contamination due to many cases reported of food poisoning after consuming midday meals.
The conditions make it vital for the state government to act to ensure that basic nutritional needs are met.