Free school meals kill Indian children

[panzerfaust]

Source: Guardian (UK)

At least 20 children have died and up to 30 more are seriously ill after eating free meals at a primary school in eastern India.

The children, aged between six and 10, were fed rice and lentils at lunch at the government primary school in a small village in the poverty-stricken state of Bihar on Tuesday. The food had been cooked in the school kitchen. Staff stopped serving the meal after children began vomiting...

Early tests showed that the food in this latest case may have been contaminated with pesticides used on rice and wheat crops in the area...

Authorities suspended a food inspector and registered a case of criminal negligence against the school headmaster. The Bihar state chief minister, Nitish Kumar, has ordered an inquiry.


Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/17/school-meals-kill-indian-children

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Amongst the other shocks in the article was the statement "Even in major metropolises India has no functioning ambulance service and in rural areas cars, rickshaws or even carts are used to carry the ill or injured."

This is the type of corrupt completely unregulated free-market society lacking even the most basic of support services which political libertarians and right-wingers wish for America.

Why they wish to turn the clock back to the thirteenth century is quite beyond me.

[Quantess]

1. "Contaminated with pesiticides"

A suggestion, is that you include that part in the OP. I think that part is crucial.

[panzerfaust]

4. Thanks. Had meant to include that.

[Quantess]

8. Thanks! I clicked on the link, because I was puzzled how lentils & rice could be so toxic.

That is just awful.

[Blue_Tires]

6. it's a very, very poor region

A woman on the BBC this morning said the food was stored in empty pesticide containers(!) before being served...

Jesus H. Christ that shit ain't tupperware...No wonder the headmaster is fleeing for his life right now...

[Stuart G]

2. very very sad...nt..K and R

[dembotoz]

3. and i thought my school lunch was bad....

of all the countries I ever wanted to visit or move to--India never made the list

[BlueJazz]

12. I've been to India. Spent 4 weeks touring the country. I plan on going back if...

..someone gives me a Trillion dollars.

[mopinko]

18. me too.

only sorry i didn't get to take my spoiled kids with me.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

20. i am sure india is devastated without your presence. nt

[loli phabay]

26. india is a great place, the smells are different and you get used to the flies in the cities

Great people and great food as well.

[djean111]

5. "Why they wish to turn the clock back to the thirteenth century is quite beyond me."

Are you kidding? That is their wet dream.
Yeah - the pesticides. THAT's the important thing in this article, not the lack of medical transportation.

[Crowman1979]

7. I've heard numerous news stories about the overuse of pesticides by farmers in India.

Many are never given proper instructions on how to use them properly. Plus, government regulations are lax as well. Which has also lead to an increasing rate of illness and cancers of the farmers as well.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

21. most farmers in india are illiterate, so if you tell them something is good for crops

what they understand is that they more of the something the better it is.

illiteracy is a tragedy that spawns many many other tragedies

[Berlum]

9. Pesticides suspected...

... poison...

[Locrian]

10. no silly....

>>>fed rice and lentils at lunch at the government primary school in a small village in the poverty-stricken state of Bihar on Tuesday.


See! It's the GOVERNMENT RUN school. That's the problem, not the chemicals or lack of (lazy) transportation. If they would have privatized the schools and let the good corporations run things this NEVER would have happened.

[panzerfaust]

11. Duh! Why did I not see this obvious truth?

[Locrian]

16. i swear...

I know people who would say that it was the gov fault - without the sarcasm....

[Laelth]

13. Tragic. Free-market capitalism at its best. k&r for exposure. n/t

-Laelth

[Martak Sarno]

14. "Why they wish to turn the clock back to the thirteenth century is quite beyond me."

Read Dan Brown's newest book "Inferno."
Don't want to spoil it for anyone but it asks some interesting questions.
Then think about what may be going on at a level we're not supposed to be aware of.
Just a thought.

[ctsnowman]

15. Odd

that the article felt the need to point out they were free. Rec.

[get the red out]

27. The last line in the article shows me why

The government, led by the Congress party, is pushing for a massive expansion of the country's food subsidy programme with a new Right to Food Bill.

"Right to food", can't have that because it obviously kills children!

Also, if children need "free" lunch, that diminishes their value, so it really doesn't seem like as much of a loss, just some "undesirables" going away......

[mountain grammy]

17. A right wing utopia. Are you paying attention, America?

[telclaven]

19. Heart bleeds for the the families

Do have to take one exception though.

"This is the type of corrupt completely unregulated free-market society lacking even the most basic of support services which political libertarians and right-wingers wish for America."

As anyone who has ever visited or worked in India can confirm, they don't lack for regulations.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

22. that's true. my best guess is that this was some hybrid between corruption and a lack of education

[telclaven]

23. I'm thinking Black Market myself

Someone in position of authority sold the goods, substituded with whatever was handy. Pocket cash and get out of Dodge.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

24. yup. also this is the poorest and most violently corrupt state in india

and yeah, i agree with your hypothesis

[panzerfaust]

40. Head-Teacher's husband, a grocer, was the source of the food

Police are searching for the headteacher, accused of forcing the children to eat even after they complained of a strange taste, and her husband, owner of the grocery store where the ingredients were sourced. Both appear to have fled ...

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/jul/18/india-headteachers-taste-school-lunches

[telclaven]

41. Fleeing mob justice, no doubt

Hope they get caught by authorities though.

[panzerfaust]

28. Regulations, like constitutions, mean nothing, if they are not acted upon.

Globally, 27% people say they paid bribe when accessing public services and institutions in the last 12 months.

In India however, the number of people who did the same was 54% - over 1 in two citizens.

Political parties have been found to be the most corrupt institution in India with a corruption rate as high as 4.4 on a scale of 5 (1 being least corrupt rate and 5 being highest).

The highest amount of bribe however was collected by the police - 62% followed by to those involved in registry and permit (61%), educational institutions (48%), land services (38%). India's judiciary has also been found guilty - 36% involved in bribes.

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-07-09/india/40468760_1_global-corruption-transparency-international-huguette-labelle

Such corruption and evasion of regulations is not news to anyone who follows events in India.

Ask the Indian social activist Anna Hazare about how effective regulations are when the entire government is corrupt. If regulations are not enforced, which, if you pay a bribe they will not be, then there are regulations only for the poor, and not for the rich. In short, no regulations - or, if you prefer, no meaningful regulations for those willing and able to pay. Not unlike our own country in that respect, just more widespread and open.

[panzerfaust]

25. Update from IHT/NYT

School meal programs in India, like many government programs, are rife with fraud. Corruption has long been endemic in Bihar, one of India’s poorest states. ...

After seeing the children get sick, the school’s teachers and administrators fled the school, according to Dr. Shambhu Nath Singh, the deputy superintendent of the government hospital in Bihar’s Saran District. Parents took the children to the hospital. Seven were dead on arrival and seven others died soon after, Dr. Singh said...

Many are involved in managing the food programs, including teachers, village elders and state officials, he said.

“All these people look for easy money and there is very little scope of making money without compromising the quality and quantity ...”

http://india.blogs.nytimes.com/2013/07/17/21-children-die-from-poisoned-lunches-at-indian-school/?hpw

Apparently it was an organophosphate.

These chemicals were discovered by the German chemical company IG Farben in the 1930's and developed by the NAZIs as nerve-gases. There are conflicting reports of whether or not the Germans tested these gases on Jews and other "undesirables." In any event, they did not routinely use these agents in the extermination camps preferring the much cheaper (and safer to handle) Zyklon-B - a mixture of hydrogen cyanide and prussic acid, also manufactured by IG Farben.

After the war IG Farben was broken up into some of its constituent companies - e.g. BASF, Bayer, Hoechst and Agfa - many of which continue as international corporations today.

Looking at the image from the hospital, it is doubtful to me that the hospital had the resources to effectively treat even a single case of such poisoning - much less the number which presented.

[cosmicone]

31. Acute organophosphorous poisoning requires no special technology to treat.

It is treated with IV atropine which is readily available in most clinics, doctors' offices and hospitals around the world.

This is most probably due to some contractor and corrupt teachers pocketing the money for fresh food and replacing it with leftover food from another event like a wedding -- obtained free or at negligible cost and stored unsafely.

[muriel_volestrangler]

42. India school lunch deaths: high pesticide levels found

High levels of agricultural insecticide have been found in samples taken from tainted food blamed for the deaths of 23 schoolchildren in north-eastern India.

Forty-seven were taken ill after eating a free meal of rice and soya beans at a school in Bihar state on Tuesday.

Police said "very toxic" levels of the pesticide monocrotophos had been detected by scientific tests.

Vegetable oil used to prepare the food was revealed to be highly contaminated.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-23390972

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monocrotophos

[GliderGuider]

29. China and India have similar problems like this.

It's one of the prices of playing "catch-up-at-all-costs economics".

[cosmicone]

30. I doubt pesticides sprayed on rice and wheat caused this.

It is probably a case of Staphylococcus aureus toxin. The toxin is heat-stable and reheating leftovers does not eliminate it. Processed rice loses its outer shell which has the pesticides on it. The inner white grain is minimally if at all exposed to pesticides.

Pesticides are organophosphorous compounds and it takes a lot to kill a child with them unless someone used excessive amounts of them.

Pesticides are being blamed for someone's negligence or using leftover food from another event, stored without refrigeration.

[valerief]

32. 13th century = slaves = more money for the king and his court

[Dreamer Tatum]

33. "corrupt completely unregulated free-market society"

Got any evidence to back any of that up? Because it seems like the area is simply poor.

[Quantess]

34. Those don't go hand in hand?

"Simply poor" is a fairly naive construct.

[Dreamer Tatum]

36. So is calling a place "right wing" with no evidence. nt

[Quantess]

37. Okay, now I found it in the OP.

Last edited Wed Jul 17, 2013, 07:07 PM - Edit history (1)

This is the type of corrupt completely unregulated free-market society lacking even the most basic of support services which political libertarians and right-wingers wish for America.

Of course that's overly simplistic. Most RWers would not wish this on anyone if they were aware of the consequences of unbridled, unregulated capitalism. That's all that's going on here, when you boil it down to the basics. It's all about greed and colonialism and exploitation of less developed nations.

Edit to add: is colonialism really such a strange topic for people who live in the USA and who have not learned western european history?

[DeSwiss]

35. K&R

Satan's Molecule

[Tx4obama]

38. Kick n/t

[MisterP]

39. naw: in the 13th c. they HAD hospitals

think Brazil in the 17th c.: cheaper to just replace a laborer if they die than waste money treating them...