Republic Day is meant to teach children dignity, equality, and pride in the Constitution. But in Madhya Pradesh's Maihar district, that lesson was delivered on torn notebook pages. A disturbing video from Bhatgawan village has gone viral, showing government schoolchildren being served the special Republic Day mid-day meal not on plates, but on scraps of paper pages torn from old notebooks and books.
January 26 was marked with a special mid-day meal of puri and halwa, as per government instructions. The children were made to sit on the ground, but instead of plates or even leaf platters, ink-stained, dirty paper sheets were spread before them, and food was served directly on them. Children were forced to eat hot food from pages meant for writing and pages that once carried ink, dust, and grime.
What makes the incident more serious is that funds had already been released for purchasing plates according to student strength. Yet, on Republic Day, not a single plate was seen.
Experts warn that serving food on printed or written paper is dangerous to health. Printing ink contains lead and other harmful chemicals that can leach into hot food, especially halwa, increasing the risk of serious illnesses in children.
After the video surfaced, parents and villagers expressed anger and shame, questioning how such an incident could occur under the watch of the education department.
Reacting to the incident, senior official Vishnu Tripathi said the viral video has come to his notice and that he has directed the Block Resource Coordinator (BRC) to visit the school and conduct an inquiry. He assured that strict action will be taken against those responsible based on the investigation report.
What makes the Maihar incident even more troubling is a serious gap in the official data itself. Under the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) scheme, daily mid-day meal data is supposed to be reported by schools across the country. According to PM POSHAN records for January 26, out of 88,281 schools in Madhya Pradesh, only 66,315 schools, about 75.12%, submitted data. A staggering 21,966 schools did not report any data at all.
The data that was submitted claims that 36,28,061 meals were served across the state that day. But the most alarming detail lies elsewhere. Despite Madhya Pradesh now having 55 districts, PM POSHAN data continues to reflect figures from only 52 districts. Maihar district does not even feature in the official records.
In other words, on the very day children in Maihar were eating food off torn notebook pages, the system did not even acknowledge the district's existence in its data.
The absence raises uncomfortable questions not just about monitoring failures, but about how many such violations go unreported simply because they never enter the data at all.
Last year, a strikingly similar lapse was reported from Hullpur village in the Vijaypur block of Sheopur district, exposing deep cracks in the implementation of the government's mid-day meal scheme.
A viral video from Hullpur showed young children eating mid-day meal on torn pieces of old notebook paper, spread directly on the ground. The visuals were heartbreaking rows of children sitting cross-legged on a dusty floor, holding rotis in their hands as food was poured onto scraps of paper. Teachers, who were expected to ensure dignity and hygiene, were seen standing nearby as silent onlookers.
The ruling BJP had promised to improve the quality of mid-day meals in its 2023 Assembly election manifesto. Departments such as Panchayat, Women and Child Development, and School Education had even discussed proposals to provide balanced nutrition and tetra-packed milk along with meals.
Yet, the images from Hullpur and now Maihar stand in sharp contrast to those promises, revealing a harsh reality for many children, even the dignity of a clean plate remains a distant dream.
