No lessons learnt? Mid-day meal cooked on septic tank next to toilet

At a government school at Vyasarpadi in Chennai, NDTV saw food being cooked next to student toilets, on top of a septic tank lid. Shockingly, this meal is part of the state's much-praised noon meal scheme for schools.

The Bihar school deaths still on their mind, many students and teachers are worried, but often it's not a choice for children from poorer families.

A member of the faculty told NDTV: "These are poor children whose parents are mostly labourers. Without the noon meal scheme they would have to go hungry".

India's free mid-day meal scheme, the largest free food programme in the world catering to around 120 million schoolchildren across the country, was introduced as an incentive for children to go to school.

On Thursday, 170 children fell ill after lunch at a school in Neyveli, in Tamilnadu's Cuddalore district.