Jharkhand's RTF activists urge gov't to fulfil promise of providing eggs in schools, Angarwari centres

Right to Food (RTF) campaign activists, reminding the Hemant Soren Government of its promise of providing five eggs per week in school and six eggs in Anganwari centres, have demanded that the state government fulfil the repeated promises made to the people of Jharkhand. In an all-women press conference of RTF activists in Ranchi, they claimed that instead of five eggs, children are not getting two eggs in a week in most of the schools, while the children below six years at Anganwari centres are not getting eggs even once a week, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

RTF activists also reminded the government of its promise of increasing the pension from Rs 1,000 to Rs 2,500 under the social security scheme, but even after three years, it still remains unfulfilled. Similarly, they also raised their concern over the irregular supply of ration to the green ration card holders. "We demand the state government to fulfil the promise made to the people of Jharkhand looking at the fact that there are more than 60 per cent of women here are anaemic while 67.7 per cent of children in this state are suffering from anaemia. Moreover, according to the National Family Health Survey, 39.4 per cent of children of the state are malnourished," said Binni belonging to Ekal Nari Saskhakti Sangathan. 

"Even in Ranchi schools, eggs are not being provided to the children as promised by Hemant Soren, whereas, in Anganwari centres eggs are not being provided at all," she added. Raising the issue of price rise, the RTF activists also said that it is not possible for the elderly and widows to sustain themselves with the social security pension of Rs 1,000, and hence, it should be revised at least up to Rs 3,000, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. 

Meeting the Finance Minister 

Interestingly, when a delegation of the RTF campaign met state Finance Minister Rameshwar Oraon on January 9, he admitted that his government is quite weak in the implementation of programmes, further adding that, due to insignificant reasons, these promises were not being fulfilled by the government. "The finance minister agreed to our concern that promises made by the state government must be fulfilled at the earliest, but at the same time, he explained how due to some trivial reasons these promised are not being fulfilled," said a research scholar  Paran Amitava, who is associated with social economist Jean Dreze. 

"You will be shocked to hear that the state government has not been able to find a supplier to supply eggs in schools during these years in office," she added. RTF campaign also demanded a regular supply of rice for green ration card holders as the Jharkhand government has taken the appreciable step of expanding the ambit of the Public Distribution System beyond the coverage mandated by the National Food Security Act by issuing "green" ration cards. However, for the past several months, the rice supply has been very irregular under this category of ration cards. They demanded that the government resolve the issue immediately, as stated in a report by The New Indian Express.