When a middle-aged lady enters the room with a dekchi (a serving pot), the toddlers begin cheering, their eyes wide and bright. The lady serves rice-gruel to the tots, who look hungry. In presence of their teachers, they do not jostle for the food, but their restrained desperation is easily noticeable. [break]
"I want more," says one of the tots, implying he is hungrier than others. The lady does not get angry. She just smiles. The tots, too, laugh out loud. "They are very innocent," says the lady. "It´s fun to feed them." She says she feels pleased when the tots tell her that the food is delicious.
Half an hour later, the lady enters into another room, where there are slightly older children desperately waiting for the food. As in the previous class, the lady serves rice-gruel to them. A little girl, probably the oldest of the lot, helps the lady serve the food. When the food is served to all the children, the girl also takes a plate of rice gruel, sits in the corner and begins eating.
The lady´s name is Tara Rai. A 43-year-old mother of three from Dhankuta, Rai has been cooking mid-day meal for the children for the last two years. "When I feed them, I feel like feeding my own kids," she says.
The school where Rai has been cooking mid-day meal for students of nursery, kindergarten and grade one is not in a far-flung village. It is indeed located right in the capital, where children are not considered as underprivileged as those in Karnali. But, a couple of government schools have started providing mid-day meal to students in Kathmandu as well.
Mahankal Janjagrit Higher Secondary School in Golfutar of Kathmandu is probably the first government school in the capital to launch mid-day meal program. Last year, 38 students of nursery and kindergarten class were fed mid-day meal, usually rice-gruel and sometimes rice-pudding. This year, as many as 62 students -- 32 from nursery-kindergarten level and 30 from grade one -- are being fed mid-day meal.
"After we launched the mid-day meal program, students have started attending the classes regularly," says Padam Thapa Magar, higher secondary level coordinator of the school. "Earlier, they did not come to the school every day. Some even dropped out in the middle."
In the first year, the school had received a financial assistance of Rs 40,000 from two NGOs and a social activist. This year, the Mahankal VDC office provided Rs 84,000 for the program. "The program is not too costly, either. We just need Rs 5-7 per student every day," says Indra Prasad Gautam, assistant higher secondary level coordinator of the school. "But, the impact of the program is great."
What makes the impact of the program greater is the background of students. As in most government schools in the Kathmandu Valley, students of this school are very poor. Most of their parents work as manual laborers. Some students are domestic helps, too.
"Parents of most of our students find it very difficult to manage even two square meals a day," says Magar. "They cannot send Tiffin-boxes with their children. Therefore, if we do not provide mid-day meal to little students, they will probably go hungry all day. They cannot learn with a hungry stomach."
What motivated Magar and other teachers to start mid-day meal program is rather interesting. Two years ago, Magar saw a tot rummaging through a heap of trashes. The boy picked up a wrapper of instant noodles, folded it inside out and started licking it. When asked, he said he was too hungry. He had not eaten enough at home in the morning. He did not have money to buy food from the school canteen, either.
"The incident deeply upset me," said Magar. "Later, I learnt that other teachers had also witnessed such deeply moving scenes. It was when we decided to seek some fund to provide mid-day meal to students."
Inspired by Mahankal Janjagrit Higher Secondary School, other few government schools are also planning to launch mid-day meal programs. Teachers from Panchakanya Lower Secondary School of Chundevi and Tilingatar Higher Secondary School of Dhapashi have recently visited Mahankal Janjagrit School to learn how the toddlers are fed with nutritious mid-day meal.
"The government has a program to provide mid-day meal to students in rural villages, but the program does not include poor students studying in government schools in Kathmandu," says Magar. "But some students in government schools of Kathmandu are more vulnerable. They work in other people´s houses, do not get to eat enough and are prone to malnourishment."
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