Kerala may have hogged the headlines over its love for beef. But the latest circular issued by the Directorate of Public Instruction (DPI), with detailed instructions regarding the menus in all government schools, is a vegetarian's delight—replete with traditional dishes like sambar, avial, erissery and pulissery.
If Monday is all about sambar and daal fry, avial and rasam dominate Tuesday. It is followed by erissery, kaalan, pachadi, kichadi and so on.
"We created the menu in such a way that a variety of food is made available every day," an official with the DPI told THE WEEK. According to him, the menu includes items that every school has to provide compulsorily. According to him, the new menu card was well received.
But not all are happy.
There are some who believe that there is more to the menu than meets the eye. According to them, there are "fascists hands" behind the new vegetarian menu, which is trying to impose vegetarianism on the Malayalee, who love their beef and fish. According to columnist Emmar Kinalur, the notification represents the "impurity attributed to non-veg food" by those in power.
Others feel the left government is trying to appease BJP. The matter is being widely discussed in social media.
"Why are non-vegetarian items not available in the menu issued by the government? Is it because they are not nutritious enough? Or is it because vegetarian food is good for the intellect?'' he asks.
Some feel the timing of the notification makes it suspicious. At a time when people are being attacked and even killed for eating meat, such a circular sends out a wrong message, they argue.
"When food has become a political issue and many are being killed over their choices, these kind of circulars have to be questioned. There is a hidden agenda behind such instructions, which says that vegetarianism is 'purer' than non-vegetarianism,'' said Shaji Sundar, an education activist.
But government officials insist that there was no such "hidden agenda".
"There have been many complaints regarding menu, as different schools follow different menus. That is why we felt that there should be some uniformity regarding what the kids eat,'' said the official.
When asked why no non-vegetarian dishes were included, the official said that the latter would be costlier and the expenditure would overshoot the budget.
The DPI provides Rs 7 per student, every day, apart from the allocation of rice.
"Will it be possible to provide meat and fish every day with this amount?" he asked.
He pointed out that the DPI provided for eggs (once a week) and milk (twice a day) apart from items in the menu.
According to him, the controversy was unnecessary. "There is no ban or restriction on non-vegetarian items. Any school which wants to provide such items outside the menu can do so. But our only condition is that the items prescribed in the official menu should also be there," he said.
He also said that it was the fear of food infection that prevented the government from adding non-vegetarian dishes to the menu.
"But those who wish to provide non-vegetarian food to school children are absolutely free to do so. They are more than welcome," he added.
