6 lakh SC & ST boarders of Odisha-run hostels to get eggs four days/week

BHUBANESWAR: The government in the budget presented on Friday proposed to provide eggs four days a week and chicken or fish once a week to around 6 lakh scheduled tribe (ST) and scheduled caste (SC) boarders residing in more than 5,500 state-run hostels.
Keeping the holistic development of tribal students in mind, an additional amount of Rs 1,000 per child per annum has been proposed and this will augment in providing proper nutrition to nearly 6 lakh ST and SC boarders residing in more than 5,500 hostels. “The additional amount will be exclusively spent on nutrition by way of providing eggs four days in a week and chicken/fish one day a week,” finance minister Niranjan Pujari said in his budget speech in the assembly on Friday.
In the current menu, inmates in SC and ST hostels are served rice, cereal, vegetables, soya chunks, and egg and chicken/fish (once a week). Parents of children residing in state-run hostels for ST and SC students welcomed the decision and said it will help in checking dropout rates and meeting the nutrition needs of the children.
“Most of the days children are served rice, dalma (lentils cooked with vegetables) or soyabean curry, eggs once a week, which is better than what we eat at home. Now if children will get eggs four days a week, then it will help to ensure they do not dropout,” said Chumki Jani, a 30-year-old Kutia Kondh woman from Kandhamal, who is in the city to participate in the ongoing Adivasi Mela. She said now many tribal families will send their girls to school for nutritional food.
Besides, the government also announced an increase in pre-matric scholarship for the ST & SC day scholars to Rs 500 per annum for both girls and boys studying in classes VI to VIII which will complement parents’ expenditure on their children’s education. Apart from the post-matric scholarship, the government will provide an additional top-up amount of Rs 1,000 and Rs 500 annually towards maintenance allowance to hostellers and day scholars respectively.
However, educationists feel this year’s budget was more populist keeping the 2024 Lok Sabha and assembly elections in minda. “The state needs to invest in education in such as way so that the sector improves holistically, said Anil Pradhan, convener, Odisha RTE Forum.