By Manuwant Choudhary
November 14: On the eve of Nehru's birthday five schoolchildren in a Jharkhand school die after being forced to consume milk with phenyl in it.
The milk smelt foul and the children initially protested but the school teacher drank a glassful himself and forced the children to drink the milk.
As a journalist I have covered mid-day meal at schools and I can say that this scheme doesn't work.
At some places the food is allotted to schools but the school does not even exist on the ground.
And the schools who do get the grains supplied by the Food Corporation of India, the rice is full of worms!
Yes, today is Childrens Day and our children are being reminded on loudspeakers that Uncle Nehru loved you.
The Times of India has several pages of government advertisements worth crores, but one story on the inside pages caught my attention.
According to it if you earn Rs.14 a day you are not poor according to the Indian governments definition of the poor!
Now we know what the Congress Party meant by their slogan `Garibi Hatao' (Remove Poverty!)
Even in poor Bihar an ordinary illeterate woman earns Rs. 30 per day, and since one cannot find labour..it means no one is poor in Bihar or India.
A few years ago a woman who worked at my dairy died and left behind two daughters.
In India the practice is to name children after gods and goddesses like Laxmi or Saraswati or sometimes on flowers like Champa....but she had named her two daughters Rajdhani and America.
Both Rajdhani and America are now orphans.
They don't go to school.
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