Karnataka Govt Schools To Offer Eggs Six Days A Week For Students

The Azim Premji Foundation is set to provide a Rs 1,500-crore grant over three years to supply boiled eggs to students in government and aided schools six days a week, up from the current two days, Deccan Herald reported.

Children in these schools will soon benefit from the expanded egg distribution, thanks to this significant financial support from billionaire Azim Premji's philanthropic arm. A formal agreement with the Azim Premji Foundation is expected to be signed on Saturday, a source told the daily.

Due to a shortage of funds, the department had been unable to implement the proposal to supply boiled eggs six days a week, which had been pending for several months. An official stated, "With major financial assistance from the Azim Premji Foundation, we will be able to provide eggs for six days."

The specifics of purchasing and supplying the eggs, as well as the start date for the new distribution schedule, are yet to be determined. Currently, school development and monitoring committees (SDMCs) are responsible for local procurement of eggs for the existing two-day supply.

"Procurement for the supply of eggs two days a week along with mid-day meals has been done at the SDMC level. For the other four days in the week, we need to discuss with the organization and decide," the official said. Initially, boiled eggs were provided to students from classes 1 to 8 for their nutritional value.

Stakeholders noted that children in classes 9 and 10 often have lunch with younger students. They argued that excluding these older students from the egg distribution amounted to discrimination. When this was brought to Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's attention, he agreed to extend the project to include students in classes 9 and 10.

Currently, the department supplies eggs twice a week to around 60 lakh children, amounting to 1.2 crore eggs. However, approximately 30 percent of students opt for alternatives like groundnut chikki or bananas instead of eggs, the report added.