Bananas Over Eggs: 568 Karnataka Schools Face Action For Flouting Midday Meal Norms

News18

08-07-2025

Last Updated:
Several schools were found replacing eggs with bananas on specific days like Mondays and Saturdays.
The banana vs egg controversy is back in focus in Karnataka. The School Education and Literacy Department has issued notices to 568 government schools across the state for violating midday meal norms by serving bananas instead of eggs without proper consent or approval.
Several schools were found replacing eggs with bananas on specific days like Mondays and Saturdays, or alternating between the two across the week, without informing parents or obtaining clearance from the department. Some were serving eggs only two or three days a week.
The state believes that lapses in nutritional delivery could severely hamper the well-being of students and undermine efforts to tackle malnutrition through the midday meal scheme.
A recent inspection conducted by the Azim Premji Foundation which has signed a partnership with the Karnataka government as part of three-year nutrition programme across 762 schools revealed that these schools were flouting norms.
Under the existing state order, eggs are to be served six days a week to students from Class 1 to 10. Bananas are to be given only to those who have opted out of eggs on religious or personal grounds based on the child's and parental consent.
The notice to the erring schools stated, 'In some schools, the SDMC has held meetings and decided to distribute eggs only on selected days and bananas on the rest.
Even after obtaining parental consent for eggs, some schools unilaterally chose to replace them with bananas.
'It has been observed that the SDMC has ignored the instructions of the department by taking such actions," said the notice.
The department has warned of disciplinary action and taken serious note of supervisory failures. It warned that principals and supervisory officials at the cluster, taluk, and district levels who failed to detect or correct these violations would be held accountable.
'This amounts to dereliction of duty and is a neglect of the objectives of the nutrition programme," the notice said.
'The SDMC is not allowed to take such decisions on its own initiative," the circular stated.
The Karnataka government had earlier stopped distributing peanut chikkis as an alternative to eggs after they were found to contain high levels of unsaturated fats and sugars.
The department has directed all Deputy Directors (Administration) to take strict steps to ensure compliance in their respective districts and submit a detailed report to the State Office by July 15, 2025.
A partnership was signed with the Azim Premji Foundation last year for a Rs 1,500 crore, three-year nutrition programme. For 2025 alone, Rs 755.62 crore has been allocated — Rs 501.68 crore from the Foundation, and Rs 253.94 crore from the state government — specifically for providing eggs and bananas as supplementary nutrition to students from pre-primary to Class 10.
First Published:
July 08, 2025, 16:10 IST