00:05There is a new word in Bengals politics this week, democracy, dim, egg, or rather the egg
00:10that is about to vanish from a few lakh children's lunch plates in Kolkata.
00:14So before we throw any eggs, let's actually crack this open.
00:18In schools under the Kolkata Municipal Corporation, the job of cooking midday meals is being handed
00:23as a pilot to ISKCON, the Krishna Consciousness Organization, through its Annamitra Foundation.
00:28The material cost per child goes up from about Rs. 6 to Rs. 10.
00:37And the menu changes. Eggs out. Paneer, rajma, soya pulses in.
00:43Currently a Bengal student gets an egg once a week. Rice, dal, and aloo the other days.
00:47Under the new plan, a fully vegetarian plate. That's the what.
00:51Now the part everyone is skipping straight past. Why ISKCON?
00:54This is a centralized kitchen model, one professional kitchen cooking for thousands,
00:58and it's been running across India for 20 years.
01:01ISKCON currently serves midday meals to around 12 lakh students.
01:04The official pitch is hygiene, consistency, scale.
01:07But some interesting trivia here.
01:08A TMC minister hired this same ISKCON to run North Kolkata school meals 15 years ago.
01:14So this vendor is not new to Bengal, and it is not a BJP invention.
01:23But the problem for most people is that the egg will go missing.
01:27The egg is the cheapest complete protein a state can buy.
01:30It's the item that pulls children into school.
01:33For a poor child, it may be the one solid thing they eat all day.
01:36The union government's own animal husbandry department calls it high-value protein tense with what a growing body needs.
01:43Now many educators also second this.
01:45They say children love eggs, and on the days the egg is on the menu, attendance is higher.
01:50So when the opposition says you are stripping nutrition and imposing vegetarianism, it does feel fair, doesn't it?
01:56But here's a fact that should cool this entire room.
01:59You do not have to lose the egg to gain the kitchen.
02:01Proof, Urissa.
02:03Same ISKCON, same vegetarian base.
02:05But there, the state buys and boils the eggs itself and serves them alongside.
02:10So Bengal's egg did not have to die for ISKCON to cook.
02:13Taking it off was a choice, not a constraint.
02:15That's the thing to actually watch.
02:17Not veg versus non-veg, but this.
02:19Should anyone's dietary faith, anyone's, set the default plate for every child in a public school?
02:24Tell me what you think, and follow us on Instagram.
02:27I'm Anisha Dikari.
02:28First things fast.
02:31First things fast.
02:31First things fast.
02:32First things fast.
02:33First things fast.
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