India probes reports of dead snake in school lunch poisoning kids

Reports that a dead snake in a public school lunch caused dozens of children to fall ill are being investigated by authorities in India.

More than 100 students had became sick in the northeastern town of Mokama after eating the meal last week, the country’s National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) said in a statement Thursday.

A school cook reportedly served the food to about 500 children after removing a dead snake from it, the commission said, citing reports from local media.

The NHRC has demanded local police provide a “detailed” report of the incident within two weeks, which is expected to include the health status of the affected children, the statement added.

If the reports are true, the case will raise a “serious issue of violation of the human rights of the students,” the commission said, adding that villagers angered by the reports, had blocked a road in protest.

While India has achieved food sufficiency in grain production and steady economic growth, the country still accounts for a quarter of the world’s hungry people and is home to over 190 million undernourished people, according to the United Nations.

In a bid to combat hunger, India rolled out a cooked Mid Day Meal Scheme in 2001 which provided a free lunch for children in public schools for at least 200 days a year, according to the country’s Ministry of Education.

The scheme is the world’s largest school food program, covering over 113 million children between the ages of 6-10, according to some estimates.

Food safety complaints related to school meals are not uncommon in India. In 2013, at least 23 children were killed by a free school lunch contaminated with concentrated pesticide. The students fell ill within minutes of eating a meal of rice and potato curry, vomiting and convulsing with stomach cramps.