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Jharkhand school headmaster pulls cart to deliver midday meal at students’ doorsteps in lockdown
A headmaster of a remote village school in Dumka has delivered MDM dry ration and cash to 184 students’ doorstep so that no children suffer during the lockdown.
It’s around 7 am on Saturday. Hemant Kumar Sah, 43, headmaster of upgraded middle school, Majhdiha in Dumka’s Ramgarh block, took a thela (cart) loaded with packets of dry ration for mid-day meal (MDM) and roamed around villages surrounding the school to deliver the ration at students’ doorsteps so that they do not suffer in the phase of lockdown.
Sah has taken the initiative as his duty for rural children during the crisis when most of the village farmers, daily wagers and migrant labourers are facing the worst time.
State human resource department (HRD) recently issued an order asking schools to ensure that students should not be deprived of the benefit of mid-day meal during the lockdown period. The rice prescribed under MDM manual should be delivered at doorsteps of the students.
Defying the order, many government schools called the students to the school campus to receive the MDM ration where violation of social distancing was also found. A section of teachers had raised question over government’s order terming it a difficult job when lockdown is in place and they are lacking safety gears.
But, Sah has been distributing MDM ration along with cash amount against egg/ fruit and cooking cost to every student for last four days, despite he is having five para-teachers in the school, located around 50-km away from Dumka township.
He leaves his school with the cart around 7 am in the morning and return to school by 4 pm after delivering the food items at the doorstep of every student. “The para-teachers also help me in the job,” he said.
There are 259 students enrolled with the school from class-1 to class-8. “However, I have received the allotment of MDM rice and cash only for 170 students. I was told that the government has sanctioned ration for only 65% students in school,” he said.
Sah found it tough to distribute the MDM only among 170 students, while the number of students is 259. “I picked the students as per their attendance. Despite this, a number of students rose to 184. Then, I decided to pay the ration for 14 more students from my own pocket so that no student feel injustice,” Sah said.
He said each student from class-1 to class-5 was given two kilograms of rice and cash of ₹113.6 against egg/fruit and cooking cost of MDM for 20 days including 12 days of March and eight days of April. Similarly, students of class-5 to class-7 received three kilograms of rice and ₹158.20 cash against egg/fruit and cooking cost.
“Since class-8 students have given their final examinations, they were entitled to ration of only 12 days in March. They were given 1.8 kilograms of rice and ₹92.52 cash at their doorstep,” he said.
