Posted on 07/11/2015 5:29:15 PM PDT by Steelfish
July 9, 2015 Starving Indian Kids Denied Free Eggs Over Religion
MADKHEDA, India -- Clutching battered metal plates, the children waited patiently in a remote central Indian village for the two small flat pieces of bread and scoop of boiled potato curry that would be their only full meal that day.
They are among the 120 million malnourished children across India who depend on a government-run program serving lunch five days a week.
Still, the modest menus are clearly not enough to make up for the calories and nutrition that poverty has denied. All 35 or so children gathered on the dirt floor of their preschool in Madkheda, a village in the state of Madhya Pradesh, show the telltale signs of malnutrition - coarse hair lightened to a sandy brown for lack of nutrients, limbs stick thin, and bellies swollen from chronic hunger.
More than half the children in Madhya Pradesh state, with a population of nearly 77 million, are underweight and malnourished.
So last month, it was suggested that eggs - a key source of protein - be added to the lunch program. But that idea was rejected by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, the state's top elected official, a member of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party and a strict vegetarian. He suggested that milk and bananas be given to children instead.
"As long I am the chief minister of Madhya Pradesh, eggs will not be introduced," Chouhan declared in the state capital, Bhopal. "The human body is meant to consume vegetarian food, which has everything the human body requires."
(Excerpt) Read more at cbsnews.com ...
I don’t have a problem with this. People have their religious beliefs and this is what they choose to do.
Ask the hungry kids what they believe.
And he is willing to starve children to satisfy HIS religious beliefs!
And, in Britain, school children are being denied pork products, so as not to offend Britain’s new rulers, apparently.
All adults make decisions for their children and people who make religious decisions have a right to do this, just like circumcision, fasting at Lent, fasting for Ramadan, eating no meat, putting rings through noses, stretching their necks, putting plates in their lips, denying medical care, refusing transfusions...etc
think of children as precious. And so do I. But not long ago in our own culture it was thought better to let a child die young than have sinned. For eternal life meant more than present life.
We think of children as precious. And so do I. But not everyone does. Not long ago in our own culture it was thought better to let a child die young than have sinned. For eternal life meant more than present life.
Hinduism has 100s of different schools of thought, only some of them are vegetarian. We also do not know if all these kinds are Hindu as well or even subscribe to the same form of Hinduism.
Look, the era of colonialism is over. Who are we to judge someone’s culture? This article is ridiculous.
You have kids on the verge of starvation. They’re getting one skimpy meal a day. Great time to start playing games based on your personal choices.
Give the kids the eggs, and STHU.
What an absolute jerk.
Stop breeding beyond your means. Eat food, not ignorance.
These kids are part of the Hinduism that is feeding them.
If it bothers someone there so much, they can step up.
I hope and pray that the Wookie doesn’t get any ideals from this.
Whole milk & bananas are a lot better than nothing. Grind up some peanuts for peanut butter & serve it with the bananas. (I can attest to the fact that it fattens quite well.) I don’t reckon they should have any religious beliefs against peanuts.
Surrounded by cows and chickens they would starve.
That is sad.
So you have no problem with a government official deciding what people will eat.... because that was what this story is about.
Scratch that; peanut allergies abound this day & age. (Never heard of it when I was a kid.)
Explain incisors and bi-cuspids. If we're to only eat vegetables, why don't our mouths come only with molars?
It is sad, but that is who they are. Some cultures are more effective than others.
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