"Contaminated lunches kill 22 children in India" by Gardiner Harris and Hari Kumar | New York Times, July 18, 2013
NEW DELHI — The children complained that the free lunch at their state school — rice, beans, potato curry, and soy balls — tasted odd. The cook gave it a taste, too. Within half an hour they all began to suffer severe stomach pains followed by vomiting and diarrhea, and within hours at least 22 of the children were dead and dozens of others remained hospitalized, said officials in the northeastern state of Bihar.
By nightfall Wednesday, as angry protests broke out, officials said they believed they had found the cause: cooking oil stored in a container formerly used for insecticides.
School lunch programs became universal in India after a 2001 order by the country’s Supreme Court, and free meals are now served to 120 million children — by far the largest such program in the world. It has been credited with improving school attendance, sometimes substantially. With surveys suggesting that nearly half of Indian children suffer some form of malnutrition, it also serves a vital health purpose.
Thankfully, American kids have good, safe school meals.
Btw, I type this all the time but I'm glad Gandhi was cremated because he would have hurt himself rolling around his box knowing this. The man would be absolutely heart-broken at the wealth divide in India today. Rest in Peace, Great Soul.
But like so many government programs in India, it is plagued by corruption and mismanagement, and cases of tainted food are fairly routine, although usually nothing like Wednesday’s tragedy.
Not to be the sour note on all this, but this is a problem across all government programs. Corruption is out of control in this world.
While it is still not entirely clear what happened in the Dahrmasati Gandawan village in Bihar’s Saran district, some element of cronyism may have been involved.
A $hocking development!
As news of the tragedy spread, the school’s principal, who had bought the cooking oil from a store owned by her husband, disappeared and has not been seen since, officials said.
But it also laid bare the almost complete failure of the state medical system to deal effectively with the crisis. Parents recounted nightmarish tales of sickness and desperate efforts to find medical care in facilities that were rapidly overwhelmed by the sheer numbers of children affected.
But at least India leads the world in pharmaceutical production and call centers.
Akilanand Mishra, the father of Ashish Kumar Mishra, 5, said he raced to the school after a neighbor told him something was wrong there.
“I saw my son walking towards home, and I brought him back home quickly and took my bike and rushed him to the health center,” Mishra said in a telephone interview.
During the trip, Ashish started throwing up, Mishra said. They arrived at the nearby primary health center and found it mobbed with children and families. Mishra took his son to two other packed clinics before flagging down a private vehicle to take them to the district government hospital. After only a few miles, Ashish died in Mishra’s arms.
An incomprehensible feeling unless you have been through it.
“My son died around 4 p.m., and he was the second child to die,” said a weeping Mishra.
Bacterial contamination, a common problem in India, generally takes at least a day to cause serious illness. Caroline Smith DeWaal, director of food safety for the Center for Science in the Public Interest in Washington, said such episodes tend to happen in places where few things are thrown away, including containers.
“Insecticide containers need to be marked that they should never be used again for food,” she said. “These kind of incidents are rare, and they are tragic when they happen.”
And preventable (same with Clover).
By Wednesday, enraged residents of Gadgaon village began throwing rocks and sticks at government buildings and burned four police vehicles. No one was hurt, said Shashi Singh, the village head.
Mishra complained bitterly about the runaround he got from government doctors.
Maybe you should rethink and repeal Obamcare, America.
Dr. Shambhu Nath Singh, deputy superintendent of the government hospital in the Saran District, said many of the children who eventually found their way to his hospital were transferred to a hospital in the state capital of Patna, after parents complained that their children failed to improve. But he said the care he and his team delivered was top-notch....
Maybe there was nothing they could do, but just ignore all the corpses. It's "top-notch" care.
Maybe you should rethink and repeal Obamcare, America.
Dr. Shambhu Nath Singh, deputy superintendent of the government hospital in the Saran District, said many of the children who eventually found their way to his hospital were transferred to a hospital in the state capital of Patna, after parents complained that their children failed to improve. But he said the care he and his team delivered was top-notch....
Maybe there was nothing they could do, but just ignore all the corpses. It's "top-notch" care.
--more--"
Related:
"5,700 now presumed dead in June floods in India" by Biswajeet Banerjee | Associated Press, July 17, 2013
LUCKNOW, India — More than 5,700 people missing since floods devastated northern India last month are being presumed dead, even as rescue officials struggle to bring aid to affected villages, top officials said Tuesday.
Vijay Bahuguna, the chief minister of the state of Uttarakhand, said the government would give $8,350 to the families of each victim who may have perished in the floods and landslides that hit the Himalayan region in June.
That's all an Indian's life is worth? Of course, it is more than the $2500 or so the U.S. pays out to innocent missile and bomb victims in Afghanistan.
The state declared those missing for the past month presumed dead so it could compensate their families, but Bahuguna said there was hope some could still be found alive....
That's all an Indian's life is worth? Of course, it is more than the $2500 or so the U.S. pays out to innocent missile and bomb victims in Afghanistan.
The state declared those missing for the past month presumed dead so it could compensate their families, but Bahuguna said there was hope some could still be found alive....
The government had earlier put the death toll at 600 but repeatedly stressed that it would be significantly higher. The exact number of people who died may never be known, Bahuguna said....
Families receiving compensation will have to return the money if their missing relatives are found alive.
Families receiving compensation will have to return the money if their missing relatives are found alive.
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Yes, the agenda-pu$hing, fart-mi$ting, AmeriKan ma$$ media has been minimizing the floods of India because the record snowfall that made them possible contradicts the agenda-pu$hing narrative (imho).
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Official confirms pesticide as poison in school lunch in India; 23 deaths bring renewed scrutiny of food program" by Rama Lakshmi | Washington Post, July 19, 2013
NEW DELHI — Amarkant Jha Amar, the superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital in Bihar’s capital, said it appeared from postmortem reports that pesticide either was used instead of cooking oil or got mixed with the oil used to prepare the lunch....
(Blog editor can barely believe that. Good Lord!)
Although the program is widely regarded as a success, there have been many cases of tardy implementation and food poisoning. Tuesday’s horrific death toll underscored the concerns about failure to comply with standards....
There are still way too many Indians starving or malnourished.
Many government-run rural schools in India, especially in the impoverished state of Bihar, lack hygiene, infrastructure, electricity, and running water. Meals are often cooked in dank, windowless rooms hung with cobwebs and crawling with insects....
That must be what the crunch is, and what's the big deal, huh?
--more--"
"Indian forces kill 4 villagers at rally protest" by Aijaz Hussain | Associated Press, July 19, 2013
SRINAGAR, India — Government forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Thursday fatally shot four villagers and wounded 25 others who were protesting the alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book by border guards, police said.
India should leave Kasmir, for if there were a vote that is what the people of Kashmir would want.
The violence — which came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — could spark protests in the disputed Himalayan region, with separatist groups that reject India’s sovereignty over the region calling for three days of strikes and protest beginning Friday.
What an insult by Indian forces, to do this during Ramadan.
The protesters accused the Indian Border Security Force soldiers of entering a religious seminary Wednesday night looking for Kashmiri militants in Dharam, a village 140 miles south of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir.
The head of the seminary, Qari Shabir, said the border guards tore pages of several copies of the Koran after beating a school caretaker.
As thousands of villagers marched to the seminary on Thursday to protest the alleged desecration of the Korans, government forces opened fire to stop them, wounding several, Shabir said.
Thousands of people from other areas joined the protests. They resumed the march, with government forces again firing at protesters, he said.
I expect U.S. condemnation and criticism of Indian actions shortly.
--more--"
NEXT DAY UPDATES:
"Official confirms pesticide as poison in school lunch in India; 23 deaths bring renewed scrutiny of food program" by Rama Lakshmi | Washington Post, July 19, 2013
NEW DELHI — Amarkant Jha Amar, the superintendent of Patna Medical College and Hospital in Bihar’s capital, said it appeared from postmortem reports that pesticide either was used instead of cooking oil or got mixed with the oil used to prepare the lunch....
(Blog editor can barely believe that. Good Lord!)
Although the program is widely regarded as a success, there have been many cases of tardy implementation and food poisoning. Tuesday’s horrific death toll underscored the concerns about failure to comply with standards....
There are still way too many Indians starving or malnourished.
Many government-run rural schools in India, especially in the impoverished state of Bihar, lack hygiene, infrastructure, electricity, and running water. Meals are often cooked in dank, windowless rooms hung with cobwebs and crawling with insects....
That must be what the crunch is, and what's the big deal, huh?
--more--"
"Indian forces kill 4 villagers at rally protest" by Aijaz Hussain | Associated Press, July 19, 2013
SRINAGAR, India — Government forces in the Indian portion of Kashmir on Thursday fatally shot four villagers and wounded 25 others who were protesting the alleged desecration of the Muslim holy book by border guards, police said.
India should leave Kasmir, for if there were a vote that is what the people of Kashmir would want.
The violence — which came during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan — could spark protests in the disputed Himalayan region, with separatist groups that reject India’s sovereignty over the region calling for three days of strikes and protest beginning Friday.
What an insult by Indian forces, to do this during Ramadan.
The protesters accused the Indian Border Security Force soldiers of entering a religious seminary Wednesday night looking for Kashmiri militants in Dharam, a village 140 miles south of Srinagar, the main city in Indian Kashmir.
The head of the seminary, Qari Shabir, said the border guards tore pages of several copies of the Koran after beating a school caretaker.
As thousands of villagers marched to the seminary on Thursday to protest the alleged desecration of the Korans, government forces opened fire to stop them, wounding several, Shabir said.
Thousands of people from other areas joined the protests. They resumed the march, with government forces again firing at protesters, he said.
I expect U.S. condemnation and criticism of Indian actions shortly.
--more--"
