Kolkata: A Rs 8 egg has become a cultural fault line dividing West Bengal, putting both children’s nutrition and thousands of livelihoods at stake, with the controversy now spilling into the courtroom. The newly elected Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government has announced a hike in the mid-day meal allocation from Rs 6.50 to Rs 10 per student during the state’s budget presentation. The government also partnered with ISKCON to prepare and distribute the meals across Kolkata.“We want students to get nutrition in childhood, but the information that there is no protein or vitamin in vegetarian food is incorrect. Eggs were not given regularly here anyway, so instead of creating an unnecessary controversy over giving eggs for one day, we can place our faith in this project of ISKCON,” clarified West Bengal education minister Deepak Barman.For families dependent on government schools, the mid-day meal is often the most dependable nutritious meal a child receives. The programme is therefore not merely an incentive for attendance, but part of the survival system of families with the fewest alternatives.“I am educating my child in a government school. Here they get good food in the afternoon. All the students here are from our canal-side slum. The government is saying they will demolish our slum after two months,” said Rina Karan, whose son goes to Bose Para Upper Primary in North Kolkata. “They eat the mid-day meal food with enthusiasm. If there is an egg, the enthusiasm increases on that day. However, steadily declining, the school now has only 30 students. I don’t know how long I will be able to protect and keep these 30 students!” shared a concerned teacher from the school.‘Soyabean or rajma not an alternative to eggs’West Bengal’s PM POSHAN programme covers nearly 85.94 lakh children in more than 82,500 institutions. The approved 2024-25 programme involved around Rs 1,788 crore and more than 2.30 lakh cook-cum-helpers. Official records show that the state approved one egg or seasonal fruit a week for 12 additional days, at Rs 8 per serving, in the run up to the West Bengal assembly elections. National standards require primary-school meals to provide 450 calories and 12 grams of protein, and upper-primary meals 700 calories and 20 grams of protein per meal.Senior paediatrician from Kolkata, Dr. Kuntal Biswas, told The Wire, “By no means can soybean or rajma be an alternative to an egg. Animal protein is an important aspect during the development of children, where will that come from? An egg does not just contain protein. It also has sufficient iron. The child’s body cannot absorb the amount of iron present in soybeans in the same way it absorbs iron from an egg.”Eggs are among the most affordable, practical and nutrient-dense foods available to children. A single egg supplies high-quality protein along with micronutrients such as vitamin B12, vitamin A, zinc and choline, all of which support growth, immunity and brain development. It is also easy to portion, cook and monitor. One egg promised means one identifiable nutritional item on every child’s plate. A carefully planned vegetarian diet can meet children’s needs, but only if sufficiently funded, varied and monitored. The food controversy connects directly to the wider decline of public education. In a shrinking system increasingly serving only the poorest children, removing an eagerly awaited source of nutrition could further weaken attendance and deepen the divide between public and private schooling.‘On vegetarian days, a large amount of food comes back’Indranil Mukherjee, associated with an NGO supplying food to 65 schools, said, “On vegetarian days, a large amount of food comes back. On egg days, almost nothing is returned.”Since the beginning of the mid-day meal programme, the Pratichi Trust has been associated with efforts to improve children’s nutrition and reduce dropouts. Soumik Chatterjee, associated with Pratichi’s work, told The Wire, “Vegetarian, nutritious and delicious food is good, but along with it, fish and eggs should also be included one or two days a week, and it would be better to clearly state what will happen to those who cooked and fed the students for so long.”The other immediate crisis concerns employment. Kolkata’s mid-day meal network serves around 2.2 lakh children in roughly 1,850 schools through 67 non-governmental organisations. It supports about 3,670 women cooks and helpers, besides nearly 4,000 van drivers and delivery workers. Many survive on low and irregular wages.Rama Roy has worked in the programme for 18 years and earns about Rs 4,500 a month. “For the past few months, no mid-day meal worker in Kolkata has received that money. I hear the state government is increasing the money, but we do not even get our regular salary,” she said. Yet, when a public interest litigation reached the Calcutta high court, Advocate General Surajit Nath Mitra offered a different account. “The whole matter is a proposal; we have received a proposal, that’s all,” he told the bench. The court asked the government to file an affidavit clarifying its position.Pointing to the contradiction, Trinamool Congress (TMC) MP Kalyan Banerjee told The Wire, “Does the Advocate General not know about the chief minister’s announcement? Then why is he calling it a proposal? Questions have been raised on what logic the law is being changed to alter the familiar eating habits of the state’s children, and what will happen to so many people associated with the mid-day meal work?” The controversy has therefore left the state with questions that go far beyond the choice between vegetarian and non-vegetarian food. West Bengal has been divided not by an egg, but by everything it has come to represent. Nourishment for a poor child, employment for a vulnerable worker, faith in a shrinking public-school system, a family’s right to cultural and dietary choice, and the limits of the state’s authority over food served in schools.Translated from the Bengali original by Aparna Bhattacharya.