THE NATION THAT WORSHIPS COWS BUT STARVES CHILDREN
china is plating up gourmet lunches for its schoolkids — tender chicken drumsticks, balanced sides, real nutrition.
India? We’re feeding our children ink, paper, and ideology.
A viral clip from china shows happy schoolchildren eating like they belong in a MasterChef junior finale. Meanwhile, in Madhya Pradesh, indian students are eating off crumpled newspapers — their “mid-day meal” served not on plates, but on print.
And when questioned, we shrug and say: “But we’re Vishwaguru.”
As if starving kids can live off slogans.
CHINA’S MASTERPLAN VS INDIA’S MALNUTRITION
In china, nutrition is a national strategy.
In india, it’s an afterthought.
Chinese schools are feeding children protein, vitamins, and dignity.
Indian schools are feeding children politics, poverty, and shame.
The contrast is grotesque.
While china invests in nutrition science, india invests in narrative management.
While their kids get balanced meals, ours get banned eggs — because someone’s religious sentiment might get scrambled.
And as a result, India ranks 111th out of 125 nations in the Global Hunger Index.
Vishwaguru indeed.
THE NEW MID-DAY MEAL: PAPER PLATES AND POLITICAL HUNGER
In Madhya Pradesh, a self-help group tasked with serving meals to schoolchildren decided that hygiene was optional — serving food directly on old newspapers.
Those same papers probably carried headlines about “Digital India” and “Make in India.”
How poetic that the ink from those slogans is now part of a child’s lunch.
The Pradhan Mantri Poshan shakti Nirman Scheme, meant to nourish millions, has turned into a photo-op project — all optics, no outcomes.
We talk about “feeding minds,” but in india, we can’t even manage a clean plate.
THE eggs THEY FEAR, THE HUNGER THEY IGNORE
Let’s talk about the elephant — or rather, the egg — in the room.
India’s most cost-effective source of protein, the humble egg, has been kept out of mid-day meals in many states because it “hurts religious sentiments.”
Not the sentiments of children who go hungry.
Not the sentiments of Dalit and Adivasi families for whom an egg means energy.
No — it offends the caste-pure conscience of upper-class vegetarians who’d rather see a child starve than see an egg boiled.
Let’s name it: Brahminical hypocrisy has crippled India’s nutrition policy.
For decades, caste elites — Brahmins, Vaishyas, and Jains — have dictated food politics in this country.
Their dietary purity has become the nation’s malnutrition.
This isn’t faith. It’s violence disguised as virtue.
VISHWAGURU SYNDROME: SLOGANS CAN’T FILL STOMACHS
india loves to brag about being the Vishwaguru — the teacher to the world.
But what kind of guru can’t even feed its own children?
While china invests in classrooms and cafeterias, india invests in propaganda and pageantry.
We build temples taller than nutrition charts, statues larger than grain storage facilities, and name programs after leaders while the beneficiaries starve.
Every child eating from a newspaper plate is a mirror held up to the nation’s lie.
POLITICS OF PURITY: WHERE religion DECIDES MENUS
The obsession with “pure” vegetarianism isn’t about health — it’s about hierarchy.
In rural schools across the hindi belt, upper-caste administrators have resisted adding eggs or meat to meals, fearing it will “pollute” their kitchens.
So, children from marginalized communities — who need protein the most — are condemned to eat rice, salt, and shame.
That’s not culture. That’s cruelty.
And when caste dictates the menu, malnutrition becomes policy.
MEANWHILE, THE WORLD MOVES ON
china, Brazil, and even bangladesh have made massive strides in school nutrition.
They understand that feeding children is not charity — it’s a strategy.
india, on the other hand, still debates whether eggs are “impure” while children collapse from anemia and undernourishment.
More than 35% of indian children under 5 are stunted.
That’s not destiny. That’s deliberate neglect.
We spend billions on defense, but can’t defend a child from hunger.
We send satellites to space, but can’t send milk to schools.
HUNGER IS POLITICAL. MALNUTRITION IS MAN-MADE.
Let’s stop pretending this is about resources.
It’s about priorities.
It’s about governments that fund rallies, not ration.
It’s about bureaucrats who worship efficiency reports, not hungry faces.
It’s about religious elites who’ve convinced a nation that purity matters more than protein.
Every child denied an egg because of someone’s “faith” is a victim of caste violence — silent, invisible, and systemic.
EPILOGUE: THE COUNTRY THAT FEEDS ITS GODS BUT STARVES ITS CHILDREN
We are a nation that feeds temples with gold, cows with fodder, and gods with ghee — but can’t feed our children with dignity.
In china, kids eat lunch with chopsticks.
In india, kids eat lunch with shame.
One nation is raising citizens.
The other is raising survivors.
And until we break this caste-coded, faith-fueled cycle of nutritional apartheid, india will remain a land full of gods but empty of humanity.
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