The source of poison that killed 23 school children last week in the Indian state of Bihar was the vessel storing cooking oil used to prepare their lunch, an official said, citing a forensic report released late yesterday.
Monocrotophos, a highly toxic organophosphate insecticide, was found in the oil container, the food and the utensil in which it was cooked, R. Lakshmanan, who runs the mid-day meals program in the state, said in a telephone interview last night. The chemical, which the U.S.stopped using in 1988 according to the website of the Extension Toxicology Network, is produced by at least 15 manufacturers in the world, according to the Pesticide Action Network’s website.
“This confirms our suspicion that the oil, or what was believed to be oil, was the source of poisoning,” Lakshmanan said in a telephone interview. He didn’t say if the food was cooked just using the insecticide or contaminated oil.
The deaths of the children further tarnished the reputation of an 18-year-old government meals program meant to feed the hungriest children in the poorest corners of India. The plan, part of a web of polices aimed at easing the malnourishment that afflicts almost half the country’s children, has been criticized by the Supreme Court and the comptroller and auditor general for corruption and inefficiencies.
Stolen Food
Graft has plagued all three of India’s major food aid programs. A Bloomberg News investigation last year showed how $14.5 billion in food meant for the poor was stolen from a rationing system and sold on the black market.
The forensic report doesn’t indicate whether the poisoning was intentional, Lakshmanan said.
About 50 to 60 children were present, seated on the building’s concrete floor, as lunch was served on July 16 around 1 p.m., relatives said July 18. Most ate off metal plates, many of which were strewn around the classroom. The meal had been cooked just outside on a makeshift stove made of bricks, which has since been destroyed during protests that followed the deaths.
A soyabean dish served to the children may have been prepared using the pesticide as a cooking medium instead of oil, the Times of India reported, citing sources in the federal human resources development ministry it didn’t name. The school principal scolded the students who refused to eat the dish because of its black color and smell, according to the report.
The condition of three children undergoing treatment in the Intensive Care Unit of the Patna Medical College hospital had improved, the hospital said in a bulletin yesterday. All the other children and the school cook were also stable and the patients were now being fed orally, it said.
‘Gross Negligence’
Lakshmanan, in a separate interview on July 19, said the tragedy wouldn’t have occurred if rules had been followed and condemned the “gross negligence” of the school principal in the village of Dharmasati Gandawan. He rejected charges the deaths represented a wider government failure.
“There has been a very callous attitude and gross negligence on the part of the headmistress,” he said in the provincial capital of Patna. “Our principals have been given detailed training as recently as April, including instructions to taste the food before feeding the students.”
Many of the grieving families in Bihar buried their dead children in the school grounds or in nearby paddy fields to protest what they said was official indifference to their loss.
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