The egg a day scheme

Hopefully, the egg which would be added to the mid-day meal of schoolchildren by courtesy of the authorities will prove its seeming usefulness and nutritional value, by 'keeping the doctor away.' In fact, the egg has helped the state to 'kill two birds with one stone.' On the one hand, the nutritional quotient of the school mid-day meal will be greatly enhanced. On the other, poultry farmers will enjoy the prospect of getting a better price for their eggs.

Despite Sri Lanka now being seen as a Middle Income Country of note, there is no guarantee that we are on the right track, as it were, with regard to our nutrition intake. Particularly with regard to the lower income groups of this country, every precaution needs to be taken to ensure that the nutritional value of the food they consume is constantly enhanced and we are glad this is happening. Coming on top of the free glass of milk, this egg a day for the school-going population is certain to go some distance in 'keeping the doctor away', provided it is not allowed to carry any health hazards.

Besides the food value aspect of the egg and the milk, these pro-people interventions ought to be seen as a measure of the continuing vibrancy of the local state welfare system.

From the time of independence it is the welfarist pillars of our state which have enabled this country to forge ahead as a developing country of great promise. If Sri Lanka is noteworthy today for the advances it has made on the Quality of Life front, it is because of the welfarist nature of its state.

In current debates on living costs, this aspect of Sri Lanka's development is forgotten, ignored or glossed over. While the cost of living may be acutely felt in some sections, what must not be forgotten is that the state has not rid itself of its welfarist moorings. The Samurdhi scheme, the system of free education and the state-funded health services, to take just a few examples, have stood the poor of this country in good stead.

Even in the case of the troubling issues of fuel price rises and the costs of power and energy, it must not be forgotten that the state has not abandoned the consumer to the vagaries of market prices.

These essentials are heavily subsidized by the state and it is this aspect of continued state support for the consumer which must be compulsorily factored into any discussion of living costs and their implications, for the purpose of arriving at a balanced assessment of a government's performance. That these aspects of state intervention are conveniently 'ignored' by the state's critics, is a measure of the degree to which these discussions on living costs are driven by destructive and not by constructive critics of the government.

Coming back to the provision of essential food items to particularly vulnerable sections, it must be recognized that it is the same humanitarian concerns which drove the rescue operation of the Armed Forces in the early months of 2009, which ensured that tens of thousands of civilians of the North were saved from the mauling jaws and paws of the LTTE. The civilians were not only saved, they were cared for and sheltered with utmost consideration. This, indeed, was a humanitarian operation of the greatest magnitude.

What is more, the caring arms of the state are continuing to be extended to even those sections of the North-East which waged war against the state. We are referring here to the one-time LTTE cadres who are today cared for by the state and integrated into mainstream life. It is the same caring state which is today supplementing the nutritional content of the students' mid-day meal.

While the provision of nutritious food to the masses by the state needs to be commended, precautions must be taken to ensure that the food provided is always safe for consumption. There is always the possibility of a few spoilt items entering the students' food pack. Thus, constant vigilance against not so visible dangers is an essential requirement.