India’s Bengal drops eggs from school lunches: Why that’s stoking debate

The government of the eastern Indian state of West Bengal has decided to drop eggs from a school lunch scheme that spans all government-run schools, stirring up debate about politics and nutrition.

The government, led by Indian PM Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has handed the contract for what is known as the midday meal programme to the Hindu religious organisation, the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), commonly known as the Hare Krishna movement. The organisation has in turn announced a menu that strips the meals of eggs.

The Hindu majoritarian BJP, which rules nationally, came to power in West Bengal, a state of more than 100 million people, for the first time in May.

Here is what was announced, and why it has prompted debate.

Students eat their midday meal during lunch break at a government high school on the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 23, 2021 [Noah Seelam/AFP]

What was announced?

The BJP government of West Bengal announced last week that it was handing over the food contract for the midday meal scheme to ISKCON.

ISKCON, which offers a strictly vegetarian menu – like many so-called “upper-caste” Indian Hindus, the organisation treats eggs on a par with meat – has argued that it will ensure that it serves high-quality and nutritious lunches to the nearly 12 million pupils in West Bengal who consume midday meals.

An ISKCON spokesperson – who has since been sent on enforced leave for speaking to the media – told reporters last week that while eggs are packed with protein, an equal weight of soya or cottage cheese held even more protein.

Students eat their midday meal during a lunch break at a government high school on the outskirts of Hyderabad on November 23, 2021 [Noah Seelam/ AFP]

What is the midday meal and who normally supplies these lunches?

Pioneered by the southern state of Tamil Nadu in the 1960s, the midday meal became a national policy in 1995, and has since been credited by researchers for dramatically helping India raise school participation.

While India still suffers from a high dropout rate – especially among girls as they enter their teenage years – enrolment itself is now almost at 100 percent in most states.

Nationally, 120 million children eat midday meals every school day, making it the largest such programme in the world.

In 2021, the Modi government renamed the scheme to link it directly to the prime minister. It is now officially called PM Poshan – “poshan” means nutrition in Hindi – though it is still widely known as the midday meal scheme.

Traditionally, nutritionists, educationists and public health experts have advocated for serving hot, freshly prepared meals cooked locally near the schools they are meant to serve. That ensures that the food is fresh, involves the local community – which has the biggest stake in ensuring healthy meals –  and encourages the use of local ingredients that students are familiar with.

In recent years, some states have allowed privately run trusts and nonprofits to also supply midday meals to some schools. ISKCON, through its nonprofit Akshaya Patra, supplies school lunches in parts of more than 10 states.

But before the West Bengal government’s decision, no major state had handed over the entire operation of the midday meal scheme to ISKCON.

A priest of the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON) offers a prayer with earthen lamps to Hindu god Jagannath during the return of the chariots festival in Kolkata, India, on Monday, July 15, 2024 [Bikas Das/AP Photo]

Are eggs common in midday meals offered by other states?

Roughly half of the country’s states and federally governed territories offer eggs to students as part of their midday meals. These include the states of Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Odisha, Assam, Bihar, Tripura, Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram and Meghalaya, and the federally governed regions of Puducherry, and Jammu and Kashmir.

Some states – like West Bengal until recently – offer eggs once a week, others more frequently, and some, like Tamil Nadu, have eggs on the menu every school day.

Apart from eggs, these states offer rice, roti, lentils and vegetables. Children who do not eat eggs have the option of opting out, while in some places – including in West Bengal until now – teachers and school administrators were allowed to raise their own funds to give meat-eating children chicken too, occasionally.

But West Bengal’s latest move makes it only the latest BJP-ruled state to try to move away from eggs.

In 2025, Maharashtra, the western state that has Mumbai as its capital, stopped funding for eggs in midday meals. Officially, schools are still allowed to find their own funds for eggs, but in practice, say experts, the decision meant depriving most students of eggs in their lunches.

Among the states that still serve eggs as part of the midday meal, a pattern exists: all southern states, and most eastern and northeastern states still have eggs on their menu. These are also the parts of the country where the BJP is either not in power or is relatively weaker than in the north and the west.

This photograph taken on May 18, 2026, shows children offering prayers before breakfast at the ‘Signal Shala’, or traffic signal school, under a bridge in Mumbai [Punit Paranjpe/ AFP]

Why has the West Bengal decision stirred up debate?

While ISKCON has argued that it will supply protein alternatives to eggs, many nutritionists argue that lentils, soya, cottage cheese and other vegetarian options are no clear substitutes.

“Ideally, the choice between animal-based and plant-based protein should be left to parents,” Sandeep Shastri, a political scientist and the national coordinator of the Lokniti research network, told Al Jazeera. “This decision should rest with the parents irrespective of who is the supplier.”

Eggs, say nutritionists, are also packed with all nine essential amino acids that the body needs, in addition to protein. Until lentils, soya or cottage cheese – whose quality, quantity and levels of dilution when in the form of curries are hard to make uniform – eggs on the plates of children are easier to standardise.

Opposition politicians have accused the government of “imposing vegetarianism”.

Derek O’Brien, a leader of the All India Trinamool Congress (TMC) that the BJP defeated to come to power in West Bengal, wrote in an X post on Wednesday: “New BJP govt at work in Bengal. Throw eggs at rivals. But DEPRIVE CHILDREN of nutrition by taking eggs off from midday meals. Imposing vegetarianism. Bengal rejects this.”

Parliament members from the TMC have been pelted with eggs by protesters in West Bengal in recent months.

A fish vendor talks on his mobile phone at his roadside stall decorated with political party flags ahead of the West Bengal state elections in Kolkata, India, on Friday, April 9, 2021 [Bikas Das/AP Photo]

What are the politics of this?

In state elections in May, the BJP captured power in West Bengal for the first time in history.

Since it came to power, the BJP ordered a crackdown to trace undocumented Muslim migrants from neighbouring Bangladesh, placing them in detention centres before deporting them.

Many Indian states heavily restrict or ban the sale and consumption of beef. Ever since Modi’s government took office nationally in 2014, groups of right-wing Hindu vigilantes have lynched Muslims in several states over unproven rumours of beef consumption or cattle transport.

However, Shastri explained that India has had a long, complex debate over vegetarianism. Many Indians follow a vegetarian diet but eat eggs.

“It may be unfair to directly link Hindu nationalism to vegetarianism,” Shastri said. “There are significant variations in cuisine choice across different parts of India.”

About 70 percent of Indians consume meat, fish and eggs, at least occasionally, according to official government data from the National Family Health Survey.

Fish is also at the centre of the Bengali food culture, both in India’s West Bengal and in neighbouring Bangladesh. When opposition parties tried to paint the BJP as a force that would impose vegetarianism were it to come to power, some BJP candidates campaigned door-to-door carrying fish.

Since then, the party has netted West Bengal – and hatched a new school menu.