Sentiments trump sustenance in Madhya Pradesh, it seems.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has asked officials to not include eggs — a high-protein source — in the anganwadi mid-day meals. The decision was taken as he apparently, did not want to hurt the sentiments of the vegetarian Jain community.

The move to add eggs to the diet was to tackle malnutrition, acute in some rural areas. Sources said the ready-to-eat breakfast for children in the age group of three to six years was for anganwadis run under the integrated child development services.

“There might have been some proposal six months ago, but no school or angawadi has eggs on menu,” said S K Mishra, principal secretary to the chief minister.

“The chief minister had then strictly asked officials to turn down the proposal to add eggs to the menu if such a thing was there. There are other sources of protein, like milk, that we have on the menu of anganwadis.”