Parents tense despite advisory

KOLKATA: A recent scrap between Class VI boys of a prominent central Kolkata school, which went viral for a few days on parents’ WhatsApp groups and forced the school to intervene, has brought to the fore the vegetarian versus non-vegetarian divide brewing in tiffin boxes and classrooms.The row was sparked by a student sharing a chicken sandwich with some of his classmates, who happened to be vegetarians, during the tiffin break. Others in the class then roughed up this student, who claimed he did not know that his classmates were vegetarian, and parents got involved. The school authorities had to issue a notice asking students not to share non-vegetarian food in class.This school may have somehow managed to resolve this incident peacefully but school authorities across the city acknowledge that they have a problem on their hand. The debate on the contents of the tiffin box may have followed the wider vegetariannon-vegetarian social and political debate, say leading schools, forcing many to frame guidelines on food.Some schools have explicitly asked students to avoid bringing non-vegetarian food to class, but others have preferred to avoid a stricture, choosing instead to prohibit consumption of meat, fish and eggs only within classrooms; yet others have asked students to declare the contents of their tiffin box before sharing it with classmates.A leading English-medium girls’ school near Park Circus, for example, has given out a list of suggested food items that students of junior classes can bring to campus. This list does not have any non-vegetarian item though the school has insisted to parents that it “is not forcing anything on students but merely suggesting something”. Students and parents, however, say carrying non-vegetarian food to school often evokes snide remarks and even bullying. That this problem has not had a resolution is clear from the school’s request to stay “off record while it tries to bring out a solution”.Don Bosco (Park Circus), too, does not allow non-vegetarian food till Class II. “Students of other classes are told to not share their food if it is not vegetarian. Students from Class VI onward can buy food from the canteen,” principal Father Bikash Mondal said.Food packets distributed by the school, during school events or celebrations, are strictly vegetarian, which is the practice followed by an overwhelming majority of other city schools. Rammohan Mission School, too, “does not bar non-veg stuff but sticks to vegetarian food for school programmes”, says principal Sujoy Biswas.Tiffin RowOne of the city’s oldest Catholic girls’ schools in central Kolkata encourages students to have non-veg food at the canteen rather than bring it from home. Girls are not barred from having non-vegetarian food on campus, but the school makes it clear that it would rather students avoid them in classrooms. “This preempts confusion and conflict,” a senior member of the management said.Another new-age school off EM Bypass-Rashbehari Connector has asked students to disclose the nature of the food they share with classmates. A parent says it has worked out well. Another school of the same group has asked parents to put stickers on tiffin boxes if they contain non-vegetarian food; it has also asked students bringing non-vegetarian food “to move away from vegetarians” before opening their lunch boxes.But some parents of the school where the sandwichsharing controversy happened continue to remain tense despite the school issuing a similar advisory. “Senior students, too, have fought over non-veg food recently. I now make sure that my son doesn’t carry non-vegetarian stuff to school,” the parent of a Class IX student said.Modern High School for Girls director Devi Kar believes supervision is necessary to preempt such controversies. “We closely monitor primary section students’ food. There is no bar on nonvegetarian food but our canteen is vegetarian,” she added.There are some others, like The Heritage School, which forbid non-veg food on campus, “but not because of any recent controversy”. “We are a vegetarian school. We have a dietician and it is mandatory for students to have food from canteen. Around 700 children have breakfast and lunch along with teachers and no one is allowed to carry food from home,” principal Seema Sapru said.