Post-mortem reports on 22 children who died this week after eating a school lunch in eastern India confirmed that insecticide was either in the food or cooking oil, a doctor said Thursday. Patna Medical College hospital superintendent Amarkant Jha Amar said results of the chemical analysis of the ingredients seized from the school were still pending. The free midday meal was served to the children Tuesday in Gandamal village in Masrakh block, 80 kilometers (50 miles) north of Patna, the Bihar state capital. The children, aged 5-12, got sick soon after eating rice, lentils, soya and potatoes, and soon 22 of them were dead and dozens were hospitalized. The 25 children and the school cook still being treated in the hospital are unlikely to suffer from any serious aftereffects from the tainted food, Amar said, though four of the children were still in the intensive care unit. India's midday meal scheme is one of the world's biggest school nutrition programs. The scheme has been replicated across the country, covering some 120 million schoolchildren. It's part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition, which the government says nearly half of all Indian children suffer from.
