| Description |
1 online resource (streaming video file) (27 min. 15 sec.) ; 164767556 bytes |
| Summary |
In a tiny school in a far-flung pocket of India in July this year, 55 children sat down to eat their free, government-provided lunch. Soon many of them would be writhing in agony, some would die within hours, others would perish after failed treatment in hospital. 120 million children across India eat their free lunches every day, but the deaths of 23 has shocked the nation and the world. A special Foreign Correspondent investigation sheds new light on a dreadful incident.The parents in Gandaman village in Bihar State are poor and uneducated but like parents anywhere they dream of a better life for their children. So, as they toil in the fields, living hand to mouth they send their kids to school in the hope they'll learn and find a path out of grinding poverty and deprivation. But on one terrible day in July, going to school cost them their lives. 23 children - none older than 10 - died after eating their school lunch, a meal provided under a nationwide government program every school day to 120 million - that's about five times the entire population of Australia. How could such a thing happen? Investigators ordered analysis of the food and quickly discovered that it was tainted with a cheap and readily available pesticide. Was that a result of gross negligence or was it - as some locals believe - a deliberate, calculated act? As the rumours and recriminations flew parents grieved and villagers rioted in anger and despair. Foreign Correspondent's Mary Ann Jolley travels to the scene of the tragedy to sort the facts from the fiction in this perplexing and disturbing case."That day (the principal) kept a stick and forced all the children to have the food. She said 'eat it otherwise I will beat you'." - Ranjeet, brother of dead boy.The school principal is now in custody facing charges of murder and conspiracy - but is she culpable or a convenient scapegoat? Foreign Correspondent gains access to the police operation and assesses the evidence. We talk to parents about their unbearable loss."I feel I shouldn't have sent them to school that day. They would have been alive." - Chanda Devi, Mother of 7 year old Prahlad and 10 year old RahulAnd we travel to bustling Mumbai to talk to India's chemical king - Raaju Shroff - who heads up Indian pesticide giant United Phosphorous, and ask why is it that India continues to use a product considered gravely hazardous by the World Health Organisation and banned in many countries including Australia."I say promptly and clearly that if you prove that (the pesticide)'monocrotophos' is there in the food, I'll close down my factory." - Rajju Shroff, CEO United Phosphoros |
| Event |
Broadcast 2013-09-03 at 20:00:00 |
| Notes |
Classification: NC |
| Subject |
Children -- Death.
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Food poisoning.
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Negligence, Criminal.
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Organophosphorus compounds -- Toxicology.
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School children -- Food.
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India.
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| Form |
Streaming video
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| Author |
Ann Jolley, Mary, reporter
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