DM eats mid-day meal at Bihar school and helps widow get her job back

Gopalganj: A government school in Bihar's Gopalganj had to throw out a woman employed to cook mid-day meals for students just because she was a widow.

The school had to remove her in the wake of protests by residents of Kalyanpur village. In fact, the intense protests had even forced the school to shut down for several days.

But now, the widow has been reinstated and the school has reopened. But how? All thanks to Gopalganj District Magistrate Rahul Kumar.

The widow, who has two minor children, had knocked at the doors of DM's office.

Hearing her plea, the DM visited the school himself along with other officials and ate the mid-day meal prepared by the lady for students.

"I along with district education officer visited the school today and ate the midday meal prepared by the lady for students," Kumar told PTI.

With his gesture, the DM managed to convince the villagers to withdraw their protest and allow the lady to cook food for their wards.

The lady was among six women engaged in cooking food for children in the school under mid-day meal scheme and was paid Rs 1000 per month as salary.

The government middle school in Kalyanpur, about 25 km from district headquarter and 200 km from Patna, has about 734 students from class one to class eight.