Over 78 students of a residential school were hospitalised after they fell sick post their dinner provided by the hostel in Nizamabad district on Monday. The students of Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Bheemgal town started complaining of vomiting and stomach pain after they completed their meal at night. The doctors and officials suspect it to be "food poisoning".
According to PTI, 78 students were taken to the hospitals in Bheemgal and Nizamabad.
The official said that it could be a case of mild food poisoning. However, all the students are stable and they are undergoing treatment.
Last year, a report in Telangana revealed that 236 students fell ill due to food poisoning in 26 days in Telangana due to contaminated water and food.
According to data gathered by the Hakku initiative, a social campaign of the Institute of Perception Studies, food poisoning incidences occurred in 10 locations throughout nine districts over the course of July 2022. According to the data, 936 kids were sickened during the course of the eight months till August 2022 at 25 locations throughout 17 districts in various government residential schools and hostels.
Kota Neelima, a volunteer with the Hakku initiative, told The New Indian Express, "We gathered this information from the calls and we got our helpline numbers from parents of students living in these schools, social organisations working in the education sector, people working with the weaker sections, and unconnected citizens who were concerned about the kids."
The information is the third installment of their study. She said that they cross-checked every incident that was reported to them and they did not include any incident that they could not verify personally.
The team also made a representation to Education Minister P Sabitha Indra Reddy with the data seeking to start a social audit of food provided to children.