Milk for school children: A future investment

By G.H.M. Amarasinghe

US 31st President Herbert Hoover once claimed: “If we could have but one generation of properly born, trained, educated, and healthy children, a thousand other problems of government would vanish.”

The overall health of the future generation is such crucial factor for any country. Especially for a developing country like Sri Lanka, the future generations are hugely important.

The malnutrition has been a persistent problem in Sri Lanka despite some of the health indicators tend to suggest that Sri Lanka is performing alright. It was due to this issue that the National Nutritional Policy was established in 2010, but the country’s nutritional status has not been in great level according to the Sri Lanka Demographic and Health Survey in the last few years.

In fact the health authorities had indicated that the malnutrition among the school children and their poor nutritional status have been the main reason for most of the health problems while it has also been revealed that not taking healthy food and parents not being able to provide enough meals have been problematic too. So the need to change this around was a dying need in of this nation if Sri Lanka to have a healthy next generation who would hopefully take the country to new levels.

The Government having recognised this, is set to launch a National Program under President Maithripala Sirisena’s concept of ‘nutritious young generation of a nation bountiful with milk’.

The Grama Shakthi people’s movement which is conducting this program aims to provide a pack of milk to school children from a selected set of schools. They are targeting a total of 1.7 million school children.

The whole idea of this program is to provide enough milk and nutritious for the children at school in order to produce a healthy next generation and the Government have understood the importance of liquid milk. One pack of milk is valued at Rs. 21 which means that this program would spend a yearly amount of Rs. 6.7 billion on 1.7 million school children.

India which is considered the world’s largest milk producer has always opted for liquid milk while Sri Lanka for some reason have mostly prioritised milk powder from New Zealand and Australia. But these two countries very rarely use milk power. President Sirisena however has made it very clear that he is not supportive of milk powder at all.

“No matter who says what, powdered milk is not suitable for human consumption. These are made by multinational companies. When I say these things, they will get angry with me. Everyone is angry with me these days; drug barons, tobacco companies, fraudulent pharmaceutical companies. They are all upset with me. But no matter who gets angry with me, these things must be said. For a country to develop, local milk production must increase.

“When I was going to school, when I was about 15 years old, we had milk from the cow that was brought up at home. When we woke up, I used to take a tin and milk the cow. We used to refer to the cow as ‘milk mother’. It was only after I milked the cow and handed over the tin to my mother that I would go to school. If we work according to the whims of these milk powder companies, then that is wrong. I was Health Minister for five years and representatives of milk powder companies came after me then, but I never allowed them to come even inside the gate of my home. I never allowed them to come to my Ministry. That was how I worked,” the President said.

Ministry of Education, Ministry of Agriculture, Ministry of Health, Nutrition and Indigenous Medicine, Ministry of Fisheries and Aquatic Resources Development and Rural Economic Affairs has also joined hands in order to make this program a success while one of the main targets of this program is to make Sri Lanka self-sufficient in liquid milk by 2025. 

It is also observed that the dairy industry in Sri Lanka doesn’t seem to produce enough liquid milk at the moment. In fact at present the dairy industry produces around 900,000 litres but still there is less demand with this program alone requires a total of 63,000 litres in order to cover the primary section of each and every school. Yet, one expects that this particular program could earn a demand for liquid milk as well as for the dairy industry in Sri Lanka.

The special focus on the school children is a commendable act and they certainly are the future of this country. As Herbert Hoover said having a healthy next generation could find solutions for thousands of problems the country is facing now.