At least 22 Indian children killed and 25 are ill after eating school dinner ‘made from unwashed ingredients covered in insecticide’ At least 22 children died and many others were sick after eating a free school lunch that was tainted by a heavy dose of insecticide, officials in India said today. It was not immediately clear how chemicals ended up in the food in a school in the eastern state of Bihar, although one official said the food may not have been properly washed before it was cooked. The children, between the ages of 8 and 11, fell ill yesterday soon after eating their school lunch in Masrakh, a village 50 miles north of the state capital of Patna. School authorities immediately stopped serving the meal of rice, lentils, soya and potatoes as the children started vomiting. In addition to the 22 children who died, another 25 children as well as the school cook have been taken to hospital, he said. Eight of them were in a serious condition. The deaths have sparked violent protests in Dharmasati Gandaman in the Saran district, where four police cars were set on fire during a demonstration by parents and hundreds of villagers. Authorities suspended an official in charge of the free meal scheme in the school and registered a case of criminal negligence against the school headmaster, who fled as soon as the children fell ill. India’s midday meal scheme is one of the world’s biggest school nutrition programs. It was first introduced in southern India, where it was seen as an incentive for poor parents to send their children to school. Since then the program has been replicated across the country covering some 120million school children as part of an effort to address concerns about malnutrition. According to the government, nearly half of all Indian children suffer from malnutrition.