At least 147 girls at a government residential school in Gujarat’s Surendranagar district were taken ill on Friday morning in a suspected case of mass food poisoning, sending health authorities scrambling and reopening uncomfortable questions about hostel food safety and communication with parents.
Of the 215 students enrolled at the Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV) in Chuda, 147 developed symptoms of abdominal pain, diarrhoea and vomiting through the morning, said Chief District Health Officer B G Gohil. Of them, 102 girls were treated at the Chuda Community Health Centre, while 45 with more severe symptoms were referred to two hospitals in Surendranagar town. All 147, officials said, are in stable condition.
The suspected culprit was dinner served the previous night. According to Gohil, the girls had eaten sabji, bhakhri (wheat roti), khichdi and kheer (a milk-based rice pudding) on Thursday night at the hostel mess. Food samples have since been collected and sent for laboratory analysis to pin down the exact cause.
Limbdi MLA Kiritsinh Rana visited the affected girls in hospital and said the immediate priority was ensuring they received proper medical care and recovered quickly, with a formal inquiry to follow. “I have spoken with the collector and the prant officer, and the situation is being closely monitored. A thorough investigation will be conducted. Appropriate action will be taken against the agency responsible for preparing food at the hostel if any lapses are found,” Rana told reporters.
Parents left to find out through relatives
While the administration has moved to reassure the public on the medical front, a second and arguably sharper controversy has emerged: several parents said the school never informed them directly that their daughters had fallen ill.
“My two daughters study at KGBV. One of my daughters brought her sister to the hospital, and a relative informed us about the food poisoning incident. The school did not inform parents. They should have informed all the parents immediately,” said Ansuya Ganotara, a parent of two students at the hostel.
Her account raises a question that is likely to follow the administration into its inquiry: for a residential facility housing 215 minors, many from families in nearby villages, why did notification to parents depend on word of mouth rather than an institutional protocol.
Not an isolated case
Friday’s incident adds to a run of food safety scares at girls’ hostels and residential schools in Gujarat this year. In Dahod district, at least 60 students at a girls’ residential school in Mandor Lukhadia village fell ill after dinner in a similar suspected poisoning case, with samples sent for testing. Weeks earlier, in June, around 25 children in Bhawani Nagar fell sick after consuming contaminated buttermilk. The pattern is not confined to Gujarat either — a KGBV hostel in Bheemgal, Telangana, saw a comparable outbreak among its students in the past.
The recurrence across residential school hostels — many of which serve girls from tribal and rural communities with few alternatives to hostel food — is likely to sharpen scrutiny on how meals are sourced, stored and prepared at these institutions, and on whether the contracted catering agencies are adequately monitored.
For now, officials say the priority remains treatment and recovery. The results of the food sample analysis are expected to determine the precise cause of the outbreak and will likely shape what action, if any, is taken against those responsible for preparing the meal.
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