The mid-day meal scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India. It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialisation among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women. The scheme has a long history especially in Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and has been expanded to all parts of India after a landmark direction by the Supreme Court of India on November 28, 2001. The success of this scheme is illustrated by the tremendous increase in the school participation and completion rates in Tamil Nadu.

History

One of the pioneers of the scheme is Madras corporation that started providing cooked meals to children in corporation schools in the Madras city in 1923. The programme was introduced in a large scale in 1960s under the Chief Ministership of Kamaraj. But the first major thrust came in 1982 when the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr. M. G. Ramachandran decided to universalise the scheme for all children in government schools in primary classes. Later the programme was expanded to cover all children upto class 10. Tamil Nadu’s mid-day meal programme is among the best known in the country.

Several other states of India too have had mid-day meal programme. The most notable among them is Gujarat that has had the programme since late 1980s. Kerala started providing cooked meals in schools since 1995 and so did Madhya Pradesh and Orissa in small pockets. On November 28, 2001 the Supreme Court of India gave a landmark direction, which made it obligatory for the government to provide cooked meals to all children in all government and government assisted primary schools. The direction was resisted vigorously by State governments initially, but the programme has become almost universal by 2005.

National Programme for Nutrition Support to Primary Education

Although the programme in Tamil Nadu was initially termed as a act of "Populism", the success of the scheme made the project hugely popular. The success was so spectacular that in 1995, the then Indian Finance minister Manmohan Singh hailed the success of the project and suggested that the scheme be implemented all over the country, and thus began the “National Programme for Nutrition Support to Primary Education”.

According to the programme the Government of India will provide grains free of cost and the States will provide the costs of other ingredients, salaries and infrastructure. Since most State governments were unwilling to commit budgetary resources they just passed on the grains from Government of India to the parents. This system was called provision of ‘dry rations’. On November 28, 2001 the Supreme Court of India gave a famous direction that made it mandatory for the state governments to provide cooked meals instead of ‘dry rations’. The direction was to be implemented from June 2002, but was violated by most States. But with sustained pressure from the court, media and in particular from the Right to Food Campaign more and more states started providing cooked meals.

In May 2004 a new coalition government was formed in the centre, which promised universal provision of cooked meals fully funded by the centre. This promise in its Common Minimum Programme was followed by enhanced financial support to the states for cooking and building sufficient infrastructure. Given this additional support the scheme has expanded its reach to cover most children in primary schools in India. In 2005 it is expected to cover 130 million children.

The Supreme Court Direction

In April 2001 People’s Union for Civil Liberties (Rajasthan) initiated the now famous right to food litigation . This public interest litigation has covered a large range of issues relating to right to food, but the best known intervention by the court is on mid-day meals. In one of its many direction in the litigation the Supreme Court directed the government to fully implement its scheme of providing cooked meals to all children in primary schools. This landmark direction converted the mid-day meal scheme into a legal entitlement, the violation of which can be taken up in the court of law. The direction and further follow-up by the Supreme Court has been a major instrument in universalising the scheme.

Akshaya Patra and private sector participation in mid-day meals

The State of Karnataka introduced the provision of cooked meals in June 2002. Since then it has successfully involved private sector participation in the programme. The most successful of the ventures is Akshaya Patra. The programme is coordinated by ISKON that cooks and distributes lunch to children in Bangalore Municipal Corporation schools. ISKON gets a corpus from the State government but meets a major share of its costs with donations from private corporations and individuals in the city.

The programme is managed with an ultra modern centralised kitchen that is run by ISKON. Food is delivered to schools in sealed and heat retaining containers just before the lunch break every day. The programme contains one of the best menus in school meal programmes in India with tasty sambar, rice, vegetables and some curd on most days.

Since the success of this programme private sector participation in mid-day meals has increased considerably. Giant software corporations such as Infosys and WIPRO are major donors to the programme. This model has been successfully replicated in rural Karnataka, Delhi, Hyderabad and other cities.

Other aspects of the programme

The programme in Gujarat also includes regular provision of iron tables (to counter anaemia) and deworming tablets once in six months.

School meal programmes in other parts of the world

School meal programme is now a standard welfare measure for school children in developing as well as developed nations. Even countries such as USA have it in many states. World Food Programme, among other organisations, are involved in the programme in many countries across the world.

See also

Nutrition Nutrition and health

External Links

'By Alphabetical order using the name of the institution/website'

• Catholic Relief Services
• Feeding Minds, Fighting Hunger
• FRESH Initiative - Focusing Resources on Effective School Health.
• Latin American School Feeding Network
• The Partnership for Child Development. PCD is based within the Department of Infectious Disease Epidemiology, in the Faculty of Medicine, at London’s Imperial College.
• Right to Food Campaign, India
• Schools and Health
• World food programme