Nutrition, as we all know, forms the pillar for sustainable growth of the human body and mind. One of the primary objectives of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme—the world’s largest school feeding programme — is to enhance children’s nutritional profile, thus having a positive impact on their health as well as learning outcomes. It was launched in 1995 comes under the human resource development. The programme supplies free lunches on working children. No midday meal scheme made many changes and is covered under the National Food Security Act, 2013. It provides everyday meal and Mid-day meal (MDM) is a wholesome freshly-cooked lunch served to children in government and government-aided schools in India.
Who is eligible?
Children studying in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in Government, Govt. Aided, Local Body, EGS and AIE Centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and NCLP Schools run by Ministry of Labour are eligible for Mid Day Meal.
Moreover, when children are healthy, they are less likely to miss school due to illness, and considering that absenteeism is one of the major impediments when it comes to education, the nutritional mid-day meal is no doubt a blessing for children. In a country like India, where hunger and malnutrition are chronic issues, long-term exposure to a nutritional program as an educational intervention is of great significance.
According to norms under the scheme, pulses, rice, rotis, vegetables, with fruits and milk on certain days, are to be served to school-going children to ensure necessary nutrition to them. The scheme is designed to provide a minimum of 450 calories per child per day, of which at least 12 grams should be of protein each day. These meals should be served to each child at least 200 days a year.
“We are working on changing the mid-day meal scheme and it will be a big revamp. Most changes will be related to financing and monitoring,” a senior HRD ministry official said.
“We are not planning on changing the meal type as many of the children come from poor families and the mid-day meal is the only nutritious one that they have in a day. We cannot change the menu from dal, roti, rice and such things to dry items.”
Main objectives:
- Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I – VIII in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools, and EGS and AIE centres.
- Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
Meal provision
The scheme guidelines envisage to provide cooked mid-day meal with 450 calories and 12 g of protein to every child at primary level and 700 calories and 20 g of protein at upper primary level. This energy and protein requirement for a primary child comes from cooking 100 g of rice/flour, 20 g pulses and 50 g vegetables and 5 g oil, and for an upper primary child it comes from 150 g of rice/flour, 30 g of pulses and 75 g of vegetables and 7.5 g of oil.
Track2Training 
You must be logged in to post a comment.