Report

On

Mid-Day Meal

Submitted byArjun Rai

Chahat Chhabra
Introduction

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a programme of the Government of India, designed to improve
the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide.
The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in Primary and Upper
Primary Classes in Government, Government Aided, Local Body, Education Guarantee Scheme,
and Alternate Innovative Education Centers, Madrasa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva
Shiksha Abhiyan.
MDM is serving 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee
Scheme centres, it is the largest such programme in the world.
Under Article 24, paragraph 2c of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is
a party,India has committed to providing "adequate nutritious foods" for children.
The programme entered the planning stages in 2001 and was implemented in 2004. The
programme has undergone many changes and amendments since its launch.

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History

1) Pre-Independence Initiatives
The roots of the programme can be traced back to the Pre-Independence era, when a Mid-Day
Meal Programme was introduced in 1925 in Madras Corporation by the British administration.
A Mid- Day Meal Programme was introduced in the Union Territory of Puducherry by the
French administration in 1930.

Initiatives by State governmenttee to children, with their launch of a Mid- Day Meal Programme
in primary schools in the year 196263.

Thiru K. Kama raj, then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, introduced its first in Chennai and later
extended it to all districts of Tamil Nadu.

Gujarat was the second state to introduce MDM scheme in 1984, but it was later discontinued.
A Mid -Day Meal Scheme was introduced in Kerala in 1984, and was gradually expanded to
include more schools and grades.

By 199091, twelve states were funding the scheme to all or most of the students in their
area: Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, MP, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil
Nadu, Tripuraand Uttar Pradesh.Karnataka, Orissa, and West Bengal received international aid to
help with implementation of the programme, and in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan; the
programme was funded entirely using foreign aid.

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2) Initiatives by the Central Government

International Assistance

International voluntary/charity organizations have assisted.Church World Service has provided

milk powder to Delhi and Madras Municipal Corporation; CARE has provided corn soya meal,
Bulgurwheat, and vegetable oils; and UNICEF has provided high proteins foods and educational
support.

In 1982, 'Food for Learning' was launched with assistance from the Food and Agriculture
Organization (FAO).

Initially the programme was aimed at Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe girls. In 1983, the
federal Department of Education prepared a scheme under the auspices of the World Food
Programme to supply meals to 13.6 million Scheduled Caste girls and 10.09 million Scheduled
Tribe girls in classs I-V in 15 states and three union territories.

The value of the food itself was $163.27 million per year.Labour, facilities, and transportation
costs were to be paid by the State governments. The reaction among the states and union
territories was mixed. Many states were interested, but some were concerned about their ability
to afford it if the FAO support were to be withdrawn.

3) Supreme Court Order

Article 21 " Right to life" of Indian Constitution when read together with Articles 39(a) and 47,
makes the Right to Food a derived Fundamental Right which is enforceable by virtue of the
constitutional remedy provided underArticle 32.
In April 2001, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) initiated the public interest
litigation (Civil) No. 196/2001, Peoples Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India & Others
(PUCL) famously called as "Right to food litigation".
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PUCL argued that the excess food supplies in Food Corporation of India godowns should be fed
to hungry citizens. This included providing mid-day meals in primary schools. The scheme came
into force with the Supreme Court order dated 28 November 2001, which requires all
government and government-assisted primary schools to provide cooked midday meals.

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Finances

The central and state governments share the cost of the Mid-day Meal Scheme, with the Centre
providing 75 percent and the states 25 percent.

The central government provides grains and financing for other food. Costs for facilities,
transportation, and labour are shared by the federal and state governments. The participating
states contribute different amounts of money.

The eleventh five-year plan allocated INR. 38,490 Crores for the scheme, the twelfth five-year
plan has allocated INR 90,155 Crores.

The public expenditure for the Mid- Day Meal Programme has gone up from Rs. 73,24 Crores in
200708 to Rs. 132,15 Crores in 201314.
The per day cooking cost per child at the primary level has been fixed to 3.59 while at the upper
primary level to 5.38.

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Entitlements

The nutritional guidelines for minimum amount of food and calorie content per child per day
are:Entitlement Norm per child per day under MDM
Primary (Class I
to V)

Item

Upper Primary(Class VI to
VIII)

Calories

450

700

Protein (in Grams )

12

20

Rice / Wheat (in

Grams )

100

150

Dal (in Grams )

20

30

Vegetables (in
Grams )

50

75

Oil and Fat (in

Grams )

7.5

Cooking Cost

In Rupees

Per primary child

3.59

Per upper primary child

5.38

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A Separate component for Payment of honorarium @ Rs.1000 per month per cook- cum-helper
was introduced in 2009.

Norms for engagement of cook-cum-helper:

1) One cook- cum-helper for schools up to 25 students.
2) Two cooks-cum-helpers for schools with 26 to 100 students.
3) One additional cook-cum-helper for every addition of up to 100 students.

Union Budgetary Allocation

Year Wise Outlay under Mid-Day Meal Scheme (Rs. in Crores)

Year

BE

RE

Releases

2007-08

7324.00

6678.00

5835.44

2008-09

8000.00

8000.00

6539.52

2009-10

8000.00

7359.15

6937.79

2010-11

9440.00

9440.00

9128.44

2011-12

10380.00

10239.01

9901.91

2012-13

11937.00

11500.00

10867.90

2013-14

13215.00

12189.16

10927.21

2014-15

13215.00

--

5295.23(as on 30-09-2014)

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Tragedy/ Problems occurred in Mid-day meal Scheme

India repeatedly ignored warnings on poor quality and bad management in the mid-day meal
scheme.
The village school in Bihar where 27 children died by poisoning in July 2013.
The children had been providing lunch under the government-sponsored Mid-Day Meal Scheme
without checks or monitoring by local officials to see if the food was stored carefully or cooked
properly.
Although it is the first such disaster in the project that feeds about 120 million children every day
across India, a Reuters review of audit reports and research papers shows officials have long
ignored warnings of the lack of oversight and accountability in the programme.

Two audit reports by the state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have said
the food in the scheme was often laced with stones and worms.

A total of 54 students of a government middle school in Bihar's Sitamarhi district fell ill today
after eating mid-day meal in which a 'snake' was found.

Twenty-three children died in Dharma Sati village in Saran District on 16 July 2013 after eating
pesticide-contaminated mid- day meals.

In December 2006, The Times of India reported that school staff were falsifying attendance and
enrollment figures in order to obtain food grains. Four people were charged in the scam.

The problems include grain kept in decrepit condition in central warehouses, and then often
stored and cookedin poorly-equipped schools by staff with little or no training.

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Criticism

Despite the success of the program, child hunger as a problem persists in India. According to
current statistics, 42.5% of the children under 5 are underweight. "India is home to the world's
largest food insecure population, with more than 500 million people who are hungry", India State
Hunger Index (ISHI) said.

Many children don't get enough to eat, which has far-reaching implications for the performance
of the country as a whole.

The 2009 Global Hunger Index ranked India at 65 out of 84 countries. More than 200 million
went hungry in India that year, more than any other country in the world. The report states that
"improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states".

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Role of health manager

It includes Students should be motivated to wash their hands before and after taking the
meals.
Only clean containers should be used for storing MDM materials.
Storage area should be free from rats, rodents, pests, spider webs, cockroaches.
No medicines/chemicals/fuel wood/disinfectants shall be kept in the store house.
Cooking utensils should be washed before cooking and after.
Food waste and other waste materials shall be properly disposed off to avoid
unhygienic conditions in and around kitchen.
Vegetables must be washes properly before cooked.
Clean water shall be used for cooking, drinking and washing.
Every day the cooked food should be tasted and checked before it is served to the
children.

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