• Introduction:

As a part of the B.Ed.-II curriculum, under Punyashlok

Ahilyadevi Holkar Solapur University, Solapur, under the
Curricular Area-C: Engagement with the Field, we have various
task assignments.
One of the task assignments is “School Internship.”
We have to complete two practicals under this school
internship. One of the practicals is the
“Study and Report of Mid-Day Meal.”
We have completed the practical “study on mid-day meal” at
“Siddheshwar Kanya Prashala, Solapur.”

The information and directions about the practical were

provided by our mentor, Dr. L. V. Bamane Mam.
Hereby I tried to present the information about the “study of
Mid-day Meal” as a form of a report.

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 • Objectives:
To the student-teachers:
➢ To help to understand the Scheme of Mid-day Meal.

➢ To help to understand the aims of Mid-day Meal.

➢ To help to understand the importance of Mid-day Meal.

➢ To help to understand the benefits of Mid-day Meal.

➢ To help to understand the role of Mid-day Meal in

education.

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 • Mid-Day Meal Scheme:
The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a school meal program in India designed
to better the nutritional standing of school-age children nationwide.
The program supplies free lunches on working days for children in
government primary and upper primary schools, government-
aided Anganwadis, Madarsas, and Maqtabs. Serving 120 million
children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme
centers, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented in the Union
Territory of Puducherry under the French Administration since
1930. In post-independent India, the Midday Meal Scheme was first
launched in Tamil Nadu, pioneered by the former Chief minister K.
Kamaraj in the early 1960s. By 2002, the scheme was implemented in
all of the states under the orders of the Supreme Court of India.
The name of the scheme has been changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan
Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by the
MoE (Ministry of Education), which is the ministry responsible for the
scheme. The Central Government also announced that an additional
24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government &
government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme
by 2022.
Under article 24, paragraph 2c of the Convention on the Rights of the
Child, to which India is a party, India has committed to yielding
"adequate nutritious food" for children. The program has undergone
many changes since its launch in 1995. The Midday Meal Scheme is
covered by the National Food Security Act, of 2013. The legal backing
to the Indian school meal program is akin to the legal backing provided
in the US through the National School Lunch Act.
The Midday Meal Scheme refers to the government of India program
introduced in all government elementary schools to provide children
with cooked lunches. Tamil Nadu was the first state in India to
introduce this scheme. The first school which had the scheme was the

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Sourashtra Boys Higher Secondary School, Madurai, which
implemented it in 1925. On 28th November 2001, the Supreme
Court asked all state governments to begin this program in their
schools within 6 months. The program has shown many positive
effects. Many parents who couldn't send their children to schools due
to poverty, were eager to get their children free nutritious food and
this incentivized them to send their children to school. The Midday
Meal Scheme increased the number of school-going children.

• Objectives of the mid-day meal:

The main objectives of the MDM scheme are:

1. To increase the enrolment of the children belonging to

disadvantaged sections in the schools.
2. Leading enrolment to increased attendance in the schools.
3. To retain children studying in classes 1-8.
4. To provide nutritional support to the children in the elementary
stage in drought-affected areas.

• Mid-day meal scheme aims to:

1. avoid classroom hunger

2. increase school enrolment
3. increase school attendance
4. improve socialization among castes
5. address malnutrition
6. empower women through employment

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 • Entitlements:
The nutritional guidelines for the minimum amount of food and
calorie content per child per day are:

Entitlement norm per child per day under MDM

Primary class: Upper primary class:

Item
one to five six to eight

Calories 450 700

Protein (in grams) 12 20

Rice/wheat (in
100 150
grams)

Dal (in grams) 20 30

Vegetables (in
50 75
grams)

Oil and fat (in grams) 5 7.5

In the case of micronutrients (vitamin A, iron, and folate) tablets and

deworming medicines, the student is entitled to receive the amount
provided for in the school health program of the National Rural
Health Mission.

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 • Finances:
The central and state governments share the cost of the Midday Meal
Scheme, with the center providing 60 percent and the states 40
percent. The central government provides grains and financing for
other food. Costs for facilities, transportation, and labor is shared by
the federal and state governments. The participating states/territories
contribute different amounts of money, depending on whether they
are Himalayan states, Northeastern Region (NER) states, union
territories without legislature, or the residual (Non-NER states and
union territories with legislature). The share contributed by states is
often larger than what is stipulated. While the eleventh five-year plan
allocated ₹384.9 billion (US$4.8 billion) for the scheme, the twelfth
five-year plan has allocated ₹901.55 billion (US$11 billion), a 134
percent rise. The public expenditure for the Mid-Day Meal Programme
has gone up from ₹73.24 billion (US$920 million) in 2007–08
to ₹132.15 billion (US$1.7 billion) in 2013–14. In 2020-21, the Midday
Meal Scheme budget comprised 11% of the total budget for the
Ministry of Education. The per day cooking cost per child at the
primary level has been fixed to ₹4.13 (5.2¢ US) while at the upper
primary level is ₹6.18 (7.7¢ US).

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 • Monitoring and evaluation:

Committees to monitor the MDM Programme

Level Committee Frequency of meeting

The national-level steering/monitoring committee

National Quarterly
Program Approval Board (PAB)

State The state-level steering/monitoring committee Quarterly

District The district-level committee Monthly

Municipal The municipal committee Monthly

Block The Mandal level committee Fortnightly

The day-to-day
functioning of the
Village Panchayat level sub-committee
implementation of the
scheme

School management and development committee Monthly and when it is

School
or Parent Teacher Association. required

The government of India Review Missions on Mid-Day Meal Scheme,

comprising members from the central government, state
governments, UNICEF, and the office of the supreme court
commissioner was created in 2010 to review the program and offer
suggestions for improvement. The scheme is independently
monitored twice a year.

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 • Evaluation of the scheme:
The MDM Scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from
disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school,
improving regularity, nutritional benefits, socialization benefits and benefits to
women are some that have been highlighted.
Studies by economists show that some of these benefits have indeed been
realized. The positive effect on enrollment of disadvantaged children (Dreze and
Kingdon), on attendance (by Chakraborty, Jayaraman, Pande), on learning effort
(by Booruah, Afridi, and Somanathan), on improving nutritional inputs (Afridi),
and on improving nutritional outcomes (by Singh, Dercon, and Parker).
Caste-based discrimination continues to occur in the serving of food, though the
government seems unwilling to acknowledge this. Sukhdeo Thorat and Joel Lee
found in their 2005 study that caste discrimination was occurring in conjunction
with the Mid-Day Meals program. Media reports also document the positive
effect of the program on women, especially working women, and its popularity
among parents, children, and teachers alike. Media reports have also
highlighted several implementation issues, including irregularity, corruption,
hygiene, caste discrimination, etc. A few such incidents are listed below:
1. In December 2005, Delhi police seized eight trucks laden with 2,760 sacks
of rice meant for primary school children. The rice was being transported
from Food Corporation of India godowns Bulandshahr district to North
Delhi. The police stopped the trucks and investigators later discovered
that the rice was being stolen by an NGO.
2. In November 2006, the residents of Pembong village (30 km
from Darjeeling) accused a group of teachers of embezzling midday
meals. In a written complaint, the residents claimed that students at the
primary school had not received their midday meal for the past year and
a half.
3. In December 2006, The Times of India reported that school staff was
inflating attendance to obtain food grains.
4. Twenty-three children died in Dharma Sati village in Saran District on 16
July 2013 after eating pesticide-contaminated mid-day meals. On 31 July
2013, 55 students at a government middle school fell ill at Kalyuga village
in Jamui district after their midday meal provided by an NGO. On the same
day, 95 students at Chamandi primary school in the Arwal district were ill
after their meal.

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 • Mid-day meal at Siddheshwar Kanya Prashala, Solapur:
The Mid-day meal is not provided in this school. The girls bring their
food from their homes. The food which girls bring usually, Roti and
Vegetables-curry, cereals, pulses, etc. which contain, fibers proteins,
carbohydrates, and all the nutrients.
Most of the girls had lunch during the small break which is a break of
fifteen minutes from 1:30 PM to 1:45 PM and some of the girls had
lunch in later break which is from 2.55 PM To 3:25 PM.
Although the government scheme Mid-Day Meal is not provided in
this school, various activities are implemented by the school.
The activity called “Usal Day” is conducted each month.

Cereals and pulses are always healthy. They are a good source of fiber,
good for diabetics, and heart-friendly. Sprouts are recognized as “true
living food” and “Nature’s boon to mankind”, sprouts have added
value to our diet from ancient times. It’s truly a great activity
implemented by the school which will help students to acquire healthy
food and helps to inculcate values and importance of such foods.

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 Tiffin boxes of students filled with cereals, pulses, sprouts

Students having a meal at the lunch

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 • My Opinion:

As a practical work of school internship, we have a practical “Study of

Mid-Day Meal”.
Successive federal and state governments have taken various
measures to increase school attendance, with some degree of success.
One of the strategies has been the midday meals in school initiative.
The mid-day meal helps to increase levels of nutrition and school
enrolment, a sound investment for the future.

Though the mid-day scheme is not implemented in this school, the

school is well-active in providing nutritional value through the
activities of the meals of students’ meals.
Students bring the nutritional foods to their meals and have lunch
together in the school by sharing in the class.

We have studied the Mid-Day meal scheme as a part of practical work,

and also studied the parallel way of the school instead of the
government scheme.

The necessary information and guidance to complete this practical

were given by our mentor, Dr. L. V. Bamane Mam. I am thankful to her
for her guidance. As we have collected the information on the school’s
activity in a group, I am thankful to our group members too. The
necessary information was provided by school members, especially
students, I am heartily thankful to them!

Thank You, All!!!

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