MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

Mid-day meal Scheme

·         Seeks to address various issues

o   food security

o   education

o   nutritional needs

·         implemented by Ministry of Human Resource Development, GOI

• It involves provision for free lunch on working days for children in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in
• Government schools
• Government Aided schools
• Local Body run schools
• Schools under Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS)
• Alternate Innovative Education (AIE) Centres
• Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA)
• National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Schools run by Ministry of Labour.

·         The objectives

o   to provide hot cooked meal to children of primary and upper primary classes

o   Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I-V

o   Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities,  thereby increasing the enrollment, retention and attendance rates

o   Providing nutritional support to children of primary stage in drought affected areas during summer vacation

Various Stats

·          it is the world’s largest school feeding programme

·         A World Bank report states that India has 42 percent of the world’s underweight children

·         The school dropout rate is as high as 60 percent

·         Under  the Convention on the Rights of the Child to which India is a party, India has committed to providing "adequate nutritious foods" for Children.

·         Article 21 - " Right to life" of Indian Constitution when read together with

o   Art 47: duty of the state to raise the nutritional level, standard of living and improving public health

o   makes the Right to Food a derived Fundamental Right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under Article 32 of the Constitution

·         SC in response to a PIL filed directed (known as Right to Food Litigation) all government and government-assisted primary schools to provide cooked midday meals making, children (or their parents) demand school meals as a matter of right, and enforce this right through Courts if necessary. To monitor the implementation of this court order, SC appointed SC Commissioners. The Commissioners are empowered to enquire about any violations of the orders and to demand redressal, with the full authority of the Court.  They also submit periodic reports to the Supreme Court. These reports enable the Supreme Court to keep a close watch on the status of its orders, and to issue further orders as and when necessary

·         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. This is due to simple reasons such as not using iodized salt

·         Global Hunger Index ranks India at 65 out of 84 countries.

Genesis of Mid-day meal Scheme

·         Pre-Independence

o   a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced by British administration for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation

o    Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced in the Union Territory of Puducherry by French Administration

·         Post-Independence

o   Initiatives by the State Governments

§  In 1950’s, Uttar Pradesh Government introduced a scheme to provide meals consisting of boiled or roasted or sprouted grams, ground-nut, puffed rice, boiled potatoes or seasonal fruits.

§   During 1962-63, Tamil Nadu became the first state in India to initiate a noon meal programme to children with the launch of Mid Day Meal Programme in primary schools. Shri K. Kamaraj, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu introduced this in Chennai and later extended it to all districts of Tamil Nadu .

§  Gujarat was the second state to introduce MDM scheme

o   Initiatives by the Central Government

§  An Expanded Nutrition Programme was launched jointly by the Government of India and the FAO (The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations is an agency of the United Nations that leads international efforts to defeat hunger.), WHO, UNICEF which subsequently developed, into the Applied Nutrition Programme (ANP).

·         feeding programmes for the school children

·          nutritious food was cooked by the women groups and fed to the children

§  'Food for Learning' was launched in 1980’s with FAO

·         Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) girls were to be covered under this programme

§  In 1983, the Department of Education of Government of In, prepared a scheme as per the guidelines of the World Food Programme (WFP).

·          The scheme was to cover  Scheduled Caste girls(SC) and Scheduled Tribe(ST) girls in classes I-V. 

·         The proposal when circulated among states and union territories met mixed results. Many States were willing to implement the programme. However, some States expressed certain difficulties.

o   if WFP assistance were withdrawn, the state would not be able to continue the programme on its own

o    it would not be practicable to have mid-day meals only for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes children.

§  The Government of India (GoI) initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education(NP-NSPE) in 1995

·          The objectives of the scheme are to give a boost to universalisation of primary education by mitigating classroom hunger and improving nutritional status of primary school children.

·         Within few years of the beginning the scheme was universalized

·          to provide food to students in classes I-V of government, government-aided and local body run schools

·          Under this programme, a cooked mid-day is provided to all children enrolled in classes I to V.

·         Later the scheme was expanded to the children upto class VIII

·         In 2007, the name was changed from National Programme for Nutrition Support to Primary Education to National Programme of Mid Day Meals(MDM) in Schools

Finances

·         The cost of the MDMS is shared between the central and state governments.

·         At present 75 percent of the scheme is funded by the central government whereas 25 percent of the funds are provided by the state government

·         The central government provides free food grains to the states

·         The cost of cooking, infrastructure development, transportation of food grains and payment of honorarium to cooks and helpers is shared by the centre with the state governments

·         The contribution of state governments to the scheme differs from state to state.

·         12^th plan has allocated 138% more amount to MDM schemes than the previous plan

·         Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP), part of  Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana seeks to provide wage employment to beneficiaries livingbelow the poverty line within the jurisdiction of urban local bodies by utilizing their labor for construction of socially and economically useful public assets. One among the public asset which can be created under this scheme is Kitchen Sheds in Primary Schools under Mid day Meal Scheme.

Implementation Models

1.    Decentralised model

a.     In the decentralized model the meals are cooked for an exact number of children in the school, by a cook, helper, and organizer, right on the school premises and the fresh meal is served to the children.

b.    The advantages

                                          i.    Food cooked according to local taste

                                         ii.     increasing consumption and minimizing wastage

                                        iii.     community participation

                                       iv.     Transparency

                                        v.    serving as a source of employment for women

                                       vi.    suppliers and the beneficiaries coming in direct contact

c.    The Drawbacks

                                          i.    infrequent monitoring

                                         ii.    corruption

                                        iii.    hygiene issues

2.    Centralised Model

a.    mostly through a public-private partnership, an external organization cooks and delivers the meal to schools

b.    The advantages

                                          i.    ensuring the provision of hygienic and nutritious

                                         ii.     the optimum utilization of infrastructural facilities

                                        iii.    Lesser cost

                                       iv.    Standardization of processes becomes easy

c.    The Drawbacks

                                          i.    Poor community participation

                                         ii.    It doesn’t generate employment

Committees to monitor the MDM Programme

Level	Committee
National	1.    The National level Steering cum Monitoring Committee 2.    Program Approval Board (PAB) 3.    Government of India Review Missions on Mid Day Meal Scheme comprising members from Central Government, State Government, UNICEF and office of Supreme Court Commissioner 4.    independent monitoring institutes such as state universities and research institutions
State	The State level Steering cum Monitoring Committee
District	The District level Committee
Municipal	The Municipal Committee
Block	The Mandal Level Committee
Village	Panchayat level Sub Committee
School	School Management and Development Committee or Parent Teacher Association

Critical issues in the Implementation of MDM

·         Irregularity in serving meals

·         Irregularity in supply of food grains to schools

·         Caste based discrimination in serving of food

·         Poor quality of food

·         Poor coverage under School Health Programme

·         Poor infrastructure (kitchen sheds in particular)

·         Poor hygiene

·         Poor community participation

·         Monitoring Mechanism is inefficient

o   The mid-day meal tragedy in Bihar, which killed 23 children who ate contaminated cooked food

o   huge corruption

o   Fake enrolments are being done to embezzle money

o   Government agencies are not doing the monitoring. Even if there are committees at some places, they are not functional. They submit reports sitting at their tables without having visited schools. How would the government ever know what is happening in the name of mid-day meal scheme?

·         A lot of children are from very poor families. They come without having breakfast, and so they cannot study in the first half as they are hungry. In some schools, the process of distributing lunch takes hours; by that time school time is over. When will the child study?

Suggestions to plug the loopholes

·         the mid-day meals has been successful in raising enrolment rates, particularly among children from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds

·         the delivery of mid-day meal scheme may be improved by partnering with private entities and non-government organizations (NGOs) and by including chikki,sukhdi, fortified nutrition bar, and fruit in the weekly menu. This  will not only complement nutritional intake, but offer safety and variety and, by reducing the distribution time, may offer more contact time between students and teachers for studies.

·         delivery of mid-day meals is hampered by a host of reasons—from non-availability of foodgrains to the absence of kitchen stores and cooks. This can be improved with participation of community without much expenditure like involving mothers in food preparations whose children are benefitted by the scheme. This will ensure the accountability, attention towards better food preparation.

·         Program should not be focused only on providing hot cooked meal but also  about providing opportunities for children from economically challenged backgrounds to get a good education and thereby realize their true potential.

·         Bangalore based NGO Akshaya Patra has been exceptional in providing noon-meals to children going for primary education. Akshaya Patra is the world’s largest non-governmental organization (NGO) school meal program, according to the Limca Book of Records. foundation’s management and operating model, the quality and delivery of services, and the commitment of the team are all key differentiators. Akshaya Patra is run like a business, even though there is no profit motive. [Akshaya Patra's] biggest strength is that they are very conscious of every penny that is spent and they spend it extremely judiciously. While most other NGOs fit their infrastructure and meal costs within the state government funding, Akshaya Patra’s state government funding accounts for about half of meal costs. Akshaya Patra raises the rest from institutions such as ISKCON, its trustees, corporations and individual donors. The kitchens are core to the program’s operations, and to its success. Unlike in most other midday meal programs, where the cooking takes place at the school or in small set-ups, Akshaya Patra’s kitchens are highly automated and centralized to allow for scale. This minimizes manual handling and ensures high standards of hygiene. centralized kitchen model leverages technology and innovations to maximize operational and cost efficiencies. For instance, Akshaya Patra uses customized industrial steam generators and specifically designed vegetable cutting machines that can process hundreds of kilograms of vegetables per hour.

·         One of Akshaya Patra’s most striking innovations is its three-tier kitchens based on gravity flow. Raw material for the food kept on the ground floor is raised to the third floor via bucket elevation. Then cleaned and dropped via computer controlled flow valves to the lower level and mixing of various ingredients takes place here. These are then dropped to vessels on the first floor where the cooking is done. The cooked food is similarly dropped to the ground floor, where it is packed into airtight stainless steel containers and loaded into custom-designed grid vehicles. 

·         These large kitchens, however, have a limitation: They are not suitable for feeding schoolchildren in rural and other outlying areas. There aren’t large enough numbers of children in smaller villages to make large-scale production feasible, and bad roads make it too difficult for food to be distributed widely. To remedy that, Akshaya Patra has also adopted decentralized kitchens. Under this model, the program identifies self-help groups of women in villages who cook and distribute Akshaya Patra meals in small quantities. Akshaya Patra provides these groups with the ingredients and the required set-up by way of place, fuel and vessels. It also provides them with training in cooking, nutrition, hygiene and bookkeeping, and monitors them on a regular basis. Akshaya Patra’s low-cost decentralized model has another significant social impact: It generates jobs for women in these remote areas.

·         Another key priority is to ensure greater  standardization in the kitchens, be it facility layout, operating practices, equipment specifications or sourcing.

·         There are moves toward building strong vendor relationships (including direct relationships with farmers) and maximizing centralized procurement wherever possible for equipment and raw material.

·         Currently, each kitchen does its own sourcing. Consolidated buying will help us to drive our costs down further and increase our operational efficiencies

·         Akshaya Patra is also working toward getting all of its kitchens certified by the ISO (International Organization for Standardization).

·         Akshaya Patra is in talks with SGS, the multinational food certifying agency, to conduct regular hygiene audits and with a top consulting firm for process audits of its kitchens.

·         Akshaya Patra plans to share know-how and standards with other NGOs. This can help [other NGOs] to increase their efficiencies and also boost their fund-raising capacity.

·         Akshaya Patra is not without critics. Some believe its model of centralized kitchens is faulty. “Akshaya Patra is not only very capital-intensive, it also does not fulfill the government’s midday meal program’s second objective of creating employment

·         Others are critical of Akshaya Patra’s urban focus and its spending on marketing and fund-raising.