Mid Day Meal Scheme

The Mid-day Meal Program is a Government of India school meal program that aims to enhance the nutrient intake of school-age children across the country. The scheme’s goal is to enhance the efficiency of primary and secondary education by increasing children’s nutritional status and therefore eliminating malnutrition.

The midday meal project is a government of India program that provides prepared lunch to children in all public elementary schools. Tamil Nadu was the very first Indian state to implement this plan.The midday meal scheme was first introduced in 1956 by chief minister of tamilnadu k.kamaraj 

An Overview Of Mid Day Meal Scheme

The Government of India’s school-related nutrition is a Nationwide Program of Mid-Day Meals (MDM). In this report, we examine the patterns in plan enrollment and overall consumption of funds by multiple states all throughout the last couple of years. This will also help us to understand the resources offered by the plan throughout the lockdown time.

On August 15, 1995, to oversee Nutritional Assistance to Primary School (Mid-Day Meal Scheme) was established as a government initiative. The initiative was designed to accelerate the universalization of basic education with the intention of raising enrolment, attendance, and retention while also influencing children’s nutrition levels.

The initiative first targeted children in elementary school (grades I through V) educated at the government, local government, and corresponding institution-aided schools. It was expanded in October 2002 to include pupils enrolled in the Education Guarantee Act (EGS) and Alternate solution and Innovative Education (AIE) Centers (now referred to as Special Training Centers).

The Ministry of Social Justice amended the Scheme’s criteria in December 2004. These guidelines emphasized the importance of delivering cooked meals which have at least 300 calories along with 8-12 grams of protein. There was an emphasis on the enrollment, attendance, and engagement of children from underprivileged backgrounds. During the summer holidays in drought-affected places, pupils at the primary level will also receive nutritional support. Administration, monitoring, and assessment assistance were also planned.

The scheme was expanded to include children in higher primary grades in 2008-09. It was expanded in April 2008 to include Madrasas/Maktabs maintained by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Every year, the Program Approval Board authorizes the number of students who will benefit from the MDM plan based on submissions from the state. Obstacles to effective implementation.

Despite the MDM scheme’s existence for over two decades and the government’s initiatives to improve the scheme’s contents over the years, the scheme’s actual implementation suffers from a variety of flaws and lapses, as highlighted by the CAG’s Audit Reports of Mid-Day Meal Scheme (Report no.36 of 2015). The study presents major findings from a performance audit of the MDM Scheme’s execution in 27 states (excluding Mizoram) and 7 UTs where the program was in operation. The scheme’s performance assessment highlighted numerous red flags, including over-concerning of enrolment counts, incidences of leakage, financial disorderliness, below-average meal quality, and insufficient monitoring, all of which persist.

According to the 2015 report, the number of children enrolled in MDM Scheme-administered schools has steadily declined over the years, from 14.69 crores in 2009-10 to 13.87 crores in 2013-14. This conclusion is still relevant for years after 2013-14, as we will demonstrate in the following section. The report also points out that, while enrolment in the MDM scheme decreased overall, enrolment in private schools increased 38 percent during the same period, from 4.02 crore to 5.53 crore, representing that MDM alone was not a precondition to keep children in school and that there is a rising portion of society looking for better education quality.

The research highlights that the process in place for integrating statistics on the number of students attending the MDM scheme has been severely harmed. According to numerous sources, the percentage of actual children enrolled in the MDM system was constantly lower than that provided by states to the Government for reclaiming the price of food grains and preparation costs. The audit revealed an institutionalized dramatic irony of figures pertaining to students receiving MDMs, irregular detraction or stealing of food grains, the capitulation of inflated transportation costs, and avoidance of data affecting food grain supply, all of which point to extensive outflows and misapplications, resulting in losses and embezzlement in the scheme.

Main Objectives Of The MDM Scheme

The government’s MDM objectives are as follows: improving Overall the health of children in grades I-V in the governmental, local body, and government-aided schools, as well as EGS and AIE centers.

• Encouraging youngsters from poor backgrounds to attend school more frequently and assisting them in concentrating on classroom activities.

• Providing nutritional help to primary school-aged children in drought-affected areas during the summer vacation.

·   While working on enhancing nutritional status and adherence, Akshaya Patra also strives to meet two SDGs: Zero Poverty and Quality Education.

Conclusion

We have learned about Mid Day Meal Scheme, An overview of the Mid Day Meal Scheme, The aim of the mid-day meal scheme, The main objectives of the MDM scheme, the Benefits of the Mid Day Meal Programme,  and all other topics related to Mid Day Meal Scheme.

For a minimum of 200 days, every kid in every government and government-aided primary school was to be fed a cooked Mid Day Meal with a minimum caloric value of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein per day. By requiring all children to eat the same meal, it fosters equality among various social castes. It may also result in a long-term reduction in poverty since, after a few years, more people will be educated and contribute to the economy.