The Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Successes, Challenges, and the Road Ahead: The Mid-Day-Meal Program was established in 1995 to provide free Iunches to 12 million pupils in elementary and high school. The plan`s purpose is to reduce hunger and improve education while also improving nutritional status and increasing child participation and retention rates.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme
The Midday Meal Scheme is the biggest program of its kind in the world, feeding 120 million kids in more than 1.27 million schools and education Guarantee Scheme locations. On August 15, 1995, India`s National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education” a program designed to support primary education functioning.
The Goal of the Mid-day Meal Scheme
- Increase the enrollment of students from underprivileged backgrounds in schools.
- Increasing enrollment leads to higher school attendance.
- To keep children in Grades 1-8 enrolled.
- To give nutritional help to elementary school children in drought-affected communities.
- Cooking competitions based on local ingredients could also be staged as part of the initiative to promote ethnic food and unique menus.
- Special supplies for nutritious goods would be made in districts with a high prevalence of anaemia.
- A nutritional expert will be assigned to each school to guarantee that pupils` BMI, weight and haemoglobin levels are checked.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Successes
The success quotient depends upon which state, it is taken into account. I am from Kerela and here it is a great success- no doubt about it. Tamil Nadu was the first state to introduce Mid-day, Meals in 1962 to attract children to the school and later it was launched as a centrally sponsored scheme on 15th August 1995. This provides more nutritious food to students gives a filip to organic farming in the state and also increases the green cover in the state.
Challenges of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme
Despite the many successes, there are a lot of challenges with this scheme`s
- This Scheme`s main flaw is that it requires the teachers to dedicate two or three hours to putting it into practice.
- Due to the participation of the teachers in the plan, students’ study time, and educational quality deteriorate,
- Most government primary schools in remote areas have a small student population, hence the long-term viability of this plan is likewise at risk.
- The Majority of status did not adhere to the instructions of the gov. of India to deliver food grain at the school pointed out by PDS dealers, which led to a leakage in the supply chain and the adulteration and theft of the food grains supplied, according to the Planning Commission`s report on the performance evaluation of the cooked Mid-Day Meal Scheme.
- The interruption of food grain supply in Uttar Pradesh led to several days when meals were not prepared in schools, as shown in the report of the 5TH joint Review mission on the Mid-day-Meal Scheme in 2013.
- One of the Few studies that specifically focused on access for Dalits was that in Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, Dalit Children`s access to MDM is limited by the fact that the meals are typically served in hamlets belonging to dominant castes.
- In the 2003 Dalit Student Insitute of India research, 37% of respondents in Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, and Uttar Pradesh claimed caste discrimination in MDMs, while 48% indicate hatred toward Dalit chefs according to research.
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme: The Road Ahead
The concept of supplementary nutrition support through educational institutions has had a long history in India. In 1925, A Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Municipal Corporation. However, it was about 50 years later that such a program was given serious attention at the national level by the Government.
Concept Of the Mid-Day Meal Program
The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is a flagship programme of the Government of india it is launched on 15th August 1995. It was initially Launched in 2408 blocks in the country but by the year 1997-98, the NP-NPSE was introduced in all the blocks of the country.
Food Norms with Effect From 1-12-2009
| Sl. No. | Items | Quantity per day/Child Primary | Quantity per day/Child Upper Primary |
| 1 | Foodgrain | 100 gms | 150gms |
| 2 | Pulses | 20gms | 30gms |
| 3 | Vegetables | 50gms | 75gms |
| 4 | Oil& Fat | 5gms | 7.5gms |
| 5 | Salt & Condiments | as per need | As per need |
Conclusion
In this article, we discussed The Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Successes, Challenges, and the Road Ahead, The plan`s purpose is to reduce hunger and improve education while also improving nutritional status.