Mid - day meals@ schools

Mid-day Meal Scheme

A proposal is mooted by Government of India to stop the Mid-day Meal Scheme across India. In a meeting chaired by Finance Minister, Arun Jaitley in the presence of HRD Minister Smrithi Irani, it was proposed that budget spend on the mid-day meal is wasteful and hence Rs.5-6 given per student per day should be stopped.

The Mid-day Meal Scheme Program:

1. Designed to improve (i) nutritional status of school-age children (ii) encourage students to attend school regularly.

2. Supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in Government, Government Aided, Local Body, Educational Guarantee Scheme and alternate innovative educational centers.

3. Largest such program in the world covering 12 crore students in over 12.65 lakh schools.

4. Under the program cooked mid-day meal with minimum 300 calories and 12 gram protein is provided to children enrolled from class 1 to 8.

5. Under the mid-day meal scheme Central Government provides 75% and State Government provides 25% of the cost.

6. Budget spend for mid-day meal program in 2013-14 by UPA Government was Rs.13,500 crores

First mid-day meal program was initiated by Congress Government's under K. Kamaraj in Tamilnadu in 1962, then by Kerala under K. Karunakaran in 1984. Most of the other states followed suit in 1990.

Under article 24, of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a party, signed by Vajpayee Government in 2004, India has committed to providing "adequate nutritious foods" for children. Mid-day meal scheme as a policy was implemented by UPA when they came to power in 2005.