Midday meal: Govt working on SMS model for regular feedback

To bring efficiency in midday meal programme in schools, the government is working on a SMS model to get regular feedbacks from school principals and other stakeholders about its implementation.

The SMS-based technology solution is being used in Uttar Pradesh to get schemes across the state's 1,50,000 schools.

"The aim is to cover the country with this SMS-based model by June and work in this regard is in progress," joint secretary in the HRD Ministry Amarjit Singh told reporters in Delhi.

Arguably the largest school feeding programme, the programme reaches out to over 10.46 crore children in primary and upper primary schools in 11.92 lakh schools.

As principals will be sent SMS and will be asked to reply with their inputs. The community at large including sarpanchs and parents could also be involved. This will help in monitoring food being served and checking availability of stock, he said.

As part its efforts to strengthen monitoring mechanism, HRD ministry launched a website providing detailed guidelines about the scheme, approvals for various states and physical and financial progress under the scheme.

Launched by HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, the site www.mdm.nic.in provides detail about the monitoring mechanism as well as reports of review missions and quarterly review reports.

It also provides details of key officials responsible for the scheme.