The success of the midday meal (MDM) scheme may have encouraged the government to extend it from primary to middle-level school, but there are chinks in the programme.
Most schools in the country are not providing food as prescribed by nutritionists
NEW DELHI: The success of the midday meal (MDM) scheme may have encouraged the government to extend it from primary to middle-level school, but there are chinks in the programme.
According to government agencies monitoring the scheme, despite a huge spending of Rs4,813.20 crore in 2006-07, the scheme is being implemented in only letter and not in spirit in many states. The absence of green vegetables and micronutrients from school menus is largely responsible for malnutrition among children, who are mostly fed khichhdi instead of a proper meal.
Despite tall claims by state governments, the ground reality is that the scheme has several loopholes. In Haryana's Kurukshetra district, which incidentally is the Lok Sabha constituency of industrialist Naveen Jindal, cases of fake enrollments have been registered to hide pilferage of grains. In Rewari, cases of caste discrimination have also been detected. Only 56 per cent of children in Karnataka's Chamarajnager district benefited from the scheme, while in Yelandur block caste discrimination cases came to fore. While the scheme is faring well in Maharashtra, schools in some areas of the state serve only biscuits.
Eighty per cent of schools in Bihar get only khichdi. Most complained that it was not adequate.
In Gujarat, green leafy vegetable are not served during MDMs. Egg plants and potatoes are the only vegetables students get. Interestingly, since the MDM menu in West Bengal includes fish and eggs besides rice and dal, classes in the primary sections are filled with both underage and overage children.
Greater chinks have been detected in the North-East. In Arunachal Pradesh, only nine out of 38 schools monitored served MDMs. In Assam, many schools even provide uncooked rice. In Meghalaya, cooked food is provided only once or twice a week in the dry season.
"There is clearly a need for strict monitoring and we are requesting the state governments to be more careful about MDM," said a Human Resource Development (HRD) ministry official.
All is not lost though. After all, the government's enrollment and retention records are showing a steep rise. The credit can go to states like Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab where the scheme has been implemented in the right spirit.
In Chattisgarh, almost 100 per cent children eat food prescribed by MDM nutritionists. Green vegetables and fruits are part of their meals and children with deficiencies are given iron and vitamin s.
In Andhra Pradesh, 98.7 per cent schools serve hot food. About 84 pc serve rice, dal, sambar, khichdi regularly and 88.4 per cent of the schools provide green vegetables. No evidence of caste discrimination was found in 83.7 per cent schools.
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