The Midday Meal Scheme, or PM-Poshan Shakti Nirman in Hindi, is a mandatory but free school meal programme in India designed to enhance the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in government primary and upper primary schools, government-aided anganwadis (pre-school), madrasas and maqtabs. Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.
In 1920, A. Subbarayalu Reddiar, the first Chief Minister of the Madras Presidency, introduced the mid-day meal scheme in a Corporation school in the Thousand Lights area. The initiative was based on the idea proposed by P. Theagaraya Chetty, who was serving as the President of the Justice Party at the time.
The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented in the Union Territory of Puducherry under the French Administration since 1930. In post-independent India, the Midday Meal Scheme was first launched in Tamil Nadu, pioneered by the former Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in the early 1960s. By 2002, the scheme was implemented in all of the states under the orders of the Supreme Court of India.
In 2021, the Central Government announced that an additional 2.4 million students receiving pre-primary education at government and government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.
Under article 24, paragraph 2c of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a party, India has committed to yielding "adequate nutritious food" for children. The programme has undergone many changes since its launch in 1995. The Midday Meal Scheme is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013. The legal backing for the Indian school meal programme is akin to the legal backing provided in the US through the National School Lunch Act.
History
The Midday Meal Scheme refers to the government of India programme introduced in all government elementary schools to provide children with cooked lunches. Tamil Nadu was the first state in India to introduce this scheme. The first school which had the scheme was the Sourashtra Boys Higher Secondary School, Madurai, which implemented it in 1955. On 28 November 2001 the Supreme Court asked all state governments to begin this programme in their schools within 6 months. Initiatives by state governments began in the 1962–63 school year. During 1982, 1 July onwards, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, M. G. Ramachandran upgraded the existing midday meal scheme in the state to 'Nutritious noon-meal scheme' keeping in mind that around 68 lakh children were malnourished. Gujarat was the second state to introduce an MDM scheme in 1984, but it was later discontinued.
A midday meal scheme was introduced in Kerala in 1984, and was gradually expanded to include more schools and grades. By 1990–91, twelve states were funding the scheme to all or most of the students in their area: Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh. Karnataka, Odisha and West Bengal received international aid to help with the implementation of the programme, while in AP and Rajasthan the programme was completely funded by foreign aid.
In Karnataka, the Children's LoveCastles Trust started providing midday meals in 1997. A total of eight schools were adopted and a food bank programme and an Angganwasi milk Programme were started. The food-bank programme was replaced by the State Government midday meal scheme.
Initiatives by the central government
thumb|President [[Pranab Mukherjee launching mid-day meal scheme at a Central Government-run school]]
The government of India initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15 August 1995. and the name was changed from National Programme for Nutrition Support to Primary Education to National Programme of Mid Day Meals in Schools. Though cooked food was to be provided, most states (apart from those already providing cooked food) chose to provide "dry rations" to students. "Dry rations" refers to the provision of uncooked 3 kg of wheat or rice to children with 80% attendance.
Supreme court order
In April 2001, the People's Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) initiated the Public Interest Litigation (Civil) No. 196/2001, People's Union for Civil Liberties v. Union of India & Others – popularly known as the "right to food" case. The PUCL argued that article 21 – "right to life" of the Indian constitution when read together with articles 39(a) and 47, makes the right to food a derived fundamental right which is enforceable by virtue of the constitutional remedy provided under article 32 of the constitution. The PUCL argued that excess food stocks with the Food Corporation of India should be fed to hungry citizens. This included providing midday meals in primary schools. The scheme came into force with the supreme court order dated 28 November 2001, which requires all government and government-assisted primary schools to provide cooked midday meals.
Interim orders
The Supreme Court occasionally issues interim orders regarding midday meals. Some examples are:
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| Charges on conversion cost || "The conversion costs for a cooked meal, under no circumstances, shall be recovered from the children or their parents" || 20 April 2004
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| Central assistance || "The Central Government... shall also allocate funds to meet with the conversion costs of food-grains into cooked midday meals" || 20 April 2004
Finances
The central and state governments share the cost of the Midday Meal Scheme, with the centre providing 60 percent and the states 40 percent. The central government provides grains and financing for other food. Costs for facilities, transportation, and labour is shared by the federal and state governments. The participating states/territories contribute different amounts of money, depending on whether they are Himalayan states, Northeastern Region (NER) states, union territories without legislature, or the residual (Non-NER states and union territories with legislature). The share contributed by states is often larger than what is stipulated. While the eleventh five-year plan allocated for the scheme, the twelfth five-year plan has allocated , a 134 percent rise. The public expenditure for the Mid Day Meal Programme has gone up from in 2007–08 to in 2013–14. As of FY24 - 25, the budget estimate of the PM Poshan Scheme stands at Rs. 12,467.39 crore (US$ 1.49 billion).
Implementation models
Decentralised model
This is the most widespread practice. In the decentralised model, meals are cooked on-site by local cooks and helpers or self-help groups. This system has the advantage of being able to serve local cuisine, providing jobs in the area, and minimising waste. It also allows for better monitoring (e.g., by parents and teachers). In total, the MDM Scheme employs over 2.5 million cooks/food preparers (referred to as cooks-cum-helpers), usually providing a small honorarium for their work (equal to approximately US$14 per month).
In the absence of adequate infrastructure (such as kitchen sheds, utensils etc.), it can lead to accidents and maintaining hygiene can be difficult. In 2004, 87 children died when the thatched roof of a classroom was ignited by sparks from a cooking fire. In 2011, a child died after succumbing to burn injuries she sustained after accidentally falling into a cooking vessel.
Centralised model
In the centralised model, an external organisation cooks and delivers the meal to schools, mostly through public-private partnerships. Centralised kitchens are seen more in urban areas, where density of schools is high so that transporting food is a financially viable option. Advantages of centralised kitchens include ensuring better hygienic as large scale cooking is done through largely automated processes. Various NGOs such as the Nalabothu Foundation, Akshaya Patra Foundation, Ekta Shakti Foundation, Naandi Foundation, and Jay Gee Humanitarian Society provide midday meals. The study also found that when the food arrives and is of inadequate quality, even teachers feel helpless and do not know whom to complain to.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development reported that 95% of tested meal samples prepared by NGOs in Delhi did not meet nutritional standards in 2010–12. In response, the ministry withheld 50% of the payment for the deficient meals.
International assistance
International voluntary and charity organisations have assisted. Church World Service has provided milk powder to Delhi and Madras Municipal Corporation; CARE has provided corn soya meal, Bulgar wheat, and vegetable oils; and UNICEF has provided high proteins foods and educational support. In 1982, 'Food for Learning' was launched with assistance from the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO). Initially the programme was aimed at scheduled caste and scheduled tribe girls.
Monitoring and implementation
Monitoring mechanism
{| class="wikitable"
|+Committees to monitor the MDM Programme The scheme is independently monitored twice a year.
Evaluation of the scheme
The MDM Scheme has many potential benefits: attracting children from disadvantaged sections (especially girls, Dalits and Adivasis) to school, improving regularity, nutritional benefits, socialisation benefits and benefits to women are some that have been highlighted.
thumb|School students taking Mid day meal in a school of Haryana province of India
Studies by economists show that some of these benefits have indeed been realised. The positive effect on enrollment of disadvantaged children (Dreze and Kingdon), on attendance (by Chakraborty, Jayaraman, Pande), on learning effort (by Booruah, Afridi and Somanathan), on improving nutritional inputs (Afridi), and on improving nutritional outcomes (by Singh, Dercon and Parker). However, policy inputs by Dr Edmond Fernandes suggested that it would be wise to address the problem through a cross sectoral perspective as cascading risks globally is affecting food security & healthy nutrition.
Caste based discrimination continues to occur in the serving of food, though the government seems unwilling to acknowledge this.
Sukhdeo Thorat and Joel Lee found in their 2005 study that caste discrimination was occurring in conjunction with the Mid Day Meals programme.
Media reports also document the positive effect of the programme for women, especially working women and its popularity among parents, children and teachers alike. Media reports have also highlighted several implementation issues, including irregularity, corruption, hygiene, caste discrimination, etc. A few such incidents are listed below:
- In December 2005, Delhi police seized eight trucks laden with 2,760 sacks of rice meant for primary school children. The rice was being transported from Food Corporation of India godowns Bulandshahr district to North Delhi. The police stopped the trucks and investigators later discovered that the rice was being stolen by an NGO.
- In November 2006, the residents of Pembong village (30 km from Darjeeling) accused a group of teachers of embezzling midday meals. In a written complaint, the residents claimed that students at the primary school had not received their midday meal for the past year and a half.
- In December 2006, The Times of India reported that school staff were inflating attendance in order to obtain food grains.
- Twenty-three children died in Dharma Sati village in Saran District on 16 July 2013 after eating pesticide-contaminated mid day meals. On 31 July 2013, 55 students at a government middle school fell ill at Kalyuga village in Jamui district after their midday meal provided by an NGO. On the same day, 95 students at Chamandi primary school in Arwal district were ill after their meal.
- Over the past 20 years, the amount allocated per student under the Midday Meal Scheme (Prime Minister's Poshan Shakti Nirman) has increased by Rs. 3.45. In the year 2004–05, Rs. 2 per child was provided for classes one to five, which has now increased to Rs. 5.45, and Rs. 8.17 for classes six to eight, including the cost of cooking ingredients like rice, lentils, vegetables, spices, oil, and salt, as well as the cost of cooking gas. The Midday Meal Scheme is jointly operated by the central and state governments, with 60% of the funds provided by the central government and 40% by the state government.
Criticism
Despite the success of the programme, child hunger as a problem persists in India. According to current statistics, 42.5% of the children under 5 are underweight. Some simple health measures such as using iodised salt and getting vaccinations are uncommon in India. "India is home to the world's largest food insecure population, with more than 500 million people who are hungry", India State Hunger Index (ISHI) said. Many children don't get enough to eat, which has far-reaching implications for the performance of the country as a whole. "Its rates of child malnutrition is higher than most countries in Sub-Saharan Africa," it noted. The 2009 Global Hunger Index ranked India at 65 out of 84 countries. More than 200 million went hungry in India that year, more than any other country in the world. The report states that "improving child nutrition is of utmost urgency in most Indian states".
As the MDM Scheme operates only in government/government-aided schools, it does not serve the large share of children in India who attend private schools. From 2015 to 2018, the number of children receiving food through the MDM scheme declined in many states, a pattern that may at least partly reflect the rising popularity of private schools in the country.