Midday meal scheme

Why in news?

• The central government had recently announced Rs 100 per child under the mid-day meal scheme to meet the nutritional needs of children in the pandemic.

What is the objective of the scheme?

• The scheme aims to enhance the enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among school going children studying in Classes I to VIII of Government, Government - aided schools, Special Training centres (STC) and Madarasas and Maktabs supported under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan through the provision of midday meal for children.

What constitutes the midday meal?

• The scheme guidelines envisage to provide cooked mid-day meal with 450 calories and 12 g of protein to every child at primary level and 700 calories and 20 g of protein at upper primary level.
• This energy and protein requirement for a primary child comes from cooking 100 g of rice/flour, 20 g pulses and 50 g vegetables and 5 g oil, and for an upper primary child it comes from 150 g of rice/flour, 30 g of pulses and 75 g of vegetables and 7.5 g of oil.

What are the provisions made under the scheme:

• Free supply of food grains @ 100 grams per child per school day at Primary and @ 150 grams per child per school day at Upper Primary.
• Subsidy for transportation of food grains is provided to 11 special category states at PDS rate prevalent in these states and up to a maximum of Rs.75.00 per quintal for other than special categories States/UTs.
• In order to cover the impact of price rise in the items of consumption in the MDM basket, the cooking cost has been revised upward annually since 2010.
• A separate provision for payment of honorarium to cook-cum-helper @ Rs. 1000/- per month has been made.
• One cook-cum-helper may be engaged in a school having upto 25 students, two cooks-cum-helpers for schools having 26 to 100 students and one additional cook-cum-helper for every addition of upto 100 students.
• Funds are also provided for creation of kitchen infrastructure, stores and utensils.
• A provision for involving mothers of students in supervision of cooking has made to ensure Community Participation.

Prelims Question

Consider the following statements regarding Midday meal scheme:
1.It provides Midday meals compulsorily to all school students.
2.Funds are provided under the scheme for creation of kitchen infrastructure in schools.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
(a)1 only
(b)2 only
(c)Both 1 and 2
(d)Neither 1 nor 2

Answer to the Prelims Question