August

2011

TheSchoolFeeding
ProgrammeinIndia

M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION, INDIA

The School Feeding Programme in India

August 2011

M S SWAMINATHAN RESEARCH FOUNDATION

3rd Cross Road, Taramani Institutional Area, Chennai-600 113, INDIA
Tel: +91 44 2254 1229/1698/2698/2699 Fax: 2254 1319

2
Acknowledgements
The M S Swaminathan Research Foundation has prepared this document in response to a request
from Imperial College of Science, Technology and Medicine, London. We are thankful to the
Imperial College for providing us an opportunity to document the Indian experience with regard
to school feeding. Contributions to the present publication were requested and received from
Prof. Venkatesh Athreya, Mr. K S Gopal, Mr. Tusar Ranjan Nayak, Mr. Akshaya Kumar Panda,
and Ms. G Anuradha. I am thankful to each and every one of them for their contributions. In the
opening chapter Prof. Athreya succinctly discusses the major elements of the school feeding
programme in India and sets the ground for other case studies. I am deeply indebted to him. I
acknowledge the secretarial assistance received from Mr. A Sakthi Velan and helpful comments
from Dr. L Vedavalli.

R Rukmani
Director in-charge
Food Security
M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai
August 2011

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Contents

Chapter 1: The School Feeding Programme in India V B Athreya

Chapter 2: The School Feeding Programme in Tamil Nadu V B Athreya

Chapter 3: Salient Aspects of School Feeding Programme in Puducherry

G Anuradha and R Rukmani

Chapter 4: Mid Day Meal Programme in Andhra Pradesh K S Gopal

Chapter 5: The School Feeding Programme in Odisha V B Athreya

Case Studies from Odisha Tusar Ranjan Nayak & Akshaya Kumar

Panda

Annexure 1: The School Feeding Programme in Tamil Nadu: Some Trends

Annexure 2: A Comparative Picture of Nutritional Norms/Quantity of Items in
Implementation of MDMS across India
Quantity of items provided in the MDMS, 2008-09, for Primary
Classes (in gms)
Quantity of items provided in the MDMS, 2008-09, for Upper
Primary Classes (in gms)

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 Chapter 1: The School Feeding Programme in India
V B Athreya 1
Introduction
Across the world, school feeding programmes (SFP) have been seen both as a social safety net
for vulnerable sections of the population and as an educational intervention aimed at ensuring
that children go to school and that their learning is improved by elimination of hunger in the
class room. The role of SFPs as social safety nets may have been enhanced on the context of the
recent and persisting global food, fuel and financial crises and high rates of food inflation in
most parts of the world. In this context, the experience of a large and populous developing
country like India with respect to SFPs becomes relevant for other countries seeking to initiate or
to strengthen and expand such programmes. This paper provides a descriptive summary of
Indias experience with SFPs, focussing mainly on the period since 1995, the year that saw the
launch of a national initiative in this regard.

Evolution of SFPs in India

Two key problems relating to children in India are the large numbers of children out of school
and the considerable extent of under-nourishment among children. In 2004, around 15 per cent of
children in the age group of 6-14 years were out of school (Right to Food Campaign, 2006).
According to the third national family health survey (NFHS 3, 2007) which has 2005-06 as its
reference period, 46 per cent of Indias children under 3 years of age are underweight. The
corresponding figure is 30 per cent in Sub-Saharan Africa while China records 8 per cent and
Pakistan 37 per cent (Lal, 2007). India was home to 57 million - or more than a third - of the
world's 146 million undernourished children (NFHS 3, 2007). Nutritional anaemia is also
widespread among children. The figures imply serious consequences for human resource
development and productive potential of the nation. More importantly, they also imply denial of
basic human rights to children, such as access to food and education. The policy challenge, in
this context, is to address both the educational needs and the nutritional needs of the children in
the school-going age group.

1
Advisor, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai and Visiting Professor, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai

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Successive governments at the Centre and in the States have taken various measures to enhance
enrolment and retention of children in schools with some degree of success. One of the
strategies adopted to improve enrolment and retention of children in schools has been the
provision of mid-day meals for children in schools. While there is a long history of such
initiatives, among the most well-known one is the state-wide noon meal scheme for school
children initiated by the state of Tamil Nadu way back in 1982. By the mid-1980s, the
governments of Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Gujarat had put in place a universal noon meal scheme
providing hot cooked food for children in primary schools. By 1990-91, the number of States
with such provision, either universally or on a large scale, was twelve. Five other States were
also implementing similar programmes, with either international funding or a combination of
own resources and international funding. It was in such a situation that the Government of India
launched the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NPNSPE,
popularly known as Mid-Day Meals Scheme or MDMS) on August 15, 1995.

The objective of the NPNSPE was stated as follows:

The programme is intended to give a boost to universalisation of primary education,
by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously impacting on
nutrition of students in primary classes (GoI, 1995).

The scheme sought to integrate the noon meal schemes being already implemented by some
states and to cover all the states. It involved central support to the States by way of free supply of
100 grams of food grain per child per day and subsidy for transport of grain from the nearest
distribution point of the Food Corporation of India. The State governments were required to meet
the costs of infrastructure and the cooking cost. To begin with, the scheme was introduced in the
2,368 development blocks. Local bodies were declared to be the implementing agencies, with
supervision from the district and state levels of the governments administrative machinery.

Initially, the state governments were advised to derive finance from then existing central
government funded poverty alleviation schemes for providing necessary infrastructure and
meeting their share of per child infrastructure costs. But, from April 1999 onwards, responsibility
for raising their share of funding was transferred to States/UTs. Some states facing financial

6
difficulties continued with the scheme of distributing foodgrains at 3 kg/student /month as an
interim measure. However, in 2003, Planning Commission of India asked the states to earmark a
minimum of 15 per cent of additional central assistance (ACA) under a central government
scheme for the financial requirements of converting grains into cooked meals 2 .

Universalising the scheme to all States proved difficult since many states were not in a position
to meet the costs of cooking and to build the necessary infrastructure. Some States did not
implement the scheme at all. Some states (like Madhya Pradesh) provided uncooked grains at the
rate of 3 kg per month (100 grams per day) per child as take-home rations. It took a long time
and a change of government for the central government to respond to the fiscal constraints the
states faced in providing children a hot cooked meal at school. The scheme was modified only in
2004 to address this issue. It was modified further in 2006, improving its content and providing
greater support to states than earlier. However, long before the central government took these
steps, an important judgment of the highest court of the country, the Supreme Court, delivered in
November 2001 as interim orders in a public interest litigation filed in April 2001 by the Peoples
Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL), went a long way towards converting the MDMS from a mere
scheme into a legal entitlement of school children.

The Supreme Court Orders

In 2001, a public interest petition was filed by a civil society organization in the Supreme Court,
the highest court in India, against distributing uncooked grains to school children and against
states not implementing MDMS 3 . In an interim order dated 28 November 2001, the Supreme
Court ordered that cooked meals had to be given to children and asked all states to implement the
programme of MDMS.

Specifically, the Supreme Court directed the state governments and Union Territories to
implement the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by providing every child in every Government and
Government assisted primary school with a prepared mid-day meal with a minimum content of

2
The scheme was known as the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY)
3
WP (c) 196/2001 Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Vs. Union of India and others

7
300 calories and 8 12 grams of protein each day of school for a minimum of 200 days 4 . In
subsequent orders, the Supreme Court further strengthened the right of children to a mid-day
meal at school. In its orders of 20 April 2004, the Court observed, inter alia, that:
The conversion costs for a cooked meal, under no circumstances, shall be recovered
from the children or their parents.
The Central Government shall also allocate funds to meet the conversion costs of
food-grains into cooked mid-day meals.
In drought affected areas, mid-day meals shall be supplied even during summer
vacations.
In appointment of cooks and helpers, preference shall be given to Scheduled Castes and
Scheduled Tribes.
The Central Government shall make provisions for construction of kitchen sheds.
Attempts shall be made for better infrastructure, improved facilities (safe drinking water
etc.), closer monitoring (regular inspection etc.) and other quality safeguards as also the
improvement of the contents of the meal so as to provide nutritious meal to the children
of the primary schools.

One of the key commitments of the common minimum programme (CMP), of the United
Progressive Alliance (UPA) which formed the government at the Centre in late May 2004,
hardly four weeks after the Courts orders quoted above, was the following:

A national cooked nutritious mid-day meal scheme, funded mainly by the central government, will be
introduced in primary and secondary schools. An appropriate mechanism for quality checks will also be
set up.

Revisions in Guidelines
Subsequently, in line with the Supreme Court orders and the CMP commitments, the central
government released new guidelines for NP-NSPE in 2004. The guidelines observed that:

4
The primary school in India refers to a school offering instruction for students of classes 1 to5.

8
A large number of States continued to face financial difficulties in meeting cooking cost and
providing cooked meal to their students, and accordingly distributed only foodgrains @ 3kg per
student per month, as was envisaged in para 12 of the (NP-NSPE) Guidelines, as an interim
measure. To ameliorate this situation, Planning Commission asked State Governments in
December, 2003, to earmark a minimum 15 per cent of Additional Central Assistance (ACA)
under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) from the financial year 2004 05, for
meeting cooking cost under Mid-Day Meal Scheme (GoI, 2004).

Invoking Articles 38 (f) and 47 of the Indian Constitution 5 , the document noted that

even nine years after the commencement of the NP-NSPE, 1995, serving of
cooked meal could not be universalized in six States which included certain major
States. In many of the remaining States, quality of the meal served to children was
not satisfactory. Keeping these aspects in view, changes in the Scheme had become
necessary. Honble Supreme Court has also been seized of the matter, and has been
giving certain directions in this regard in its orders passed from time to time (GoI,
2004b).

The schemes basic objectives were to boost universalisation of primary education (classes I-V)
by improving enrolment, attendance, retention, and learning levels of children, especially those
belonging to disadvantaged sections, improve nutritional status of students of primary stage, and
provide nutritional support to students of primary stage in drought-affected areas even during the
summer vacation when schools would be closed.

According to the 2004 guidelines, the school lunch should provide 300 Kcal and 8-12 grams
protein per primary school child per day. This programme was to be implemented in all
government (including local bodies) and government-aided primary schools as well as the
Alternate and Innovative Education (AIE) centres under the Education Guarantee Scheme

5
Article 39 (f) states: The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing - that children are
given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and
that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.
Article 47 states: The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its
people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties

9
(EGS). The responsibility for implementing the scheme was vested in the State
Government/Union Territories. The central government allotted 100 grams of grain per day per
child and Rs.50 per quintal of grain as transportation cost. Total assistance per child per day was
Rs.2.21 (Rs. 1.11 for foodgrains; Rs. 1 for cooking cost; 8 paise 6 for transport subsidy; and 2
paise for management, monitoring& evaluation).

New guidelines were issued in 2006. Noting that, Today, the NP-NSPE is the worlds largest
school feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore 7 children in over 9.50 lakh
schools/EGS centres across the country, the Guidelines stated: There is also evidence to
suggest that apart from enhancing school attendance and child nutrition, mid-day meals have an
important social value and foster equality. As children learn to sit together and share a common
meal, one can expect some erosion of caste prejudices and class inequality. Moreover, cultural
traditions and social structures often mean that girls are much more affected by hunger than
boys. Thus the mid-day meal programme can also reduce the gender gap in education, since it
enhances female school attendance (GoI, 2006).

The Guidelines identified three important grounds for revising the norms and modalities of the
MDMS since the previous amendments in 2004. The provision for cooking cost of one rupee was
rather inadequate. Second, the lack of kitchen sheds was a major problem, leading to use of class
rooms for storage, and even, in some instances, for cooking, thus disrupting the educational
process significantly, besides being fraught with risk. Third, professional opinion strongly
suggested the need for revision of nutritional norms upwards, and for adding components of
micronutrient supplementation and deworming. Following the recommendations made in this
regard by the National Steering and Monitoring Committee (NSMC) for the NP-NSPE, the
Central government revised the scheme and its norms through the issue of new guidelines.

Under the new guidelines of 2006, the nutritional norm in respect of calories/student/day was
revised to a minimum of 450 from 300 in 2004. Protein intake norm per student per day was also
increased from 8-12 grams in 2004 to a minimum of 12 grams in 2006. In order to meet the new

6
Paise is plural for paisa, and paisa is one-hundredth of the Indian rupee
7
One crore equals 10 millions

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norms, a minimum of Rs.2 per child per day was allotted for cooking expenses- an increase of
Re.1 from 2004 (Table 1.1). Of this, the central government provided, per day per child, Rs.1.80
to specified vulnerable states and Rs.1.50 to other states. The balance would be met by the States
as appropriate.

Table 1.1: Central Government norms for per child allotment under MDMS
Sl. No. Category 2004 guidelines (per 2006 guidelines (per child per
child per day) day)
1. Protein 300 Kcal 450 Kcal
2. Nutrients 8 12 grams Minimum 12 grams
3. Micronutrients Not prescribed Adequate quantities of
micronutrients like iron, folic
acid, vitamin-A etc.
4. Cooking cost Re.1 Rs.2

The revised guidelines also provided for central support under the MDMS scheme, up to a
maximum of 60,000 rupees per shed, for the construction of kitchen sheds (to serve as kitchen-
cum-store) wherever the State/Union Territory was unable to meet the cost through convergence
with other centrally funded programmes. The new guidelines provided for a one-time grant of
Rs.5,000/- per school towards ..assistance for cooking/kitchen devices [gas stove with
connection, stainless steel water storage tanks, cooking and serving utensils, etc.]. They also
provided rupees 100 per quintal for 11 special category states and 75 rupees per quintal for other
states towards meeting the cost of transport of grain. Finally, the central government provided
1.8 per cent of scheme cost to the States/UTs for management and monitoring and evaluation
(MME), with the Centre spending 0.2 per cent of scheme cost towards MME 8 .

While the new guidelines vest the overall responsibility for the scheme with the States/UTs, they
also provide for a detailed programme management structure, from the national right down to the

8
During the financial year 2006-07, the Central government allocated 21.6 lakh metric tonnes of grain and rupees
2607 crores towards recurring expenses for cooking cost, transport subsidy and management, monitoring and
evaluation. It provided an additional assistance of 1586 crore rupees for infrastructure spending for kitchen sheds
and devices. (MoHRD presentation, Delhi, September 28, 2007)

11
level of local bodies, as well as guidelines for associating non-governmental organizations
(NGOs) in the scheme. A particularly innovative aspect here is the activity mapping exercise
suggested for application by the State governments with a view to enhancing the involvement of
local bodies and the community in the scheme. The guidelines also provide for systematic
concurrent monitoring and evaluation, using detailed formats and reporting systems.

Since 2006, when the guidelines described above were issued, there have been further initiatives
and modifications in the MDMS. In October 2007, the scheme was expanded to cover children in
upper primary (classes VI to VIII), initially in 3479 educationally backward blocks (EBBs).
Around 17 million upper primary children were included. Beginning with the financial year
2008-09, the programme covers all children across the country studying in Government, Local
Body and Government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centres. The
calorific value of a mid-day meal at upper primary stage has been fixed at a minimum of 700
calories and 20 grams of protein by providing 150 grams of food grains (rice/wheat) per
child/school day. During 2009, the food norms were revised to provide more pulses and
vegetables and to lower the quantity of oil and fat. The cooking costs were revised upwards in
December 2009 and again with effect from the beginning of the financial year 2009-10 on April
1, 2010. Further, a decision was taken to revise cooking costs upwards by 7.5% from April 1,
2011 to account for inflation. A separate cost component for payment of honorarium at 1000
rupees per month per cook was also introduced in December 2009. Norms for engagement of
cooks and helpers, linked to enrolment, have also been specified. The cost norms for construction
of cooking shed-cum-store have also been revised to reflect local realities in the states and to
provide some flexibility to the states. The transportation cost norms have been revised upward
for states with difficult geographical terrains. The payment of cost of food grains to the Fertilizer
Corporation of India (FCI) has been decentralized to the district level. The MDMS has now
become more or less universal across the country, with broadly similar norms 9 .

It is thus evident that, over the last decade or so, the national school feeding programme has
come to stay, thanks to governmental initiatives, judicial intervention and social movements for

9
The scheme is also referred to as the CMDM scheme, meaning the cooked mid day meal scheme, to distinguish it
from schemes serving dry rations or ready-to-eat food, and to emphasize that, at least in rural areas, cooking is done
on the school campus.

12
the right to food. While it may be too early to assess the functioning and the impact of the
MDMS in a comprehensive manner, especially in terms of long term aspects like nutritional
improvement, it is nonetheless useful to undertake a preliminary exploration.

MDMS: Promise and Performance

The stated objectives of MDMS, as we have seen, include:
i) An increase in number of school going children, in terms of both attendance and
enrolment
ii) Improvement in nutritional status of the children
iii) Promotion of social equity in terms of gender and caste

There have been several evaluation studies of the working of MDMS in recent years. Some data
on school enrolment and attendance is also available. These make possible a preliminary
assessment of MDMS.

A study in Birbhum district of West Bengal found, in its evaluation of MDMS that the scheme
had led to a significant increase in enrolment and attendance of children, the increase being
particularly marked in the case of girls and children from the scheduled castes and scheduled
tribes. It also found that the MDMS had averted severe under-nourishment, reduced social
distances and curbed teacher absenteeism (Pratichi Trust, 2005).

Similar findings have been reported from studies in Rajasthan, which have found that more than
two-thirds of parents found the quality of the mid-day meals to be satisfactory and 85 per cent
wanted the scheme to continue (Mathur et al., 2005). A survey in seventy most backward
villages of Madhya Pradesh reported that 90 per cent of teachers and cooks said the meal was
being regularly provided, and that 96 per cent of parents wanted the scheme to continue. Also, 63
per cent of parents and 74 per cent of teachers felt that the meal has helped improve the
childrens learning abilities. There was a 15 per cent increase in overall enrolment. The increase
was much higher in the case of SC and ST children (43 per cent), girls (38 per cent), SC and ST
girls (41 per cent) (Jain and Shah, 2005).

13
A study of MDMS in rural Rajasthan (Blue, 2005) reported that:
Cooked mid-day meal had become a permanent part of the daily routine of rural primary
schools in Udaipur.
There were efforts in introducing variety of menus.
Meals were helping nutritional needs of poor children.
Enrolment and attendance had increased.

Afridi (2005) reports improved functioning of MDMS in Madhya Pradesh while noting that there
is room for further improvement. Rama Naik (2005) reports that the MDMS had led to a
considerable increase in student enrolment and a decrease in teacher absenteeism in Karnataka.
She also found that mid-day meals were being served regularly and that there was a high degree
of satisfaction with the scheme on the part of both parents and students.

A study in Chittorgarh district Rajasthan found that:

overall implementation of MDM scheme is good and has had some impact on enrolment,
retention and attendance of students in primary schools. The quality of education, nutrition and
health has also improved to some extent. But the schools are still lacking in infrastructure
facilities like kitchens, storerooms, latrines and sufficient classrooms. Water facility is also not
available in many schools (CART, 2006).

The study, covering 211 schools in 14 blocks of Chittorgarh district also found that the
enrolment and retention had increased in about 64 per cent of the schools over the last three
years (Drze and Goyal, 2003).

In an earlier study conducted between January and April 2003 and covering 27 randomly
selected villages in the three states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka, Drze and Goyal
found that in 76 out of 81 sample schools, mid-day meals were being regularly served (Drze
and Goyal, 2003). Taking the 81 sample schools together, Class 1 enrolment rose by 15 per cent
between July 2001 and July 2002, with the rise in female enrolment in Chhattisgarh (17 per cent)
and Rajasthan (29 per cent) being even higher. Drze and Goyal observe that provisional
enrolment data for the states of Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan, supplied by the Education

14
Department, suggested major jumps in female enrolment, in 2002-03 over 2001-02 at 19 per cent
and 18 per cent, respectively. According to them, There is a striking break here from the trend
increase in school enrolment (about 2 per cent per year in the 1990s), and the bulk of this break
is likely to reflect the impact of mid-day meals.(Ibid).

Table 1.2: Students Covered under Mid-Day Meal Scheme in India

Sl. No. States 2001-02 2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06
1. Andhra Pradesh 7758454 7456254 7717673 9081299 6361814
2. Assam 3057221 3149361 3210526 3387583 4795759
3. Bihar 7252547 8095780 8868044 9791760 12638429
4. Gujarat 4856615 3259341 3004496 3011034 5132959
5. Haryana 1617412 1538006 1578538 1627834 1645509
6. Himachal Pradesh 668604 639974 614847 590351 577998
7. Jammu and Kashmir 716592 821890 738777 738777 1028425
8. Karnataka 5585159 5621960 5349540 5126042 4962764
9. Kerala 2334680 2355686 2166510 2116354 1907000
10. Madhya Pradesh 7482769 7579750 7729652 7649784 8665342
11. Maharashtra 10125032 9930938 9721167 9665362 9779283
12. Odisha 4423250 4621934 4631826 5151346 5156154
13. Punjab 1659750 1620811 1559682 1498697 1552404
14. Rajasthan 6221663 7177718 7678153 7662192 10215570
15. Tamil Nadu 5800543 5401644 5529945 4305932 4152167
16. Uttar Pradesh 763093 14855697 16374892 16996916 18644467
17. West Bengal 9581419 10563148 10268683 10290761 10886311
India 103452587 103594682 105665960 108727254 119391681
Note: The numbers relate to children in primary schools
Source: Ministry of HRD, Government of India

The MDMS evaluation study carried out by NIPCCD in Madhya Pradesh during 2005-07 found
that the scheme played an important role in reducing drop-out rates, especially among girls. The
evaluation concluded that the MDMS scheme increased social equity by bringing children from

15
different social groups and letting them sit under the same roof. The report noted that the MDMS
contributed to gender equity both by improving female enrolment rates and by providing
employment to rural and tribal women (NIPCCD, 2007).

Increase in enrolment
It is clear from available data that since the initiation of the National Programme of Nutritional
Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) in 1995, and with its further strengthening consequent
to the Supreme Court orders, there has been a steady increase in the number of children covered
under the mid-day meal scheme across many States in the country.

States such as Tamil Nadu and Kerala, where a universal or near universal MDMS had been in
operation for a long time and where the demographic regime had stabilized and the population in
the primary school age group was not increasing, do not show dramatic changes in mid-day meal
participation for obvious reasons. On the other hand, in states where the NP-NSPE of 1995 had
been indifferently implemented or remained largely unimplemented on account of financial
constraints arising from the fact of non-provision by the Central government of assistance toward
cooking costs, there is a clear improvement after the coming into force of the NP-NSPE
guidelines of 2004. The improvement comes in the aftermath of the Supreme Court judgment of
November 2001, but compliance with the historic judgment remained poor or lukewarm prior to
2004. This is especially evident when one looks at the figures for states such as Rajasthan and
Bihar. In Rajasthan, the number of children getting a hot cooked meal in the school increased
from 62.22 lakhs in 2001-02 to 71.78 lakhs in 2002-03 following the Supreme Court judgment of
November of 2001, and further to 76.76 lakhs in 2003-04 before falling marginally in 2004-05 to
76.62 lakhs. But it jumped to 102.16 lakhs in 2005-06, following the implementation of the NP-
NSPE guidelines of 2004 by the Centre. Bihar shows a similar picture, but with a more steady
expansion from 72.53 lakhs in 2001-02 to 97.92 lakhs in 2004-05, and a big jump, as in the case
of Rajasthan, to 126.38 lakhs in 2005-06. Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh also show
considerable increase in the number of children reached under the MDMS in 2005-06 as
compared to 2004-05 and earlier years. States such as Maharashtra, which has only partially
implemented the MDMS do not show improvement while the large fall in Andhra Pradesh in
2005-06 as compared to 2004-05 is puzzling.

16
At the level of India as a whole, the number of children covered under the MDMS rose gradually
from 10.36 crores in 2001-02 to10.87crores in 2004-05, and then registered a sharp increase to
11.94 crores in 2005-06 (Table 1.2).

Data on gross enrolment ratios, presented in Table 1.3, confirm a significant rise between 2001-
02 and 2007-08, especially among girls from the socially disadvantage scheduled tribes and
scheduled castes. This is especially striking at the primary stage, but is significant at the upper
primary stage as well.

Table 1.3: Primary (Classes 1 to 5) and Upper Primary (Classes 6 to 8) Gross Enrolment Ratios,
India 2001-02 and 2007-08, per cent
Category 2001-02 2007-08
Primary Upper Primary Primary Upper Primary
Scheduled Castes, Boys 103.1 80.3 132.3 84.1
Scheduled Castes, Girls 82.3 57.7 116.7 67.7
Scheduled Tribes, Boys 106.9 82.1 134.4 80.2
Scheduled Tribes, Girls 85.1 57.3 124 68.2
Source: Selected Educational Statistics, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of
India, 2005-06, 2006-07 and 2007-08

MDMS contributes not only to increase in school enrolment but also increases regular attendance
by providing cooked meals on all working days at the school itself. The alternate policy of
providing dry rations of grain once per month would presumably be less effective in this regard,
besides not ensuring that the grain thus distributed was actually consumed by the children for
whom it was intended. Several studies and reports have reported that MDMS increases regular
attendance in MDMS implementing centres. 10 According to the Department of Basic Education,
the agency for implementing MDMS in Uttar Pradesh, the large rise observed in school
attendance during 2005-06 and 2006-07 was mainly due to MDMS, which was started in the
state in 2004 in the state (Awasthi, 2007).

10
School Health (2006); Drze and Goyal(2003); The Assam Tribune (2007); Khera ( 2006); Blue (2005).

17
MDMS also has the potential for creating awareness among the children about hygiene and clean
environment. The mid-day meal in school provides an opportunity to educate students about the
importance of washing hands and plates, of hygienic toilets and of maintaining a clean
environment in and around the school. Similarly, a participatory MDMS, where parents are
involved in monitoring the programme, can play an indirect role in improving basic knowledge
about nutrition and elementary education among the parents of school going children.

Class room hunger

While it is too early to judge the long term impact of mid-day meals on child nutrition in the age
group of 6-14 years, there are clearly a priori arguments which strongly suggest that it would be
positive, especially in the case of vulnerable sections of the population. As Drze and Goyal
point out, mid-day meals facilitate the abolition of classroom hunger. Many Indian children
reach school on an empty stomach in the morning, as early morning breakfast is not part of the
household routine. In the absence of a mid-day meal, pupils often go hungry after a few hours
and find it hard to concentrate. Further, in the more deprived areas, the mid-day meal is a
protection against hunger in general. This year, for instance, mid-day meals have helped to avert
an intensification of child undernutrition in many drought-affected areas. Similarly, poor
households such as those headed by widows or landless labourers value the assurance of a free
lunch for their children. The contribution of mid-day meals to food security seems to be
particularly crucial in tribal areas, where hunger is endemic (Drze and Goyal, 2003).

Studies show that MDMS has benefited children whose parents work as casual wage labourers.
A comprehensive evaluation of MDMS carried out for the government by the Programme
Evaluation Organization (PEO) of the Planning Commission, based on a multistage random
sampling procedure and covering 48 districts in 17 states, found that 43% of the households to
which the children benefiting from MDMS belonged were rural labour households. Another 31%
were farmers, mostly small and marginal ones with very small holdings. The MDMS thus seems
to have reached the working poor to a significant extent. These children are generally hungry
during the day, because their parents work as wage labourers either far away or go for work
early. Other studies of MDMS have also shown that it is the weaker sections who avail the
MDMS regularly (NIN, 2003; Blue, 2005).

18
MDMS and Social Equity
A central social problem in India is that of pervasive caste discrimination. In particular,
discrimination against scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) is a striking feature,
especially sharp in rural India. Particularly abhorrent is the practice of untouchability and social
segregation of SCs from caste Hindus. Mid day meals, by getting children to eat together
regardless of caste divides, and by involving SCs along with other communities in the operation
of the scheme including cooking, can contribute to breaking barriers of caste and help promote
egalitarian values among children. This is of course far from being an automatic process.
Available evidence does point to considerable resistance to elimination of social discrimination
in the MDMS. As Drze and Goyal note, mid-day meals can also be a tool of reinforcement
of prevailing social inequalities. For instance, during the pilot survey in Rajasthan, we found one
village (Joz in Rajasamand district) where SC children had to drink from separate pitchers. This
is an abominable instance of caste discrimination in the classroom, which defeats the
socialisation role of mid-day meals. . Further, there does seem to be much upper-caste
resistance to the appointment of SC cooks. In Karnataka, half of the cooks in the sample were
SC, and there seems to be wide social acceptance of this arrangement. In Chhattisgarh and
Rajasthan, however, cases of SC cooks were largely confined to schools with no upper-caste
children. We also noted instances of active parental resistance to the appointment of SC cooks, as
in Kolu Pabuji (Jodhpur district, Rajasthan) where a Rajput parent had thrown sand in the mid-
day meal because it had been cooked by a Meghwal woman (Drze and Goyal, 2003).

However, Drze and Goyal also note that, The survey evidence suggests that open
discrimination is rare. For instance, we did not find any cases of separate sitting arrangements or
of preferential treatment for upper caste children. Pupils of all social backgrounds seem to be
quite happy to sit together and share the same food. Parents, too, claim to welcome the
arrangement in most cases. Teachers confirmed that parents rarely objected to their children
sharing a meal with children of other castes. And among disadvantaged castes, very few parents
felt that their children had ever experienced caste discrimination in the context of the mid-day
meal. (ibid.).

19
A survey conducted by the Indian Institute of Dalit Studies in five States (Lee and Thorat,
2004) 11 , found that UP and Bihar where one third of the countrys dalit population is
concentrated, are being denied access on the one hand by the refusal to implement the cooked
meal scheme; and there is caste discrimination in the distribution of dry grains to government
school children. The survey also found that in the other three states, viz. Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh, opposition to dalit cooks, segregated seating and segregated meals and
unfavourable treatment in food allotment are the means of caste discrimination observed.

The PEO evaluation, cited earlier, found that 23 per cent of beneficiary children were from
scheduled castes, 15 per cent from scheduled tribes and 40 percent from other backward classes,
thus confirming the fact that MDMS particularly benefits the socially disadvantaged sections. It
makes the point that, ..there has been no evidence at an all India level to suggest that a particular
social group has not been allowed to eat meals at schools. This suggests that the children in
selected schools eat their meals together, thereby promoting social harmony 12 As the MDMS is
strengthened over time, and as the community comes to own it, one hopes that it will play a
role in breaking down caste barriers and discrimination.

Impact of MDMS on gender equity

The impact of MDMS on gender equity can, on the other hand, be expected to be unambiguously
positive. There is clear evidence of significant increase in female enrolment when MDMS gets
implemented (Drze and Kingdon, 2001; Khera, 2006; Drze and Goyal, 2003; Afridi, 2005).
MDMS employs women for cooking and for helping with cooking and also as local organizers.
This will also contribute to empowerment of women and to addressing the issue of gender
inequality.

MDMS helps address the issue of child labour as well. The dire economic status of many poor
households forces children of these households to work for survival rather than go to school.

11
www.rightofoodindia.org
12
Programme Evaluation Organization, Planning Commission, Government of India (2010), Performance
Evaluation of Cooked Mid day Meals (CMDM), p.56

20
Evidence of MDMS impact from NSS Data
Data from the 61st round of the NSSO for reference year 2004-05 suggest that 22.8 per cent of
Indias rural households had at least one member benefiting from the MDMS (Table 1.4). One
needs to keep in mind that these are percentages of all households. The eligible households-those
with one or more children attending primary school-would of course be a subset of all
households, and so effective coverage figures would be higher than the numbers given here. The
proportion varied across states, with 40.6 per cent for Chhattisgarh to 3.1 per cent and 1.3 per
cent respectively for Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir. Karnataka reported 33.4 per cent, Madhya
Pradesh 32.3 per cent and Tamil Nadu 31.8 per cent. West Bengal followed closely with 29.8 per
cent. However, the states of Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh, where the programme is most
urgently needed, lagged behind at 10.7 per cent, 11.2 per cent and 16.1 per cent respectively.

Table 1.4: Percentage of households with at least one member benefiting from MDMS during
the last 365 days Rural

Sl. No. States MDMS

1. Andhra Pradesh 21.6
2. Assam 18.0
3. Bihar 10.7
4. Chhattisgarh 40.6
5. Gujarat 27.2
6. Haryana 15.8
7. Himachal 27.7
8. Jammu and Kashmir 1.3
9. Jharkhand 11.2
10. Karnataka 33.4
11. Kerala 21.7
12. Madhya Pradesh 32.3
13. Maharashtra 26.6
14. Odisha 26.5
15. Punjab 3.1
16. Rajasthan 21.6
17. Tamil Nadu 31.8
18. Uttar Pradesh 16.1
19. West Bengal 29.8
All India 22.8
Source: NSS Report No. 510, GoI, 2007

21
The 61st round NSS data also show that the MDMS is availed to a proportionately greater extent
by the STs (28.8 per cent) and SCs (25. 3 per cent) Table 1.5 13 . It is likely that, with NP-NSPE
2006 coming into implementation, these figures may have improved somewhat, but it is also
clear that, despite the Supreme Courts unambiguous directives for universal provision of hot
cooked meals for children at primary schools across the country, the programme is far from
being universally implemented. The other point which emerges from the NSS data as far as
social exclusion is concerned is that the OBCs, SCs and STs avail MDM to a significantly higher
extent than do others.

Table 1.5 presents data on percentage of rural households with at least one member benefiting
from MDMS by monthly per capita consumer expenditure decile category. As in the case of
ICDS, it is clear that a higher proportion of the households who constitute the bottom thirty
percent in terms of MPCE avail MDMS services as compared to the upper deciles, the
proportions being 50 per cent and above in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka,
Tamil Nadu and Kerala. In Andhra, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and West Bengal, the figure
exceeds one-third. The proportion exceeds 25% in most States, the only States falling below this
figure being Punjab, Bihar and Jammu and Kashmir. In the case of the next four MPCE deciles
also, the MDM reach is not too bad. It exceeds 30% in the states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat,
Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu
and West Bengal.

13
The proportion for agricultural labour and other labour households is 29.1 per cent and 26.4 per cent respectively,
as against the overall average of 22.8 %

22
Table 1.5: Percentage of households with at least one member benefiting from MDMS
Sl. No. States ST SC OBC Others
1. Andhra Pradesh 23.1 26.2 22.9 14.7
2. Assam 17 22.7 17.5 17.6
3. Bihar 8 13.4 10.8 6.5
4. Chhattisgarh 38.1 48.3 42.1 26
5. Gujarat 40.4 24.4 29.9 13.4
6. Haryana 19 25.4 16.6 8.1
7. Himachal 24.8 34.8 27.2 24.8
8. Jammu and Kashmir 0 0.6 0.6 1.7
9. Jharkhand 12 11.4 11.2 8.6
10. Karnataka 45.6 33.6 33.9 29.7
11. Kerala 35.8 29.7 23.5 14.4
12. Madhya Pradesh 38.9 34.4 29.4 25.7
13. Maharashtra 28.6 29.1 25.6 25.9
14. Odisha 27.2 29 26.4 22.9
15. Punjab 0 4.1 5.3 7
16. Rajasthan 24.7 23.1 22.9 13.3
17. Tamil Nadu 31.8 41.1 29.1 7.1
18. Uttar Pradesh 10.8 20 15.8 11.6
19. West Bengal 26.9 28.7 31.9 30.6
All India 28.8 25.3 22.1 19.1
Source: NSS Report No. 510, GoI, 2007

Table 1.6 presents data on percentage of rural households with at least one member benefiting
from MDMS by monthly per capita consumer expenditure decile category. As in the case of
ICDS, it is clear that a higher proportion of the households who constitute the bottom thirty
percent in terms of MPCE avail MDMS services as compared to the upper deciles, the
proportions being close to 50 per cent and above in Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh,
Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Kerala. In Andhra, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and
West Bengal, the figure exceeds one-third. The proportion exceeds 25% in most States, the only
States falling below this figure being Punjab, Bihar, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. In the
case of the next four MPCE deciles also, the MDM reach is not too bad. It exceeds 30% in the
states of Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Himachal Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh,
Maharashtra, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal.

23
Table 1.6: Percentage of Households with at least one member benefiting from MDMS- MPCE
class wise- Rural

Sl. No. States Bottom 30% Middle 40% Top 30% All
1. Andhra Pradesh 34.76 23.84 11.75 21.60
2. Assam 28.63 19.83 11.54 18.00
3. Bihar 12.65 10.53 5.95 10.70
4. Chhattisgarh 52.62 30.77 24.44 40.60
5. Gujarat 50.14 36.07 12.03 27.20
6. Haryana 27.85 27.69 9.76 15.80
7. Himachal 56.72 41.92 19.05 27.70
8. Jharkhand 14.69 10.11 5.83 11.20
9. Jammu and Kashmir 3.19 0.65 1.56 1.30
10. Karnataka 49.82 33.09 16.78 33.40
11. Kerala 41.30 35.63 16.26 21.70
12. Madhya Pradesh 41.81 31.01 15.00 32.30
13. Maharashtra 42.74 26.74 15.26 26.60
14. Odisha 30.06 25.27 15.84 26.50
15. Punjab 3.41 7.40 1.26 3.10
16. Rajasthan 36.52 25.40 12.72 21.60
17. Tamil Nadu 49.61 36.29 15.49 31.80
18. Uttar Pradesh 24.14 16.88 7.89 16.10
19. West Bengal 42.38 32.60 19.11 29.80
All India 33.40 24.68 12.58 22.80
Source: NSS Report No. 510, GoI, 2007

Some Weaknesses in MDMS

Within a general picture of progress in MDMS, there have been limitations as well. Lack of
universal implementation as brought out from the NSS data is one important weakness of the
MDMS at present. The PEO study, conducted with 2000-2006 as the reference period, found
that, while coverage was near universal in the 48 sample districts that it surveyed, there were still
quite a few schools left uncovered by the cooked mid day meals programme.

There are several other weaknesses of MDMS, both in implementation on the ground and in its
concept and design. The MDMS has addressed to some extent the nutrition security of
nutritionally deprived school children. But it does not cover children out of school. When we

24
move away from an instrumentalist understanding of MDM as merely an instrument to get
children into school, and adopt a rights-based viewpoint that regards the nutrition security of the
child as a human right, the need to expand the MDMS to cover out-of-school children becomes
evident. The PEO study cited earlier found that the average and median annual incomes of
households of children who were either out of school or had dropped out after enrolling were
significantly lower than those of MDMS beneficiaries. The most vulnerable children in rural
India are denied both the right to food and the right to education. 14 This issue needs to be
addressed and the MDMS redesigned accordingly. A working group of the Planning
Commission has noted that the number of children in the primary school age group either out-of-
school or studying in non-fee charging private schools would not amount to more than 10 to 12.5
million, and recommended the expansion of the MDMS to cover these segments (GoI, 2006e).

A key problem in implementation has to do with both the quantum of funds required and the
flow of funds in the scheme. Until the revised norms of 2006 came into effect, the States, on
their part, pleaded serious financial constraints in mobilizing the resources for cooking costs.
Subsequent experience has shown that even the revised norms do not solve the resource problem
completely. Even without ensuring legal minimum wages for cooks and helpers, the cooking
costs have been going up. The cost estimates for food grain and other ingredients going into the
mid day meal also face upward pressure in view of the uncertain situation on the grain front and
inflationary pressures in the economy. Even in 2006, the Planning Commission working group
noted that A large number of states continue to face financial difficulties in meeting cooking
costs and providing cooked meals. Central assistance to meet cooking cost is much lower than
the actual requirement (ibid.). It also recommended that The minimum cost norm for mid-day
meals should be raised from the present Rs.2 per child per day to Rs.3 per child per day and
that this norm should be automatically adjusted for inflation every two years using the food
component of the Wholesale Price Index. (ibid.)

On the other hand, there have been complaints that the delays in disbursement of funds to the
implementing agencies at the field level from the State government impact negatively on the

14
The category of vulnerable children ought to include street children, homeless ones, those in chronic hunger,
children of migrant labourers, child workers and differently-abled children.

25
scheme in many States. As can be seen from Table 1.7 below, perhaps as a result of such delays
or of financial constraints of States, the offtake of grain under the MDMS has consistently fallen
short of allocation, the ratio of the former to the latter varying between 75 per cent and 78 per
cent during the period 2002 to 2005, and showing only a modest improvement after the Supreme
Court verdict of November 2001. The PEO study found that in the utilization of food grains
averaged 76% in the 48 sample districts it covered. Utilization was especially low in tribal and
backward districts such as Madhepura in Bihar (7%) and Adilabad in Andhra Pradesh (17%) 15 .

Table 1.7: Allocation and Offtake of Foodgrains under MDMS (in lakh tones)
Sl. No. Allocation Offtake

Rice Wheat Total Rice Wheat Total

13.48 7.28 20.76
2001-02 18.67 9.96 28.63
(72.2) (70.9) (72.51)
13.75 7.45 21.20
2002-03 18.84 9.4 28.24
(72.98) (79.26) (75.07)
13.49 7.20 20.69
2003-04 17.72 9.08 26.8
(76.13) (79.30) (77.20)
15.41 5.92 21.33
2004-05 20.14 7.35 27.49
(76.51) (80.54) (77.59)
13.64 3.63 17.28
2005-06 17.78 4.72 22.5
(76.74) (76.89) (76.77)
Note: Figures in parenthesis are percentage of offtake from total allocation
Source: 1) Department of Food and Public Distribution, GoI
2) Ministry of Human Resource Development, GoI

The issue of adequacy or otherwise of resources also arises with respect to provision of
infrastructure such as cooking sheds, cooking devices such as smokeless chulahs as well as
utensils for food preparation and serving 16 . Moreover, schools need to make provision for plates
to be used by the children to ensure uniformity and minimize social distances under the MDMS.
There needs to be provision for training and skill upgradation for staff in the scheme and for
information, education and communication expenses, especially to disseminate messages of

15
Programme Evaluation Organization, Planning Commission, Government of India (2010), Performance
Evaluation of Cooked Mid day Meals (CMDM),Table 4.3, p.34
16
A field study in Kerala found the funds allotted by the government to be inadequate and also reported delay in the
transfer of contingency fund to schools (Gangadharan, 2006).

26
health and nutrition. It had been noted in 2007 that even the revised funding norms and
provisions of the NP-NSPE 2006 need to be re-examined in the light of these needs 17 .

Some Design and Implementation Issues

Since 2006, the MDMS has been modified in terms of its design and implementation structures
and cost norms to respond to these emerging issues. After the scheme became universal for upper
primary schools as well from April 1, 2008, food norms were revised in 2009 to provide for the
upper primary children 30 grams of pulses, 75 grams of vegetables accompanied by a reduction
in oil and fat from 10 grams to 7.5 grams. Cooking cost norms per child per meal excluding
labour and administrative charges were revised upward in December 2009 from 1.68 to 2.5
rupees for primary schools and from Rs.2.20 to 3.75 for upper primary children. They were
further enhanced to 2.69 and 4.03 respectively from April 1, 2010. They have been revised
upward by 7.5% from April 1, 2011. Earlier, the honorarium for the cooks and helpers employed
in the scheme was paid from the labour and other administrative charges at the norm of 0.4 rupee
per child per day, but since this was found to be very insufficient, a separate component for
payment of honorarium at Rs.1000 per month per cook-cum-helper was introduced
from 1.12.2009. One cook- cum-helper for up to 25 students, 2 if the student strength is between
25 and 100, and one additional cook-cum-helper for every 100 students thereafter has been
provided in the scheme . Other cost item norms-such as for transportation-have also been revised
from time to time. Decentralization of operations in several respects has also helped smooth the
flow of funds and materials in the scheme. An important point to note is that the scheme now
provides employment for more than 26 lakhs cook-cum-helpers engaged by the State/UTs during
2010-11 for preparation and serving of school meals. A significant percentage of the cooks and
helpers are women. A good proportion of them are from the scheduled castes and other
vulnerable social groups.

An elaborate implementation and monitoring mechanism is now in place for MDMS. The
scheme is operated by the nodal department of school education and literacy under the ministry
of human resource development at the level of the central government. There is a National
Steering and Monitoring Committee (NSMC), and corresponding bodies at the level of the State

17
MSSRF (2007), Draft Report on the State of Food Insecurity in Rural India

27
governments. Inter- departmental cooperation is involved at the central level with the central
government-owned Food Corporation of India which is to deliver the grain through its country-
wide network of fair price shops to the school. The nodal department also coordinates with other
central government departments running various infrastructure funding schemes for the purpose
of providing the kitchen and store facilities at the school level. State governments are on board
throughout and are also represented in the NSMC. The programme approval board (PAB) for
MDMS at the central level is chaired by the secretary of the department of school education and
literacy and consists of key officials of other concerned departments such as the department of
rural development and panchayati raj, the department of women and child development, the
Planning Commission and the Food Corporation of India. Each state/union territory submits an
annual work plan and budget, which is to be approved by the PAB at the beginning of the
financial year. The nodal department at the Centre coordinates with the designated nodal
department for MDMS at the state level. Every State Government/UTs has to authorize one of its
departments as the nodal department to take overall responsibility for implementation of the
programme. Implementation cells are required to be set up by nodal department to monitor
implementation of the programme at the school level. Nodal officers for the scheme have also to
be identified and designated at the district and the development block levels. The guidelines of
the scheme state that, in States which have devolved the function of primary education
to Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies, the responsibility of implementation and day to
day supervision of the programme shall rest with them. They may in turn constitute Standing
Committees to oversee the implementation of the MDMS. At the school level, the
responsibility rests with the school management and development committee (SMDC) or the
village education committee (VEC) or the parent-teacher association (PTA), with these being
accountable to the elected local panchayat. The scheme guidelines also provide for the
involvement of non-government voluntary organizations in MDMS implementation, with the
modalities being flexible in this regard. These entities may be involved in the supply of cooked
meal, and provision of resource support to the programme.

The scheme guidelines state categorically that teachers should not be assigned responsibilities
in MDMS that will interfere with the teaching/learning process. Community support for the
scheme is to be mobilized by motivating parents, especially mothers, to get involved with the
mid-day meal process at the school level. The scheme is also seen as an opportunity for womens
28
self help groups (SHGs) to take responsibility for regular the procurement, cooking and
distribution process. The MDMS, is also to be complemented with appropriate
18
interventions relating to micronutrient supplementation and de-worming .

Viability
The MDMS has now been in existence for nearly a decade, having been expanded considerably
after the Supreme Court judgement of November 28, 2001 cited earlier. The expansion of
MDMS has been especially rapid since 2004. Table 1.8 provides details of expenditure on the
scheme by the Union government since 1998-99.

It can be seen that the outlays remain fairly stagnant between 1998-99 and 2004-05. The outlays
rise more rapidly from 2005-06 as more and more States and Union Territories move towards
near-universal provision of cooked mid-day meals. Between 2005-06 and 2007-08, the
expenditure (revised estimates) practically doubles from 3010.76 crore rupees to 6004 crores. It
increases by 20% in 2008-09 over 2007-08 on account of universal coverage of upper primary
schools from April 1, 2008. It increases by a further one-sixth on account of revision of cost
norms and some expansion in the number of children availing the scheme. The number of
children availing the mid day meals rose from around 9 crores in 2007-08 prior to extension to

Table 1.8: Expenditure by Government of India on Noon Meal/Nutritional Support to Education,

1998-99 to 2010-11 (Amounts in Rs. Crores).
Year Budget Estimate Revised Estimate
1998-99 1092.15 1400.15
1999-2000 1031.10 1500.00
2000-01 1090.00 1300.00
2001-02 930.00 1031.24
2002-03 1330.00 1237.00
2003-04 1200.00 1375.00
2004-05 1675.00 1507.50
2005-06 3010.76 3010.76
2006-07 5813.20 5813.20
2007-08 6591.60 6004.00
2008-09 7200.00 7200.00
2009-10 7024.10 6916.73
2010-11 8370.20 8393.78
2011-12 9210.75 ---

Source: Union Budget, Government of India, Various years, accessed at indiabudget.nic.in

18
Government of India (2006), National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 2006 [Mid-Day
Meal Scheme], p.34

29
upper primary schools to 11.19 crores in 2008-09. It was 11.04 crores in 2009-10 and was set to
touch 11.36 in 2010-11 19 . The combined expenditure of the Union and the State/Union Territory
governments on MDMS would be in the neighbourhood of 17,000 crore rupees for 2010-11. The
cost per beneficiary thus works out to around 1500 rupees per child per year or 125 rupees per
month, roughly three US dollars. Of course, these are all approximate figures, but they do
suggest that the financial viability of the MDMS is really not an issue for the Indian economy
with an annual GDP growth rate of around 7% or more since 2003-04 and a per capita income
of.

In fact, government spending in India on education has been rather low by international
standards and MDMS accounts for a minuscule share of the expenditure on education. The
relevant figures for the period from 2004-05 to 2009-10, a period of relatively rapid growth of
expenditures on education by the Union government, are shown in Table 1.9. It is clear that both
the ratio of expenditures on education to total central government expenditure and that on
MDMS as a percentage of expenditure on education have been rising in this period, but the
levels of expenditure on MDMS are so low that there is hardly any fiscal threat to MDMS at the
moment 20 .

Table 1.9: Union Government Expenditures, Total and Education, 2004-05 to 2009-10
Expenditures in Rs. Crores
Year Total Expenditure Expenditure on School
Expenditure on Education Feeding
2004-05 (Actual) 8,69,757 84,111 1507.50
2005-06(Actual) 9,59,855 96,365 3010.76
2006-07(Actual) 11,09,174 1,14,744 5813.20
2007-08(Actual) 12,95,903 1,27,547 6004.00
2008-09(Revised Estimates) 16,59,109 1,67,981 7200.00
2009-10 (Budget Estimates) 18,70,955 1,98,842 6916.73
(Revised Estimates)

19
Official Presentations at the National Steering and Monitoring Committee Meetings of 20-10-2009 and 03-12-
2010
20
It must be noted, however, that the combined expenditure of central and State governments, though rising in
absolute terms, have not increased consistently as a share of GDP. The total is a very low share of GDP, not even
reaching 4 %. Even the eleventh Plan allocation for MDMS at 48,000 crore rupees from 2007-08 to 2011-12 is
unlikely to be fully spent.

30
Financial viability does not seem to be a critical issue for MDMS at the moment. The country-
wide demographic transition, evident in the preliminary figures of the 2011 Census, suggests that
MDMS may remain financially affordable in the coming decades as well.

A Note on rethinking school feeding, based on the Indian Experience

The recent and evolving Indian experience with school feeding confirms many of the points
made in the World Bank-WFP document Rethinking School Feeding 21 . The Indian experience
highlights the centrality of the education sector in the policy dialogue on school feeding 22 . It
confirms the point made by Bundy et al that the transition to sustainable national programs
depends on mainstreaming school feeding into national policies and plans, especially education
sector plans 23 . It supports the argument that Policy analysis also shows that the effectiveness
and sustainability of school feeding programs is dependent upon embedding the programs within
education sector policy.

Bundy et al make four generalizations:

School feeding programmes in low income countries exhibit large variations in cost
As countries get richer, school feeding costs become a much smaller proportion of the
investment in education.
The main preconditions for the transition to sustainable national programs are
mainstreaming school feeding in national policies and plans, especially education sector
plans; identifying national sources of financing; and expanding national implementation
capacity.
It is important to both design long-term sustainability into programs from their inception
and revisit programs as they evolve.

The Indian experience supports all the points made except the one about large variations in cost.
While there are variations across States in the cost of the SFP, these have been minimized by the
adoption of national nutritional and cost norms in India.

21
Donald Bundy et al (2009)
22
Ibid, p2
23
Ibid, p5

31
Bundy et al highlight the capacity of the government at different levels to manage the program
using its staff, infrastructure, and accountability systems in designing an appropriate SFP. They
make the point that programs that have transitioned to national ownership show that effective
programs have a designated national institution, usually the education sector, and well-developed
capacity at the subnational levels. Both these observations are validated by the Indian
experience. However, the fact that nodal sector at the state level in Tamil Nadu as not been the
education sector but the social welfare department has not rendered the programme ineffective. It
was something of a historical accident and a reflection of the implicit social protection
framework that the SFP in Tamil Nadu was not vested with the school education department.
However, with the simultaneous implementation of both the scheme of sarva shiksha abhiyan
(SSA, OR education for All) and the SFP, the school education department has become more
involved with SFP in terms of infrastructure provision and the role of parent teacher associations,
at least on paper, in the SFP. The basic and continuing weakness in the SFP in Tamil Nadu is
that there is little involvement of elected local bodies.

Bundy et al argue that

..local procurement is the most common approach within national programs and is emerging as
the more common approach overall. Local procurement is being actively evaluated as a means to
achieve sustainable school feeding programs and, at the same time, to use the purchasing power
of the program as a stimulus for the local agricultural economy.

This is not the case in India, at least with respect to grain for the SFP. The massive public
distribution system based on procurement of vast quantities of grain from farmers at minimum
support prices makes the SFP much less important as a source of demand for grains. On the
average, the government of India procures anywhere between 25 and 30 per cent of the domestic
production of rice and wheat for its various food grain/food distribution programmes 24 . Of this
quantum, MDMS accounts for a small portion. But the basic point here is that finding markets

24
Arvind Kumar (Government of India), PowerPoint Presentation entitled India: A case Study of the Mid Day
Meal Programme, presented at the Global Child Nutrition Forum, Scaling Up Sustainability: Linking School
Feeding with Agriculture Development to Maximize Food Security in Nairobi, Kenya, May 3 May 7, 2011.

32
for farmers produce is not a part of the motivations for the school feeding programme in the
Indian context. The logistics of the massive programme and the need for quality control and
reasonably standardized implementation make it somewhat difficult to decentralize grain
procurement to school or local community levels, and there is no compelling rationale for it
either.

However, there is scope for local procurement of vegetables and condiments as well as
additional items (such as eggs and bananas in Tamil Nadu). These need to be explored.

Summing Up
Our quick review of the profile of the school feeding programme in India suggests that the
intervention is financially affordable and highly positive in its impact on enrolment, elimination
of class room hunger and promotion of gender and social equity. It is too early to assess its
nutritional impacts. The links with health and nutrition can be strengthened considerably by
better inter-sectoral coordination. The poor levels of community participation and the relative
non-involvement of elected local bodies are weaknesses that need to be addressed urgently. But,
overall, the scheme is here to stay, and well worth the resources expended on it.

References:
Afridi, F (2005): Mid-Day Meals in Two States; Comparing the financial and
institutional organisation of the programme, Economic and Political Weekly, vol.40,
no.5, April 9, pp 1528-1534.
Awasthi, Puja (2007): Mid-Day Meals Hunger persists, attendance record patchy,
India Together, March 31, www.indiatogether.org
Blue, Julia (2005): An Assessment of Program Implementation and Impact in Udaipur
District, Right to Food India, www.righttofoodindia.org
Bundy, Donald., Burbano, Carmen., Grosh, Margaret., Gelli, Aulo., Jukes, Matthew., and
Drake, Lesley., (2009), Rethinking School Feeding, World Bank and World Food
Programme.
CART (2006): Measuring Effectiveness of Mid-day Meal Scheme in Rajasthan, CUTS
Centre for Community Action, Research and Training, Jaipur,

33
 www.cuts-international.org
Drze, Jean and Geetha Kingdon, (2001): School Participation in Rural India, Review
of Development Economics, vol.5, no.1, pp 1-24.
Drze and Goyal, (2003): Future of Mid-Day Meals, Economic and Political Weekly,
vol.38, no.44, November 1, pp 4673-4683.
Government of India (1995): Guidelines of National Programme of Nutritional Support
to Primary Education launched in August, Department of School Education and Literacy,
http://education.nic.in/mdm/
Government of India (2004): Revised Mid-Day Meal Scheme Guidelines 2004, Ministry
of Human Resources Development, New Delhi.
Government of India (2006): Report of the Eleventh Plan Working Group of Integrated
Smart Card System, Planning Commission, New Delhi.
Government of India (2007): Public Distribution System and Other Sources of
Household Consumption, 2004-05, Report N0.510, 61st Round NSSO, Ministry of
Statistics and Programme Implementation, New Delhi.
Jain, Jyotsna and Mihir Shah (2005): Mid-day Meal in Madhya Pradesh, Samaj Pragati
Sahyog, Bagli.
Khera, Reetika (2006): Mid-day meals in Primary Schools: Achievements and
Challenges, Economic and Political Weekly, vol.41, no.46, November 18, pp 4742-4750
Lal, Neeta (2007): The Children of Hungry India, March 25, www.boloji.com
Lee, Joel and Sukhadeo Thorat, (2004): Dalits and the Right to Food: Discrimination and
Exclusion in Food Related Government Programmes, Right to Food Campaign,
www.righttofood.org
Mathur, Beena (2005): Situation Analysis of Mid-day Meal Programme in Rajasthan,
University of Rajasthan and UNICEF.
National Family Health Survey (2007): National Family Health survey, 2005-06,
International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai and ORC Macro, Maryland,
USA.
National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (2007): Annual Report,
2006-07, New Delhi, http://nipccd.nic.in

34
 Pratichi Trust (2005): Cooked Mid-day Meal Programme in West Bengal A study in
Birbhum District, Kolkata.
Naik, R (2005): Report on Akshara Dasoha Scheme of Karnataka, University of
Dharwad.
Right to Food Campaign (2006): Convention on Childrens Right to Food, April 7-9,
Hyderabad.

Website references:
http://www.akshayapatra.org/indias-mid-day-meal-scheme
http://www.cardiff.ac.uk/cplan/research/fundedprojects/homegrownschoolfeeding.html
Gelli, Aulo et al (2010), Home Grown School Feeding: linking small holder agriculture
to school food provision, PCD Working Paper 212
http://hgsf-global.com/en/bank/comms/doc_download/14-home-grown-school-feeding-
mapping-report
http://hgsf-global.com/en/component/docman/doc_details/91-the-nutritional-status-of-
school-aged-children
James Sumberg and Rachel Sabates-Wheeler (2010), Linking Agricultural Development
to School Feeding, Working Paper 012, accessed at www.future-agricultures.org
MHRD, GoI (2010) Mid-day Meal Scheme Accessed at
http://education.nic.in/Elementary/mdm/downloads.htm
National Portal Content Management Team (Reviewed on: 19-01-2011), GoI, Mid-Day
Meal Scheme Accessed at http://india.gov.in/sectors/education/mid_day_meal.php
Peixinho, Albaneide (2007), PNAE: Brazil School Feeding Programme. Accessed at
http://hgsf-global.com/en/component/docman/doc_details/67-brazil-national-school-
feeding-program
Rachel Sabates-Wheeler (2010), Home Grown School Feeding and Social Protection,
Accessed at http://hgsf-global.org/en/bank/downloads/doc_download/56-home-grown-
school-feeding-a-social-protection
Rachel Winch (2009), International Approaches to School Feeding: Country Experiences
from Mali, Chile, and India. Accessed at

35
 http://hgsf-global.org/en/bank/downloads/doc_download/112-approaches-to-school-
feeding-experiences-from-mali-chile-and-india
WFP (2008), Home-Grown School Feeding: A Framework To Link School Feeding With
Local Agricultural Production. Accessed at
http://www.schoolsandhealth.org/sites/ffe/key%20information/homegrown%20school
%20feeding%2020a%20framework%20to%20link%20school%20feeding%20with%20
local%20agricultural%20production.pdf

36
 Chapter 2: The School Feeding Programme in Tamil Nadu
V B Athreya 25
Introduction
The provisional population figure from the 2011 population Census of India, for the state of
Tamil Nadu, located in the southern peninsula of India, stands at 72.14 million persons 26 . This
makes the State comparable in terms of population to Germany and the United Kingdom. Its
experience with school feeding programmes will certainly be of relevance to many developing
countries. Being a constituent State within the Indian Union, the State has limited policy space.
Nevertheless, there is some scope for experimenting and innovating, and for setting and
implementing policy priorities. The area of school feeding is one where the State has been a
pioneer among the Indian States, and its policy initiatives have subsequently provided the basis
for national school feeding policies. In this paper, we shall provide a profile of the school feeding
programme and practice on the State.

Among the Indian States, Tamil Nadu is one of the better performers in respect of human
development. The states literacy rate in 2011, measured as the percentage of population aged 7
years and above that is literate, is provisionally placed by the Census of India at 80.3% (India:
74.4%), the third highest among major States 27 . While male literacy rate is higher at 86.8%
(India: 82.1%), the female literacy rate is 73.9% (India: 65.5%). The urban literacy rate is higher
than the rural, but the gap has been declining. The State has the highest percentage of urban
population to total among the major Indian States. At least some part of the States relatively
better standing in terms of literacy-especially female literacy- among Indian States can be
ascribed to its long record of school feeding programmes (SFP) which has helped improve
enrolment, attendance and retention of children in school.

25
Advisor, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai and Visiting Professor, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai
26
The Census of India 2011
27
The term major State here refers to all States of India with a population exceeding 20 million in 2001.

37
Evolution of School Feeding Programmes in Tamil Nadu
School meals were introduced in 1956. The coverage expanded with public and private
contributions, both from within the State and from outside. These early efforts, while laudable,
were not sustainable. They were not integrated into the education and social policies of the
government. Things changed dramatically in 1982 when the government started the noon meal
scheme. As has been noted, The introduction of the noon meal scheme in 1982 was a watershed
which marked the beginning of a continuous expansion to the pre-school ages, moving towards
universalisation, provision of dedicated staff and infrastructure, systematic training, and
budgeting for recurring and non-recurring expenses 28 .

The government of Tamil Nadu started the noon meal scheme, to begin with, for children aged 2
to 5 years (preschool) and 5-9 years (primary school) in rural areas. This scheme started on July
1, 1982. From September 15, 1982, the scheme was extended to urban areas as well. Citizens
above 60 years of age who were eligible for old age pension were allowed to take their meals
from the noon meal centres from January 15, 1983. It was then extended to children in the age
group of 10 to 15 years from September 15, 1984. From December 7, 1995, pregnant women
beneficiaries of the National Maternity Benefit Scheme (NMBS) were allowed to take their meal
at the noon meal centres 29 .

One can immediately see that the scheme had a holistic social protection approach underlying it,
since it started with pre-primary and primary school children, and was later extended not only to
students in elementary and high schools, but also to old age pensioners and pregnant women.
Besides, the State also implemented the centrally funded Integrated Child Development Services
(ICDS) scheme which addressed, among other things, the needs of the 0-2 age group. A recent
document of the government of Tamil Nadu describes the objectives of the programme thus:
The foremost objective of the Nutritious Meal Programme is to motivate children from
economically backward families to pursue education by providing adequate nutritious meal to
them in order to reduce school dropout rates. It also aims to eradicate malnutrition and increase
literacy rates. With a view to enhancing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously

28
Anuradha Khati Rajivan (2006)
29
Government of Tamil Nadu (2001)

38
improving nutritional levels among children, Puratchi Thalaivar MGR Nutritious Meal
Programme was launched on 01.07.1982 30 .

The coverage of the school meal component alone, even leaving out the pre-school part, has been
quite massive throughout. In 2001-02, the nutritious meal scheme for school children aged 5 to
15 years covered 6.46 million beneficiaries, consisting of 5.98 million in rural areas and the rest
in urban areas. However, with the State undergoing a demographic transition, the numbers have
since declined. In 2010-11, there were 42, 824 meal centres covering 5.77 million children, with
5.47 million of them coming from rural areas. In terms of the stage of education, 3.20 million
were in the primary schools of classes 1 to 5, 1.82 million in the elementary education stage of
classes 6 to 8 and the remaining 0.75 million were in classes 9 and 10.

Over the years, the meal quality has also improved in terms of nutrition content. The feeding
scale in 2001-02 was 100 grams of rice, 15 grams of pulses and 1 gram of oil per child for
children from classes 1 to 8. The scale was the same for children of classes 9 and 10 except for a
higher allocation of rice of 120 grams per day per child. Besides, there was a provision for
vegetables, condiments and fuel at a flat monetary rate per child, the same for all classes. In
2002-02, this was 0.23 rupee. In 2010-11, the food basket for the noon meal had been
strengthened by the provision of three eggs a week or bananas in lieu of eggs for children who do
not consume eggs. The provision for vegetables, condiments and fuel had been enhanced to 0.44
rupee, intended to cover for inflation, but possibly being inadequate in that respect. Some further
supplements were introduced between 2001 and 2010. These included provision of special pulses
at the rate of 20 grams per child on one day of the week and 20 grams of potatoes on another
day. Besides, all school meals were prepared with double fortified salt, to meet iron and iodine
deficiencies. Financial provisions were also made for the routine sanitary maintenance and
upkeep of the noon meal centres. By 2010-11, each child was receiving per day 476 calories and
15.34 grams of protein. This was a nutritionally important supplement for the children, given the
prevalence of protein energy malnutrition in the State earlier and even now.

30
Government of Tamil Nadu (2011)

39
Developments since 1995
Though successive elections to the state legislature have thrown up frequent changes of
government, the commitment to finding the fiscal resources for the school feeding programme
and enhancing the entitlements from time to time has been sustained. More recently, with the
government of India taking the cue from the positive experience of Tamil Nadu with school
feeding, the fiscal requirements have also eased.

After the introduction of the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education
(NPNSPE) in 1995 by the government of India, the state was eligible to receive grain free of cost
from the Central government. With the revised guidelines of 2004 and then 2006, the State also
became eligible for assistance in respect of transport of grain, construction of kitchen sheds and
cooking cost. These developments have reduced to some extent the expenditure to be incurred by
the State government from its own resources, besides strengthening the quality of the
programme.

Throughout the 1990s, the total state government expenditure on nutrition (of which the school
feeding programme forms the biggest component) as a share of the state governments
expenditure on social services varied between 6.8% and 9.5%. As a share of the governments
overall revenue expenditure, it was even smaller at between 2.5 and 3.8 per cent over the period
from 1997-98 to 2002-03. The school feeding programme alone involved an expenditure that
varied between 0.17 per cent and 0.30 per cent of the states net domestic product. As a share of
the states revenue receipts or expenditure, it varied between 1 and 2 per cent. As a share of the
states own revenue, it varied between 1.39 per cent and 2.4 per cent. By 2010-11, the
expenditure on the school feeding programme has declined further as a share of every one of the
relevant fiscal magnitudes. The fiscal sustainability of the school feeding programme is thus a
non-issue, has always been so and will increasingly be so as the state moves further on the road
of demographic transition. The gains, on the other hand, have been significant, by all accounts.

Some Specific Features of the SFP of Tamil Nadu

While the central government, in its policy documents on school feeding programmes has
acknowledged the experience of Tamil Nadu with SFPs as an important input into the initiation

40
and design of the national programme, the SFP in Tamil Nadu differs in some respects from the
national programme guidelines. The scheme at the national level is anchored in the Literacy and
School Education department of the Union Ministry of Human Resource Development. It has
been made an integral part of the governments education policy, with the main goal of
impacting upon enrolment and retention. By contrast, the Tamil Nadu programme has always
been under the department of social welfare and viewed first and foremost as a social protection
intervention, even though goals pertaining to education were also part of the stated objectives of
the scheme from its inception. It has not been mainstreamed into the education policy of the
government. The education department figures mainly in the involvement, if any, of the school
teachers in the daily noon meal process, the site of which is the school. Involvement of teachers
in the implementation of MDMS is minimal. While some may regard the location of the nodal
department for implementing a SFP outside the education sector as a weakness, the prestige of
the scheme in the state has been high, as it is a pioneer programme of the State government, and
is immensely popular with the people, especially so in rural areas. It is now regarded as an
irrevocable scheme and is likely under most conceivable circumstances, to be strengthened and
not phased out as happens to many social protection or educational interventions across the
world when governments are perceived to face fiscal crises.

A second feature of the SFP in Tamil Nadu is that it has also been viewed along with other
nutrition-related interventions such as those of ICDS and the school health programme of the of
health and family welfare. While the MDM provides food and nutrition, the school health
programme provides for deworming. The lunch menu of the MDMS has been repeatedly
upgraded, from the viewpoint of ensuring adequate nutrition, including the provision of
micronutrients.

A third feature of the SFP in Tamil Nadu is that it has a set of paid functionaries to take care of
all work related to the cooking of the noon meal on the school campus. There is a full time noon
meal organizer (NMO) for every feeding centre. Cooks and helpers are engaged as paid workers
to cook the meal and to carry out the task of cleaning up afterwards. This arrangement ensures
that teachers do not have to divert time from teaching to the work of procuring the inputs for the
noon meal and organizing the cooking-tasks which are performed by the NMO. The actual

41
cooking is done by the cook, with the aid of a helper who also takes care of the washing and
cleaning that follows the serving of the meals. There are norms for employment of cooks and
helpers, with the numbers to be hired, linked to the number of children to be fed. Here is a
description of the implementation arrangements for MDM in Tamil Nadu from the evaluation
report of the Planning Commission of India:

The Noon Meal Organizer (NMO) works at the school/centre level, coordinating the work with
block level officials. The NMO is assisted by cook and a helper at the school level. Every school
with less than 500 students has been provided an organizer, a cook and a helper while schools
with more than 500 students are provided with an organizer, two cooks and two helpers. Records
are maintained by the NMO. The foodgrain is supplied by the Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies
Corporation (TNCSC) from the block godown directly to the centers. Tamil Nadu was found to
have the least number of intermediaries in the procedure of flow of foodgrain from State nodal
agency to school 31 .

The question of inter-departmental/sectoral coordination does not figure prominently in the

implementation of MDMS in Tamil Nadu. This has not been seen, in practical terms, as a major
problem. The overall nutrition policy in the state rests on a life-cycle based approach to nutrition
wherein the nutritional needs of pre-school children under six years of age and pregnant and
lactating mothers are sought to be covered under the integrated child development services
(ICDS) programme.

An important feature of the school feeding programme in the state of Tamil Nadu is that it is run
entirely by the government with staff exclusively assigned to run the programme. It is also the
case that the programme runs in a uniform manner throughout the State. There is no outsourcing
of whole or part of the programme anywhere in the state in the name of involving self-help
groups or of so-called public-private participation. With state support to grain prices-mainly
paddy and wheat-coming from the central government in the form of massive procurement, the
school feeding programme is not seen as a marketing opportunity for grain-producing farmers.
Not surprisingly, farmers are not in any way factored into or involved with the programme.

31
Government of India (2010)

42
While the State has been a pioneer in being the first to implement a universal school feeding
programme in the country, there has been little experimentation or built-in flexibility allowing
for local initiatives and innovation. In order to find material for innovative case studies,
therefore, we have turned to the neighbouring area of Puducherry, consisting of the Tamil-
speaking regions of the Union Territory of Puducherry. This area is culturally very similar to
Tamil Nadu, so that the lessons drawn from here can be relatively easily applied to Tamil Nadu.

Some criticisms of the Tamil Nadu SFP

The scheme has generally been welcomed in the state since its inception, notwithstanding some
derisive responses from political opponents at the time of its introduction in the state. Indeed,
this response was the key reason for the fact that those political outfits that derided it when in
opposition, sought to own and strengthen it when in office. But there have been criticisms of the
manner of its implementation and questioning of the myriad benefits claimed for the scheme by
successive governments. Some of the criticism has centered around the alleged non-transparency
in sharing the information on the programme or on the inconsistencies in the data pertaining to
the scheme from different sources in the government. The persistence of malnutrition among
children is cited by some to question the claims of the scheme in relation to nutrition. Some have
argued that the school feeding programme has failed to ensure universal enrolment, attendance
and retention. But even these critics have conceded, apparently rather grudgingly, that
providing noon-meal may have helped to bring down the drop-out rate to some extent 32 . This
paper does not go into an analysis of these criticisms, except to say that the school feeding
programme, by itself, cannot obviously solve the nutritional challenges of any society nor ensure
universal enrolment and attendance, much less retention or achievement. The points about the
need for consistent data and for transparency are of course valid, but they do not constitute a
criticism of the scheme as much as they do of the government and the bureaucracy implementing
it. Instead, we turn to some recent evaluations of the functioning of the MDMS in Tamil Nadu by
independent academic institutions as part of the national steering and monitoring process of
MDMS in place since 2006.

32
Padmini Swaminathan et al (2004)

43
Monitoring of Tamil Nadu SFP
The national guidelines for the MDMS provide for monitoring systems to be put in place to
ensure the smooth implementation of MDMS across various States. There is a National Steering
and Monitoring Committee which is chaired by the secretary of the Department of Literacy and
School Education of the government of India, the nodal department for the MDMS. The
guidelines provide for the establishment of corresponding steering and monitoring committees at
the level of the States, and corresponding ones at sub State levels such as the district, the
development block and the village panchayat or the corresponding elected urban local body. The
formal constitution of such committees at the state and sub state levels has not been complete.
Moreover, even when they have been constituted, many of them do not meet regularly nor do
they function effectively. Tamil Nadu is no exception in this regard. The 2010-11 policy note of
the social welfare department of the state government, the nodal department for the SFP in the
state, states: A State Level Steering cum Monitoring Committee has been constituted to ensure
that adequate quantity of quality food is served to the beneficiaries. The State Level Committee
Meeting was held on 22-10-2009 under the Chairmanship of Chief Secretary to Government to
review the functioning of the programme. District / Block / Corporation /Municipality and
Panchayat Level Committees have also been formed to monitor the functioning of school
Nutritious Meal Programme Centres. Elected representatives of local bodies have been
nominated to the above Committees along with Officials. However, the monitoring process on
the ground is rather weak. In particular, the elected bodies are marginal to the functioning of the
programme. The MDMS in Tamil Nadu has historically been an essentially government-run
programme, and the state government has appointed full and part time functionaries to ensure the
delivery of the noon meal programme at the school level on a daily basis. Such monitoring as
occurs is essentially by bureaucrats at different levels, even though the central scheme envisages
entrusting of responsibility for managing and monitoring the MDMS at the village level to the
village panchayat. Since primary and secondary schools are not under the purview and control of
elected local bodies in the State, elected local bodies are not involved in MDMS in any statutory
manner. The monitoring process in the state for MDMS is largely run by bureaucrats.

44
Evaluation of SFP in Tamil Nadu
Under the new national guidelines for the MDMS across the country notified in 2006, there is a
system of concurrent evaluation by independent agencies of the ongoing MDMS in every State,
funded from the 2% of the total MDMS budget set apart for management, monitoring and
evaluation (MME). Under this provision, there have been several rounds of concurrent
evaluation of the SFP in Tamil Nadu by external evaluation agencies. Their evaluation reports of
this agency provide us with a picture of how the scheme is being implemented in the state.
Several points emerge from a perusal of the evaluation reports over the period from 2007 to
2010 33 .

One point that comes through in all reports is that all schools serve hot cooked meals with
significant variety. Besides the mandated rice and lentils-based gravy dish (known as sambhar),
schools serve vegetables and greens such as carrots, beet root, brinjal, okra, spinach and so on in
cooked form. They also serve potatoes in cooked form from time to time. Nearly all schools
serve three eggs a week or equivalent quantities of fruits. The general feedback from students is
that the noon meals served to them are tasty and of good quality and adequate quantity.
Similarly, the grain management seems well streamlined. Almost all the sample schools in
various survey rounds have reported that they get the grain delivered well in time and most have
reported that they keep a months stock of grain with them to handle any contingency. Kitchen
sheds that also provide the space for storing food items have been constructed in a large number
of schools using central government assistance, though in a quarter of the sample schools, safe
storage space for food items is a problem, involving sometimes the use of class room space.
Cooks have been sanctioned and are in position in most schools. The percentage of persons
belonging to SC/ST communities is higher than their population share in all districts, and much
higher in some. Noon meal organizers are present in all sample schools. The process of preparing
and delivering to children a meal of specified quantity, variety and quality seems to have been
firmly established successfully.

33
I have relied mainly on the detailed reports prepared by the Indian Institute of Management, Bengaluru of several
rounds of evaluation, based on field visits, discussions with officials, interviews with teachers and students and
secondary data made available by the officials concerned.

45
There are many unresolved problems as well. Cooking costs, even when the Central government
has released its share well in time, do not seem to reach many schools in time, though it must be
stated that the position in this respect varies a great deal across districts. Problems of adequate
availability and safety have not been entirely resolved. Deworming and distribution of
micronutrient supplements is yet to be systematized and there is a case for stronger coordination
between education, health and social welfare departments in this regard. Hygienic conditions and
observance of clean practices remain a challenge. Firewood continues to be the main fuel and
this raises issues of both health and environmental hazard. Safety in the cooking area remains a
matter of concern in some of the sample schools. Perhaps the single most important negative
aspect of the performance of MDMS in the state is the near complete absence of community
participation either in the form of elected local bodies-such as the village panchayats-monitoring
the programme either directly or through their standing committees-or in the form of sustained
involvement of parents of children benefiting from the SFP. There is much talk of community
participation but little evidence of it occurring. Moreover, even the evaluation agencies tend to
view community participation only in terms of the community contributing to the programme
expenses-recurring and non-recurring- in cash or kind rather than in more holistic terms.

Summing Up
The experience of the south Indian state of Tamil Nadu with school feeding programmes is
instructive in many ways. It demonstrates the point that most such programmes in contemporary
developing countries go through a process of evolution before they become embedded in the
policy framework. Second, it shows the importance of sustained political will as well as the
virtues of active political competition in a pluralist democracy where the poor are under-
represented in most public spaces and forums. Third, it shows that fiscal constraints do not
constitute a strong argument against the initiation and universalization of a school feeding
programme. The per capita income of the state of Tamil Nadu was not very different from the all
India average-it was possibly marginally lower-through the period from the late 1950s to the
mid-1980s when the programme made a big leap. But political will led to the introduction of the
statewide, state funded programme in 1982 and subsequent experience has shown that the fiscal
commitment involved in running the scheme is eminently manageable. Expenditure on SFP in
the state is a small share of the governments expenditure on social services, an even smaller

46
share of its total revenue expenditure and a miniscule percentage of the states net domestic
product. The benefits of the SFP, on the other hand, accrue to a large section of the population.
Further, the section benefited being children in the age group of 2 to 15 years, the scheme
constitutes a valuable investment in human development and in the countrys future. It is also a
partial fulfilment of the States responsibilities toward children, both in terms of international
covenants to which India is a signatory and in terms of the constitutional mandate of ensuring the
right to life which includes, as the Supreme Court has reminded everyone, includes the right to
food. While there is considerable scope for improving the design and delivery of the SFP in the
state and the lack of any involvement of elected local bodies is a serious flaw, the fact still
remains that the SFP has contributed significantly to an increase in enrolment, attendance and
retention of children in schools.

One can see that the number of beneficiaries of the school feeding programme has declined over
the period 1997-98 to 2009-10 even while the amount of expenditure on the programme has
increased nearly four-fold in nominal terms. Several factors underlie these trends. One is that
there is demographic transition well under way in the state since the 1980s. One indicator of this
is the fact that the number of children aged 6 years or less has declined in absolute terms
between 2001 and 2011 from 72,35,160 to 68,94,821 34 . The number of school age children must
also have either declined or increased only marginally, but the age distribution data from Census
2011 is not yet available. Longer term data indicate that the number of enrolled students in all
schools in the state grew from 82,98,675 in 1977 to 98,70,049 in 1983 to 1,15,71,340 in 1988 to
1,28,96,084 in 1992 35 . However, total enrolment in 2005-06 was only 1,30,20,000. In 2009-10,
total school enrolment in the state in the age group of 6 to 16 years was 1,38,30,000. The quality
of the data, taken from the government website, is not certain, but this is what we have to work
with. The spurts in enrolment between 1977 and 1992 may be partly attributed to the
introduction of the school feeding programme in the state in 1982 and its universalization by
1984. The more recent spurt may partly be attributed to a new government initiative called sarva
shiksha abhiyan or movement for universal (school) education. The recent spurt notwithstanding,
it is clear that the proportion of students enrolled in government and government-aided schools is

34
Census of India, 2001 and 2011
35
P. Duraisamy, et.al. (1998)

47
declining in recent years, and even the absolute numbers may be stagnant or declining. An
important reason here is that in recent years-for more than a decade now-there has been a huge
growth of unaided schools taking in students in the entire school-going age group of 6 to 18
years. This is a factor in reducing the rate of increase of students in schools where the
government-run school feeding programmes are operating. In addition, a general improvement in
living standards among sections of the population of the state over the last two decades may also
have led to rising aspiration levels and thereby to a proportion of enrolled and eligible students
opting out of the school feeding programme. But these observations must necessarily remain
somewhat speculative, since we do not have clinching evidence here.

Why have the costs gone up? First, a part of the increased expenditure reflects the impact of
inflation. A part, constituting an increase in real terms, reflects the enhanced meal provisions,
including eggs/banana. Another reason for the rise in expenditures in real terms even while the
number of students being fed is declining could be the provisions now made for better
infrastructure including for cooking sheds, utensils and gas stoves. There is also the increase in
real terms in the compensation paid to employees in the programme. Since the original
compensation levels were quite meagre, this was inevitable.

Notwithstanding the increase in per beneficiary expenditure in nominal and, to a lesser extent, in
real terms, the school feeding programme in the state of Tamil Nadu is a very small proportion
of the state governments expenditure , both total and that related to the social sector, and of
course a tiny proportion of the states net domestic product. This is money well spent, in view of
its impact, not just in terms improving enrolment, but also in terms of reducing class room
hunger, helping break down caste and other social barriers peculiar to the Indian context and
encouraging healthy socialization among school children.

48
References:
Duraisamy, P., Estelle James, Julia Lane and Jee-Peng Tan (1998), Is there a quantity-
quality trade-off as pupil-teacher ratios increase?; Evidence from Tamil Nadu, India,
International Journal of Educational Development, Vol 18, Issue 5, September, pp 367-
383.
Government of India: Population Census Reports 2001, Registrar General of India, New
Delhi.
Government of India: Provisional Population Totals Paper 1, 2011, Registrar General of
India, New Delhi.
Government of India (2010): Programme Evaluation Organization, Performance
Evaluation of the Cooked Mid-day Meal (CMDM), Planning Commission, p.30, para
4.3.14, emphasis added.

Government of Tamil Nadu (2001): Policy Note of the Department of Social Welfare and
Nutritious Meals Programme.

Government of Tamil Nadu (2011): Policy Note of the Department of Social Welfare and
Nutritious Meals Programme.

Rajivan, K. Anuradha (2006): Tamil Nadu: ICDS with a difference, Economic and
Political Weekly, August 26, pp. 3684 to 3688.

Swaminathan, Padmini, J Jeyaranjan, R Sreenivasan and K Jayashree (2004): Tamil

Nadus Mid day Meal Scheme: Where assumed benefits score over hard data, Economic
and Political Weekly, October 30, pp. 4811 to 4821.

49
 Annexure 1
The School Feeding Programme in Tamil Nadu: Some Trends
A look at the numbers of the school feeding programme in Tamil Nadu throws up some puzzles.
The basic data is provided in Table 2.1.

Table 2.1: Some Data on the School Feeding Programme in Tamil Nadu, 1997-98 to 2009-10
Year No. of Centres No. of Beneficiaries Expenditure in
Rupees Crores*
1997-98 40,035 65,68,403 101.53
1998-99 40,176 65,73,664 116.80
1999-2000 40,427 63,89,589 155.22
2000-01 41,057 64,60,223 166.01
2001-02 41,012 64,91,662 155.18
2002-03 41,118 65,04,642 175.51
2003-04 41,336 62,96,809 252.79
2004-05 41,738 62,62,333 198.94
2005-06 39,597 54,98,309 219.72
2006-07 39,522 55,51,011 288.73
2007-08 41,916 58,69,910 506.90
2008-09 42,078 56,41,502 550.74
2009-10 42,824 57, 74,673 788.35
3 Year Average ending 40,213 65,10,552 124.52
1999-2000
3 Year Average ending in 42,273 57,62,028 615.33
2009-10
Change, % 5.12 % -11.50% 394
*1 crore equals 10 million
Source: Performance Budgets for various years, Department of Social Welfare and Nutritious Meal
Programme, Government of Tamil Nadu.

50
 Chapter 3: Salient Aspects of School Feeding Programme in Puducherry 36
G Anuradha & R Rukmani 37

The Union Territory of Puducherry comprises of four coastal districts, namely, Puducherry,
Karaikal, Yanam and Mahe. Puducherry and Karaikal districts are situated on the east coast
adjoining Tamil Nadu while Yanam is also in the east coast, but adjoining Andhra Pradesh.
Mahe is on the west coast adjoining Kerala. Puducherry is the capital of the Union Territory and
is located at a distance of 160 km. to the south of Chennai, the capital city of Tamil Nadu.
According to Census 2011, the total population of the Union Territory is around 1.2 million of
which 76% are in the district of Puducherry and 16% are in the district of Karaikal. That is,
nearly 92 percent of the population in the Union Territory of Puducherry resides in regions that
are culturally very similar to the neighboring State of Tamil Nadu.

The school feeding programme of Puducherry is distinctly different from comparable

programmes in the rest of the country. This note sets out to describe the major elements of this
state-led innovative model of Puducherry. The distinctiveness of the programme is with respect
to the scope, coverage, funding sources and procurement methods.

Scope: The programme in Puducherry is much more comprehensive with the following three
major components marking the difference:
1. Breakfast scheme, under which hot milk and biscuits are given to children in government
and government-aided schools;
2. Centralized kitchens, where meals are prepared on a large scale in a clean environment
and an industrial setting, using state of the art technology;
3. Evening milk scheme, under which hot milk is supplied to children in government and
government-aided schools;

36
Since October 2006, Puducherry has been renamed as Puducherry
37
Senior Scientist, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and Director-in-charge, Food Security, M S
Swaminathan Research Foundation

51
Coverage: The programme is relatively much more inclusive as children from pre-primary
classes as well as children from classes IX to XII are covered, in addition to children in classes I
to VIII. In most States of the country children in classes I-VIII are only covered under the
National Programme of Mid-Day Meals. In neighbouring Tamil Nadu, a pioneer state in this
regard, students in government and aided schools are covered up to class X.

Funding: The Breakfast scheme as well as the Evening milk scheme are supported entirely by
the Government of Puducherry while the mid-day meals are supported by funds from
Government of India as well as the Government of Puducherry.

Procurement methods: Various articles-diet and non-diet- required for implementing the school
feeding programme are procured largely from government-run cooperatives such as Puducherry
Central Cooperative Processing Supply and Marketing Society , Puducherry Agro Products Food
and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited, Puducherry Agro Service Industries Corporation
Limited etc. While self help groups are involved in the supply of diet articles, the extent of their
involvement is not very significant in the overall programme.

The three major components of the Puducherry School feeding programme, viz. Breakfast
scheme, mid day meals, evening milk scheme-cover 126000 children studying from class I to
XII in 463 Government/Government Aided Private Schools, in addition to children in pre-
primary centres (Balwadis ) as on March 2011. Details of these schemes are discussed below:

Breakfast Scheme: The breakfast scheme has been in operation in the Union Territory of
Puducherry since the year 2002. The scheme entails distribution of 35gm of iron fortified
glucose biscuits and 100 ml of hot milk per child on all school working days. Milk is supplied to
the schools directly by the Puducherry Co-operative Milk Producers Union (PONLAIT) around 6
am on all school working days. Each school estimates the required quantity of milk for their
school and sends their calculation to PONLAIT. Two persons per school are appointed by
PONLAIT to boil the milk in the school campus and distribute the same to the students before
the morning assembly, say, 15 minutes before the commencement of classes. On the part of the
school administration, a teacher is assigned the responsibility of overseeing the milk distribution.

52
Milk packets are cut and boiled in the presence of the teacher. Biscuits are supplied by the
government-owned Puducherry Agro Products Food and Civil Supplies Corporation Limited
(PAPSCO).

The quantities and nutritional values per child of the items supplied in breakfast scheme are as
shown below:
Item Quantity Energy K. Cal
Hot Milk 100 ml. 79
Biscuits 35 gms. 150

The cost involved in implementing the breakfast scheme is borne by the Government of
Puducherry.

Mid-Day Meal Scheme: As per the guidelines of Government of Indias National Programme
for Nutrition Support to Primary Education (NPNSPE), the government of Puducherry receives
central support in the form of free food grains for implementing the mid-day meal scheme. In
addition, various other costs such as transportation of food grains, cooking cost, construction of
kitchen cum store, utensils etc. are also supported by central government. In addition to central
funds, state funds are allocated and spent for covering the children in pre-primary classes and
higher-secondary classes as well as to improve the nutritional value of the meals. Since 2004,
Central Kitchens, equipped with modern cooking range facilities, are in operation where mid-day
meals are prepared and transported to schools in the neighbourhood. As on March 2011, mid-day
meals are prepared in 12 central kitchens and 92 school canteen centres. Of the 126000 children
who take mid-day meals in Puducherry, 96000 are served from the modern central kitchens
while 30000 are served by school canteen centres. In the centralized kitchens, meals are steam
cooked using huge steam boilers and this method of preparation ensures quality and hygiene.
Moreover, large scale cooking helps in keeping costs down besides ensuring uniform quality. Of
the 12 central kitchens, two are LP gas based while 10 are diesel based. Cooked meals from the
central kitchens are distributed to all schools attached to them through vehicles. In one district of
Puducherry region, viz. Puducherry district, the 304 schools covered by central kitchens are
catered to by 29 vehicles. On an average, each vehicle supplies to 10 or more schools.

53
Mid-day Meal consists of rice, spicy gravy (Sambar/Karakuzhambu) and vegetable curry. In
addition, 2 eggs per week per child are supplied.

The diet scale as of 2011 is as follows:

Sl. No. Item Class Quantity
1. Rice I to IV Not exceeding 130 gms. per student/day
2. Rice V to XII Not exceeding 160 gms. per student/day
3. Oil I to XII 3-4 gms. per student/day
4. Chilli Powder I to XII 2.5 gms. per student/day
5. Red Gram I to XII 10 gms. per student/day
6. White gram I to XII 0.25 gms. per student/day
7. Other Pulses (such as I to XII 12 gms. per student/non-egg day
lablab)
8. Egg I to XII 2 Eggs per week (weighing 50 gms. each)
9. Tamarind I to XII. 2-3 gms. per student/day
10. Dry Chilly I to XII 0.5 gms. per student/day
11. Mustard I to XII 0.25 gms. per student/day
12. Turmeric Powder I to XII 0.10 gms. per student/day
13. Garlic I to XII 3 gms. per student/day on days when extra
spicey gravy (Karakuzhambu )is served
14. Onion chips I to XII 0.25 gms. per student/day on days when extra
spicey gravy (Karakuzhambu )is served
15. Salt (Double fortified) I to XII 3 gms. per student/day
16. Vegetables I to XII 75 gms. per student/day

The nutritional value of the mid day meal in Puducherry, as of 2011, is as follows;

Group Calories Protein

Standard IIV on Vegetable day 596 19 grams
Standard IIV on Egg day 631 23 grams
Standard VXII on Vegetable day 700 21 grams
Standard VXII on Egg day 735 25 grams

As is clear from appendix 2 of Chapter 1, the nutritional value of mid day meal in Puducherry is
relatively higher than what is provided in other parts of the country. In addition to rice supplied
by Food Corporation of India (FCI), PAPSCO also supplies rice procured from the open market
to mid day meal centres. Rice from FCI is polished in the PAPSCO mill before being sent to the
central kitchen/school canteens. All other ingredients are supplied by M/s. Puducherry Agro

54
Service and Industries Corporation Limited (PASIC), Puducherry Agro Products Food and Civil
Supplies Corporation Limited (PAPSCO) etc. Fresh vegetables and eggs are also supplied by
PAPSCO to every kitchen. According to the Annual Work Plan and Budget, 2010-11 of State
Union Territory of Puducherry, the cost of mid day meal for students in Class I to V works out to
Rs.4.75/day when egg is not supplied and Rs.7.00/day when an egg is supplied. For students in
class VI to XII cost per meal per student works out to Rs.4.40 on non-egg day and Rs.6.65 on
days when eggs are supplied. The cost per meal excludes the cost of rice.

In Puducherry, the mid-day meal scheme is implemented directly by the Department of School
Education. There is coordination with the Department of Health and the height and weight of the
students are recorded once in 6 months and all the students are provided with a health card.

Evening Milk Scheme: Evening milk scheme is in operation in Puducherry since October 2005.
As per this scheme 100 ml of milk (with 5 gms of sugar) per child per day is given after school
hours, in the evening. As on March 2011, a total of 1,05,000 children studying in classes I to X
are supplied with milk under this scheme. Implementation modalities of this scheme are similar
to the morning milk scheme.

References:
Executive Summary, Report of Senior Adviser to review the implementation of the
Flagship Programmes of Puducherry, Planning Commission of India, 2009
National Programme of Mid Day Meal in Schools (MDMS), Annual Work Plan and
Budget 2010-11, Union Territory of Puducherry

55
 Chapter 4: Mid Day Meal Programme in Andhra Pradesh
K S Gopal 38
Backdrop
The scheme of mid day or noon meal scheme was initially an effort of select state governments
that later got central financial support and lead to its country wide adoption. The motivation of
MDM was to draw children to school following poor primary school attendance. Upon the
establishing of this validity in states like Tamil Nadu, it led to its universal adoption. Mid Day
Meal (MDM) as a programme was introduced in AP in 1982 as an experiment in all Abhyudaya
Pradhamika Patashalalu (Progressive Primary Schools) in the state and was because the earlier
attempts to achieve wide participation, let alone universalization of elementary and secondary
education through improving aspects such as access, enrollment, retention and achievement and
in different schemes aimed at reaching primary and secondary education of the most needy and
the disadvantaged sections in the society failed. Deprived populations felt it as economically
burdensome to send children to school. But in 1985 this experiment in AP was abruptly closed
under an explanation of inadequate finances leading to the experiment itself not completed.

In August 1995, AP began to implement the National Programme for Nutritional Support to
Primary Education. Herein each child was provided with, 3 kgs of raw rice per month for a
period of 10 months in a year. It was in 2003 that the State Government launched cooked MDM
Programme to all primary school children in government, local body and the government aided
schools. The big boost for its full and proper implementation came following the Honble
Supreme Courts direction in 2001 to provide cooked meal to school children and state officials
were hauled up by the Court. Subsequently the provisions were extended to children enrolled in
and under the Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS), Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE)
Centres and Madarsas/Maqtabs.

38
Director, Centre for Environment Concerns, Hyderabad

56
Caveats and bottlenecks in this Study
It is important that the issue under inquiry in this study are understood. It was in the period
following 2003 coupled with the availability of women self help groups that were springing up
under a World Bank assisted project, that AP received attention for implementing decentralized
systems (excluding rice) as an opportunity to decrease food miles and kick start a process of a
multiplier benefit to local produce, better quality and higher community participation.
The current situation is, the supply side monitoring on implementation is by Supreme Court. This
has lead to efforts by state government including bestowing adequate attention to effective
implementation of MDM. Also the central government is providing enhanced funds for MDM.
On the demand side a key aspect is the rising dalit assertion and aspiration among who being a
major recipient of MDM seek to further their voices including emerging as a distinct political
force whose cadre are better and constantly articulating needs of the recipient community.

The above provides the backdrop as this study has a purpose - to learn, examine and as needed
promote de-centralized systems of managing MDM. AP, partly due to SHGs had some well
publicized examples of decentralized supply of mid day meals. But during the study one finds
the ground scenario of SHG involvements have changed considerable. However it got captured
because the MDM as discussed earlier witnessed pressures from two sides leading to effective
implementation. But one issue created problems for local providers. BCT in Vizag because the
matter was under Supreme Court attention needing to state taking over food supplies being done
but them while SHGs set up under Society for Elimination of Rural Poverty (SERP) who were
cooking the meal faced prolonged delays in the payments to supplies by the government.

Thus the study found reality as different from its premise and hence the reason for not being able
to learn the experience of decentralized and community based food supplies approaches. With
the largest budgeted item and also the most expensive cost rice supplied by state agency the
govt. has ended up with large cooking institutions whose case studies are listed herein rather than
what one hoped to understand and capitalize in this study. However labor provisioning in the
making of cooked meal, the study brings out challenges and scope of promoting a decentralized
procurement system for the commodities.

57
Status
The key and important objectives of this MDM programme are to motivate children belonging to
disadvantaged sections to attend schools regularly and help them in concentrating on school and
classroom activities, to improve the nutritional status of children enrolled in primary and
secondary schools, and to improve their retention. The importance of these objectives becomes
clear when we look at the existing literacy and nutritional status of the population, particularly
rural people.

According to 2001 population census in AP 60.47 percentage of the population was literate.
While among the males the literacy rate was 70.32% it was 50.43% among females. The literacy
rate was even lower among the disadvantaged sections. Among the rural women literacy rate was
only 23.97%. Among SC population literacy rate was 53.52%. While among the SC males the
literacy rate was 63.51% it was 43.35% among SC females. Similarly, Among ST population
literacy rate was 37.04%. While among the ST males the literacy rate was 47.66% it was 26.11%
among ST females.

To this one need to add health status of the children, particularly the school going age children.
70.8% of the children below 5 years were anaemic. Similarly, among the girls in the age group of
12-14 years 72.7% were suffering from anemia. (p.8, AWP&B 09-10, Andhra Pradesh
www.education.nic.in.pdf)

The MDM programme was expected improve both literacy and health/nutrition status of
children.

Coverage
Under MDM cooked food will be provided to the children studying in classes I VIII in schools
run by Government, Local bodies and Government Aided, Education Guarantee schools / AIE,
Madarsas & Maktabs and also children studying in NCLP centres. Later from October 2008
onwards the Government of Andhra Pradesh extended MDM programme to the children
studying in class IX & X of Govt., Local body, and Govt. Aided schools on par with national
programme on MDM from 13-10-2008 onwards. The State Government is providing MDM to

58
the Students of IX and X Classes in the high schools also by procuring rice from the open market
through Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Corporation (A.P.C.S.C) from out of its own funds. All
these students will be provided with MDM for 220 working days in an year.

Government of India directed that cooked meal should be provided with a minimum content of
450 calories and 12 grams of protein on each working day of the school to children studying in
classes I to V and 700 calories and 20 grams of protein content is to be provided per child on
each working day of the school for classes VI to VIII. The state government of AP claims that
this has been ensured in the state.

According to the state government of AP standardized menu as planned by the National Institute
of Nutrition, Hyderabad is being followed in the state in serving food under MDM. The menu is
flexible with rice & sambar being the main menu with egg/banana twice a week. The
implementing agencies cook sambar using the seasonally available vegetables .The
wholesomeness of the meal provided will be checked at random by various officials visiting
schools. Whenever the quantity/quality is not as per the guidelines, suitable action will be
initiated against the concerned. All the eligible children are covered under this programme.
However, a small percentage of children are not availing themselves of the Mid Day Meal as
they prefer homemade meals. To ensure that two eggs /banana are served to children elaborate
guidelines are issued for procuring eggs at the District level through tender system.

To improve nutritional status of the children, Britannia Industries, Naandi Foundation and Global
Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) have volunteered collectively to provide the nutritious
biscuits. In the first phase two Britannia Tiger Iron (5mg) Fortified Biscuits / Egg and Banana /
Pickles are provided to each child once in a week in Hyderabad district. Providing tasty fortified
biscuits along with Mid day Meal was expected to go a long way towards physical growth and
mental development of the children. This programme was initiated in March 2007.

59
Table 4.1: Per child per day cooking cost of Meal as per State nutritional expenditure norms
Sl. No. Food Items Primary Upper Primary

Quality Cost Rs. Quality Cost Rs.

1. Foodgrains 100 grms Free Supply 150 grms Free supply

(Rice)
2. Pulses 20 0.82 30 1.07
3. Vegetables 50 0.53 75 0.63
4. Oil & Pulse 5 0.46 7.5 0.52
5. Sal & - 0.14 - 0.14
Condiments
6. Fuel - 0.03 - 0.03
7. Egg/Fruits Twice in a 0.72 Twice in a 0.72
week week
8. Other charges *0.58 *0.58
Total 3.55 3.96
*This amount can be utilized for purchase of Eggs / Fruits in addition to allotted amount for Eggs / Fruits.
Source: GoAP Mid Day Meal Scheme Guidelines 2010-11

The menu given in Table 4.1, is expected to provide per child per day 650 calories energy and 12
grms protein in primary sections and 900 calories of energy and 20 grms of proteins in upper
primary sections. These are higher than the norms prescribed by the central government.

Before 1st December 2009 cooking cost for each child both in primary and upper primary
sections was Rs.3.25 per student. From 1st December 2009 this was enhanced to Rs.3.55 per
student in the primary sections and Rs.3.96 per student in the upper primary sections. Through
G.O. Rt. No. 474 dated 17-08-2010 these rates were enhanced to Rs.3.69 and Rs.4.17 per student
in the primary and upper primary sections respectively. In the case of students of classes of IX
and X also the cooking cost was increased to Rs.4.17 through G.O. Rt. No.470 dated 16-08-
2010.

Programme Administration
The implementation of MDM involves different stages and coordination among different
government departments and also different wings within the same department. The Government
of India releases sanctioned funds to the State Government based on the annual allocations. At
the state level the Director of School Education receives these funds. The department of school

60
education prepares the budget for each year that includes requirement of rice and other cooking
ingredients and the costs of administering the scheme with inputs on number of students to be
fed under this scheme. Based on the requirements of each district the Director of School
Education releases funds to the District Educational Officers on quarterly basis. The District
Educational Officers in turn releases the funds to the Mandal Educational Officers. The Mandal
Educational Officers collects bills from the implementing agencies in the Mandals and prefer the
claims with the Pay and Accounts officers/ Treasury Officers. The Pay and Accounts Officers/
Treasury Officer pass the bills and issue the cheques to the implementing agencies.

Apart from the government officials and school headmaster and teachers the implementing
agency plays crucial role in the success of the MDM scheme. In rural areas one of the agencies
drawn from DWCRA/Self Help Groups/SEC/Other agencies like Temples, NGOs of proven
track record, charitable Trusts/Group of Parents (in this order of preference) are to be identified
by the Tahsildar of the Mandal as the implementing agencies. The Tahsildar of the Mandal in
association with Mandal Prajaparishad Development officer and Mandal Educational Officer
identify the Agency in a meeting at school level organized by Panchayat Secretary. Similarly, in
Urban areas community development societies like (CDS)/NGOs/Urban SHGs/DWCUA/School
Education Committees and other Agencies like Temples/NGOs of proven track record/
charitable trusts/Group of Parents (in this order of preference) are identified as implementing
agencies by a committee headed by the Tahsildar of the Mandal.

Experience in multi sectoral co-ordination

A) Procurement of rice
Government of India allocates rice based on the requirements submitted by the School Education
Department of Andhra Pradesh through Food Corporation of India (FCI). Foodgrains will be
allocated biannually by the Department of School Education &Literacy, MHRD, GOI with the
concurrence of Department of Food & Public Distribution System. The first Six months
allocation will be made in the 1st week of February of the previous year on the basis of number
of children approved in PAB (Programme Approved Board) of that academic year and second
six months will be made in the first week of August after deducting available unspent balances

61
with schools. To ensure timely allocation of foodgrains by the GoI, the concerned authority
needs to submit Utilization certificate.

At the state level it is the responsibility of FCI to ensure continuous availability of adequate
quantity of good quality of rice for the MDM scheme. The regional FCI will allow lifting of food
grains as per allocation of the state and according to the lifting schedule drawn up by the District
administration. At the district level the District Educational Officer is nominated as Nodal officer
for implementation of the MDM scheme. He looks after all issues related to lifting, quality of
rice and payment of cost of food grains lifted under MDM Scheme.

The District Managers of APCSC Ltd. lift the raw rice from FCI godowns and distribute it to the
schools through Fair Price shops. Mandal Educational Officer in consultation with the Tahsildar
of that Mandal allocate the foodgrains to the each school on the basis of enrolment. The
Headmasters/implementing agencies receive the stocks as per their allocation. The implementing
agencies are responsible for lifting rice from the Fair price shops. Rice so supplied should be
stored at school level and they are to be taken care of by Head Master and implementing
agencies. This rice and other ingredients used in cooking shall be stored in clean surroundings.

The Food Corporation of India supplies rice under MDM Scheme at the BPL rate. Grant of
Central assistance towards transportation cost is based on flat rate of Rs.750/- per Mt. for A.P.,
as a whole or actual expenditure whichever is less. The Utilization of this grant should be
commensurate with the actual quantity of foodgrains lifted and transported under this
programme.

Is there any change in the procurement arrangement? What are the issues. Quantity of
allocation/procurement over time.

B) System for procuring other cooking ingredients

The Implementing Agency is responsible for the purchase of other material other than rice
which is supplied by APSCSC - like dal, vegetables, cooking oil, sambar powder, fire wood etc.

62
from the DWCRA group/ Gruha Mitra/ Local Market etc., from out of the funds released to
them. The implementing agency needs to maintain records of all these purchases.

C) System for cooking

In the past it was the responsibility of implementing agencies to cook mid day meal and serve it
to the students. Either members of these agencies used to cook or hired cooks. Per child 25 paise
was allowed as cooking cost. According to new rules laid by the government of India (GoI,
MHRD, Department of School Education and Literacy, MDM Division Dt:30.04.2010) a
separate provision for payment of honorarium to cookcum-helpers @ 1000.00 (Rs.750/- Central
share and Rs.250/- State share) per month has been made with effect 01.04.2010. State
Government shall give priority to weaker sections of the society like women, SC, ST, OBC, and
minority in engaging cook-cum-helpers. One cook -cum -helper shall be engaged to a school
having up to 25 students. Two cook-cum-helpers for schools having 26 to 100 students. And one
additional cook-cum-helper for every addition of 100 students.

Monitoring the MDM scheme

For effective implementation of the MDM scheme the Implementing Agencies at the school
level need to maintain the relevant registers like, stock register, issue register, etc. The monthly
reports based on these reports need to be submitted to the Mandal Educational Officers (MEO).

The mothers committees and Gram Panchayats are responsible for supervision of MDM
Programme at the school level. The Mothers Committees are responsible for certifying the
number of students who availed themselves of the Mid Day Meals and supervision of quality of
food supplied to children. Head Masters of the respective schools are also responsible to monitor
the Mid Day Meal programme in their school for effective implementation. These agencies need
to ensure that, among other things, regular and wholesome meal is served to children, cooking in
hygienic conditions and serving of vegetables, eggs / fruits twice in a week.

The Mandal level implementation committee is headed by MEO and this committee is expected
to meet fortnightly to review the implementation of the MDM Programme in the Mandal. MEOs
have to ensure, among other things, that monthly bills at the school level are prepared in time,

63
that food grain is received and stored properly, Head Masters supervise the programme
effectively and the implementation agencies provide their services promptly.

The District Educational Officers (DEO) supervise implementation of the programme at district
level. They coordinate with the APCSC/FCI District Manager for delivery of rice for the MDM
programme in the district. They take the help of Deputy DEOs at the Division level. DEO also
need to submit monthly reports to state government. General Body of the Zilla Parishad and the
District Development Review Committee (DDRC) are also expected to review implementation
of the Programme in the District.

Display of information
The guidelines on implementation of MDM indicate that school, mandal and district level
information on MDM should be displayed on monthly/quarterly basis as suo - motu information
under RTI Act. This information shall be displayed either on black board or display board. The
information to be displayed shall include quantity and quality of food grains received and date of
receipt, other ingredients purchased and utilized, number of children provided MDM, daily
menu, assistance received from the government and paid to agencies, and community members
assistance and their involvement in MDM scheme.

Status of MDM in AP
Between 2004-05 and 2007-08 about Rs.1452 crore were allocated for mid day meal scheme in
the state. Out of this only Rs.783 crore were spent. In 2006-07 only 52 percent of the allocated
funds were used. In 2007-08 this has further declined to 37 percent. The last few years has also
seen decline in state government funding for this scheme. While the state government allocated
Rs.250 crore in the year 2004-05, this declined to Rs.205 crore in 2007-08.

Government of Andhra Pradesh has allocated an amount of Rs.294.50 crores for MDM
Programme during the year 2008-09. Budget allocation for the year 2010-11 is Rs. 270 core, and
for the year 2011-12 the budget allocation for MDM programme is Rs.372 crore.

64
Table 4.2: Enrolment of Students
2002-03 2003-04 2004-05 2005-06 2006-07 2007-08 2008-09
Primary No. of 63362 63897 61680 62159 62162 62464 65609
Schools
Boys 3197135 3006457 2779410 2720336 2788122 2719721 2875478
Girls 3153937 2960553 2744953 2677672 2725033 2647228 2810567
Total 6351072 5967010 5524363 5398008 5513155 5366949 5686045
Upper No. of 15110 15215 16667 17290 17823 17957 14942
Primary Schools
Boys 1761580 1636883 1647443 1651337 1691111 1615903 1302469
Girls 1627609 1513081 1525434 1511426 1554985 1494783 1189729
Total 3389189 3149964 3172877 3162763 3246096 3110686 2492198
High No. of 12570 13160 14342 15437 16195 16937 17376
School Schools
Boys 2233949 2341558 2472790 2551235 2604144 2646112 2747809
Girls 1844409 1988921 2160752 2388008 2384647 2468330 2622153
Total 4078358 4330479 4633242 4839243 4988791 5114442 5369962
Special No. of 219 120 130 130 131 131 132
Schools Schools
Boys 7166 7275 8946 9852 8370 8101 8362
Girls 4034 3539 4294 4990 4573 4440 4858
Total 11200 10814 13240 14842 12943 12541 13220
Oriental No. of 177 159 180 205 205 201 163
Schools Schools
Boys 21447 19457 19382 21289 21288 20705 16835
Girls 22634 20696 21114 23431 23407 22639 18113
Total 44081 40153 40496 44720 44695 43344 34948
Total No. of 91438 92551 92999 95221 96516 97690 98222
Schools
Boys 7221277 7011630 6927671 6954049 7113035 7010542 6950953
Girls 6652623 6486790 6456547 6505527 6692645 6637420 6645420
Total 13873900 13498420 13384218 13459576 13805680 13647962 13596373

Between 2003 and 2009 there was no consistent trend in enrolment of students in the state (Table
4.2). The girl students accounted for 47 to 49 percent of the total enrolment. All the schools in
the state are not covered under the mid day meal scheme. Only the government and government
aided schools are covered under MDM. They account for more than 75 percent of the schools in
the state.

In the year 2006-07 about 55 lakh children were beneficiaries of the mid day meal programme in
AP. According to the Planning Commission Report during the year 2009-10 more than 60 lakh

65
students spread over 60,780 schools were served cooked food under MDM. According to the
National University of Educational Planning and Administrations Annual Report 92.02% of the
government and aided schools in AP are providing MDM in the year 2009-10. According to the
GoAPs estimate during the year 59,98,715 students of I to VIII classes would receive cooked
food during 2010-11 (Table 4.3). To this one need to add students of IX and X of government
and government aided schools.

Table 4.3: Student strength in Primary and Upper Primary Classes during the year 2010-11
Sl. No. District Total No. of Enrolment MDM Opted
Institutions
1. Srikakulam 3282 259378 220471
2. Vizianagaram 2472 217701 185046
3. Visakhapatnam 3753 307533 261436
4. East Godavari 3505 432985 368038
5. West Godavari 2813 335425 285111
6. Krishna 3123 323473 275231
7. Guntur 3432 366760 312346
8. Prakasam 3474 316375 269325
9. Nellore 3546 246575 209868
10. Chittoor 5062 337744 287104
11. Kadapa 3437 220631 187894
12. Ananthapur 3638 365717 311156
13. Kurnool 2563 409422 348814
14. Mahaboob Nagar 3361 413013 351451
15. RangaReddy 2117 304121 259044
16. Hyderabad 1098 220909 192837
17. Medak 2528 312564 266154
18. Nizamabad 1945 235507 204808
19. Adilabad 2746 259406 220912
20. Karimnagar 2601 285514 242788
21. Warangal 2830 287322 244513
22. Khammam 2695 247371 210372
23. Nalgonda 3003 333319 283996
Total 68754 7043265 5998715
Source: GoAP Mid Day Meal Scheme Guidelines 2010-11

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Analysis
There is no denying the fact that the MDM helped to improve school education in the villages.
This has helped to improve enrolment, attendance and retention. Field work done in three
selected villages in Pulkal mandal, Medak District of AP School teachers working in these
villages said that enrolment and attendance improved in primary as well as upper primary
schools following the implementation of MDM. In the past only about 50% of the students used
to attend school regularly. Now because of the MDM nearly 90 percent of the enrolled students
attend school regularly.

Planning Commission study also found that MDM contributed to improvement in school
education in the sample districts in AP. According to this report 70 percent of the sample schools
reported improvement following the implementation of MDM in these schools. Nearly 80
percentage of this improvement is attributed to MDM. Similarly, 95 percentage of the sample
schools reported improvement in attendance due to MDM. During the period 2000-06 97.5
percent of the sample schools in AP attributed an increase in retention rates to CMDM.

But the achievements would have been much better if the problems nagging the MDM
programme were addressed. These problems include diversion of rice allotted to the MDM
schools, lack of necessary infrastructure for cooking and serving the meals, lack of transparency
in the implementation of the programme and near absence of local community participation in
this programme.

During the field work done in three selected villages in Pulkal mandal, Medak District of AP
teachers as well as the DWCRA members responsible for cooking the meal reported that the
present rice allotment of 100 grams per student of the primary school was very inadequate and
wanted it to be restored to 125 grams which was the case in the past. One reason for this coming
informal coming down of this entitlement was partly because the state government was not able
to make payments to those taking the responsibility of providing cooked food. The demand from
the community was to stick to the original nutrition based intake needs.

67
Allotment of rice and other ingredients depends on enrolment and attendance. Fudging and
corruption in a way starts from this stage. According to a social audit of MDM conducted by
MVF 39 and its partners in AP on the day of the social audit in select schools 18889 children
were found to be having the mid day meal where as the attendance registers showed that 21958
children were eating the mid day meal. This implies that consumption was over estimated by
about 13%. One of the reasons for this over estimation could be corruption. Other reasons might
be that they are trying to meet other genuine expenditure towards serving MDM in the school.

The Planning Commission conducted a sturdy on implementation of MDM in select districts in

some states. As a part of it four districts in AP were also studied. According to this study report
during the period 2004-05 to 2006-07 while Rs.2869.76 lakhs were required in Adilabad
Rs.2708.68 lakhs were allotted. Out of this Rs.2450.49 lakhs were utilized. This was 90.47
percent of the allotted funds. Similarly, in Anantapur district while Rs.2799 lakhs were required
Rs.2758 lakhs were allotted. Out of this Rs.2744 lakhs were utilized. In Srikakulam district while
Rs.3378.34 lakhs were required only Rs.2249.01 lakhs were allotted. This was 66.57 percent of
the requirement. Out of the allotted funds in this district Rs.2227.91 lakhs were utilized. In the
case of West Godavari district while requirement was Rs.1895.6 lakhs Rs.2428.32 lakhs were
allotted. This was 128.1 percent of the required funds. Out of the allotted funds Rs.1895.6 lakhs
were utilized. Though this was only 78.06 percent of the allotted funds it was equal to its
requirement. This shows that in some districts allotment of funds were not in commensurate with
their requirement.

In AP during the period 2004-05 to 2006-07 nearly 90 percent of the foodgrains allotted was
utilized. At the district level there was some variation in utilization of foodgrains. While in
Anantapur, Srikakulam and West Godavari districts all the food grains allotted were utilized in
Adilabad district only 16.96 percentage of the foodgrains allotted were utilized. One of the
reasons for not utilizing the allotted rice was less number of working days. While estimating the
rice allotment 220 days of work is assumed. But actual number of days the schools functioned

39
M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (MVF) in collaboration with Foundation for Rural and Social Development
(FRSD), Andhra Pradesh Academy of Rural Development (APARD) and SWC Consulting conducted a social audit
of MDM in five districts in Andhra Pradesh covering 261 schools

68
were less. According to the Concerned Citizens Collectives study the number of working days
ranged from 195 days to 205 days.

According to the existing guidelines the APCSC distributes rice to the schools through Fair Price
shops. The Headmasters/implementing agencies receive the stocks as per their allocation. The
implementing agencies are responsible for lifting rice from the Fair price shops. Rice so supplied
should be stored at school level and they are to be taken care of by Head Master and
implementing agencies. But in practice this method is not being followed. Instead of storing rice
at the schools it is stored at the fair price shop dealer or at the house of the person responsible for
the implementing agency. The Planning commission study found that there was usually a
pilferage of foodgrain ranging from 2 to 5 kg per almost every 50 kg bag due to non supply of
foodgrain directly to school by the Fair Price Shop dealer (p.26).

The social audit conducted by MVF and its partners showed that in many schools the rice was
stored at the agencys or dealers house, with no transparency, nor accountability to the school.
Only in 46.7% of the schools was the rice stored in the school. According to this social audit,
the headmasters in many schools were not properly monitoring the consumption of rice. The
stock registers were filled at the end of the month based on calculations of the prescribed
quantity rather than registering the actual consumption. It was also seen that, other than a few
exceptions, the green mark rice provided for mid day meal was not reaching the school. The
rice that was actually being used for mid day meal was of inferior quality Discussions in the
village revealed that there is a nexus between those working at the stock point and the ration
dealers and the exchange happens even before the rice comes into the school. Release orders
(ROs) were not available in most schools making it almost impossible to verify whether the rice
supplied for the mid day meal was being properly utilized. (p.6) (reference year)

The guidelines indicate that rice as well as other ingredients should be stored in hygienic store
rooms. The Planning commission study found that in AP only 27.5% of the schools have
storerooms and out these storerooms 61.53 % were found in good condition. According to the
social audit of MVF and its partners in less than 50% of the schools of which social audit was
conducted, rice was stored in the school (p.21). But in this report it is not clear whether there is a

69
separate room for storing rice, and if it was there its condition. Apart from the store room kitchen
shed is very important for the MDM scheme.

According to the National University of Educational Planning and Administration in the year
2009-10 in AP only 32.84% of the schools have kitchen sheds. According to the Planning
commissions study only 37.5% schools have kitchen sheds and in the schools where kitchen
sheds are available only in 76% of them are in good condition. According to the social audit of
MVF and its partners kitchen shed was available only in 52% of the schools studied and in 33%
of the schools the cooking was done in the kitchen shed. Even the available kitchen sheds were
of bad quality with poor ventilation. In the remaining schools cooking was done either in the
open air or in the cooking agencys house.

Except in some urban areas where big organisations like Naandi and ISKON are involved in
cooking at a central place and distributing cooked food to schools in all other places usually
women shelf help groups (SHG)/DWCRA are selected as implementing agencies to cook and
serve food at the schools where MDM is being implemented. Under the present system while
rice is provided by the government other items like red gram, cooking oil, tamarind and
vegetable need to be purchased by the group members from the market from the funds allotted
by the government. But these funds are barely sufficient to meet this expenditure and no surplus
is left for the members who are involved in cooking. In order to earn something usually the
DWCRA members supply less quantity than prescribed. The persons responsible for cooking are
given Rs.3.25 per student. In this while Rs.3 are towards purchase of all items other than rice, 25
paise are for the service rendered by the persons entrusted with cooking. This 25 paise per
student was not sufficient for the women who attend to the MDM work at the school. The
Planning Commission study also found that it was difficult to hire a cook with such a small
honorarium (p.48). To assure a certain return to people engaged in providing hot cooked meal
the state government has developed guidelines for cooks and helpers of what wages they will be
paid and this will be determined according to the Planning Commission assessment of 1.07
cooks and 0.07 for helpers and per school.

70
The following are the observations flowing from social audit of MDM conducted by MVF and
its partners in AP: The cooking agency in most of the schools were women SHGs. Usually one
or two women took the responsibility of cooking and the agency was given in their name, with
the bank account also being opened in their name. Although, these people were members of an
SHG there was no formal relation between the self help group and the cooking agency as such.
In some places, it was also seen that while the agency was in one persons name they had
employed another person to do the cooking and were paying him/her a daily or monthly wage. In
Narnoor mandal, Adilabad district there was a system where although the agency is in the name
of local women, it is completely under the control of the headmaster who pays the women a
monthly wage of Rs.500 a month. In many schools, such as in Kurnool, the agency was with
persons close to those in power, the factional leaders or sarpanchs, making it difficult for the
community to monitor them.

Most of the cooking agencies were poor illiterate women for whom this was the main source of
livelihood. There was no system of accounting practised by these women. They spent some
amount on the cooking costs such as pulses, vegetables, oil etc. and saved some for themselves.
Many felt that the present allocations were not enough to provide a good quality meal especially
they found it tough to serve eggs twice a week and make a decent living for themselves. In all the
districts (except Kurnool since the last four month) there was roughly a three months delay in the
payment of bills. Because of this the cooking agency had to take a cash loan or buy ingredients
on credit. Many times the interest rates were high. While the cooking agencies made all
arrangements to ensure that there is no disruption in the meal, the delay in payment affected the
quality of the meal. (p.7)

Government of APs guidelines mention that the menu for the MDM in the state is prepared on
the lines suggested by NIN and that its calorie and protein content is more than the one stipulated
by the central government. The social audit brings out the fact that there was no weekly menu
being followed. The standard meal being served was that of rice and watery dal or sambar. There
were very few vegetables being given very little oil added and eggs were rarely given (p. 8)

71
The members of the DWCRA groups in the villages are finding it difficult to provide quality
meals with the present fund allocations. They purchase ingredients other than rice form local
merchants on credit. Because of the delay in receiving funds from the school education
department they have run in to huge debts. Women members of these groups find it difficult to
retain any surplus towards their wage from this meager sum allotted per student. Added to this
there is delay in reimbursing the costs incurred by the implementing agencies in carrying out the
MDM programme. The delay in payment of bills ranges from four to seven months.

A news report in The Hindu dated December 3, 2009 from Vizianagaram district showed that the
DWCRA members were neck deep in debts. Elamanchili Simhachalam, mid-day meal organiser,
at G. T. Peta in Mentada mandal lamented that the scheme had pushed her into a debt trap. She
had borrowed over Rs.20,000 to feed schoolchildren. There was inordinate delay in settling her
bills. Majji Varalakshmi of Chodamma Agraharam in Poosapatirega mandal expressed inability
to run the school kitchen because the sowcar on whom she depended till date for essentials
refused to supply any more on credit. Ijjirowthu Pydamma of Cheepurupalli borrowed Rs.30,000
for effectively running the scheme. She said that though the government had not been releasing
grants, district officials had been pressuring her to serve eggs twice in a week.

The guidelines for implementation of MDM envisages committees at different levels to monitor
its implementation at regular intervals. These guidelines also envisage active participation of
local bodies particularly panchayat raj institutions in the implementation of MDM. The Planning
Commission study shows that only in 27% of the schools local bodies are involved. This study
also found that the committees constituted at mandal and village level are not holding any
regular meetings to coordinate and monitor the programme at the block/village level. (p.37)
Lack of proper monitoring of the MDM by the committees constituted for this purpose and lack
community participation through local bodies is shown as one of the reasons for inefficient
functioning of MDM.

The Concerned Citizens Collective, a Hyderabad based NGO examined the functioning of MDM
in 127 villages spread across five districts from different regions of the state commented as
follows on community participation in MDM, There is a general disinterest amongst parents in

72
monitoring the quality of the MDMS as most parents surveyed expressed their satisfaction that
their children were getting a hot cooked meal in the afternoon. Children who were interviewed in
the survey reported that their parents expressed no interest about their mid day meals at school.
Parents who were interviewed reported that the mid-day meal scheme had no tangible benefit for
them, reflecting a lack of awareness about its benefits. It must be noted that most children in
government schools are from a lower caste background, especially from the SCs and STs
whereas children from BC and OC backgrounds attend private schools. Given the grassroots
nature of the programme successful MDM requires close attention of local PRI representatives
and childrens parents. At present, as shown above, involvement of both of them is lacking.

References:
M. Venkatarangaiya Foundation (2008), A Report on Social Audit of the Mid Day Meal
Scheme in Five Districts of Andhra Pradesh, Hyderabad.
Planning Commission (2010), Performance Evaluation of Cooked Mid Day Meal
(CMDM), New Delhi.

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 Case Studies on Mid Day Meal Programme:
Akshaya Patra Foundation

Andhra Pradesh is one of the eight states in which the Akshaya Patra Foundation has taken up
implementation of the governments mid day meal scheme. The Akshaya Patra Foundations
headquarters is located in Bengaluru. Started as an ISKCON Bangalore pilot initiative in June
2000, Akshaya Patra was formed into a Foundation in October 2001.

As a secular organisation the Akshaya Patra Foundation does not discriminate the students on the
basis of caste, creed and community. Its implementation of the governments mid day meal is
confined to government schools which already have a secular policy.

In spite of high economic growth, a large number of school going age children are not to be
found in schools. Dire poverty and high malnutrition are coming in the way poor children
accessing schools. To facilitate the education of such needy children the Akshaya Patra
Foundation provides mid day meals in schools in partnership with the Central and respective
state governments of India. The Akshaya Patra Foundations vision is to ensure that no child in
India is deprived of education because of hunger. Through this programme the Foundation is
working towards ending hunger and create a human resources pool that will catapult India into
the league of developed nations. This is considered as one of the largest school meal programmes
in the world.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation considers the mid day meal programme as more than just a
school meal program. For them it is s a hunger-eradication program and an education program. It
is a social project working towards nation building. It is a public private partnership to see that
hunger among children is completely eradicated as India moves towards becoming a developed
nation. The Foundation implements the mid day meal programme as a public private partnership.
It works with the state government in carrying out the programme. The state governments
allocations are not sufficient to provide a quality meal. The funds provided by the state
government meet only about 60% of the total cost of the meal and distribution. The Foundation
raises the remaining funds as donations from corporate organisations and individuals. Through
this the Akshaya Patra Foundation is attempting to leverage the skills and resources of the

74
private sector for the greater good. The foundation is implementing this programme both in rural
and urban areas.

The Foundation uses centralized, automated kitchens for cooking food. The cooked food is then
distributed to schools through special purpose vehicles. Due to extensive mechanization of the
kitchen, the program is expected to offer standardized, high quality, hygienic meals to school
children. Where the environment is conducive, the program has incorporated a centralized
approach, backed by technology-driven processes. In other situations, it has adopted a de-
centralized mode of operations, to cater to the needs of the local community. The Centralized
kitchen model is technology-intensive. The automated kitchen facility marries the new
technology to social needs. In all the places where the centralized model is adopted, the
Foundation has created infrastructure with funds raised from corporate and individual donations.
The automated kitchen facilities include stainless steel cauldrons, steam boilers, exhaust system,
conveyor system, high-speed cutting machines, etc. Covered stainless steel containers that retain
heat are used to pack food. The packed food is transported using custom-built vehicles.
In Andhra Pradesh Akshaya Patra Foundation is serving MDM in 240 schools spread over 8
mandals in Medak district. All these are located in villages. This year the total students being
served under MDM by the Akshaya Patra number 37,134. The meals to be served is cooked at a
central kitchen located in Patancheru Industrial Area which is part of Medak district, but also
forms part of Hyderabad Metropolitan Area. All the villages being covered under MDM by
Akshaya Patra Foundation are within 50 kilometers radius from the centralized cooking centre
located at Patancheru.

The menu of meals served under MDM consists of rice and sambar prepared with dal and
vegetables. Every working day the cooking centre uses about 3,200 kg of rice, 500 kgs of dal and
600 kgs of vegetables. While rice for the meals is being provided by the state government
through the Civil Supplies Corporation other ingredients like red gram, cooking oil are being
procured from the traders in the city. The traders are selected through the tender bidding process.
This whole process is undertaken under supervision of the Akshaya Patra Foundations head
office located in Bengaluru. In the case of vegetables also similar process is undertaken. Though
the Foundation is supplying meals to schools located in the villages they are not procuring

75
vegetable from the farmers in these villages. The organizers also are not having any plan to
procure vegetables from the farmers in the near future. Here it also to be noted that the Medak
district produces some of the best quality red gram. The organizers may consider procuring the
dal and other ingredients from the farmers directly if the price at which farmers would like to
supply their produce to Akshaya Patra should be at par or even lower than the price arrived at
through bidding and it should be delivered by the farmers at the central kitchen.

Like other service providers cooking and serving the MDM Akshaya Patra Foundation is also
facing the problem of delayed bill payment. They were not paid by the government for the last 7
months. Besides this, according to Akshaya Patra Foundation the preparation and distribution of
MDM costs more than the funds provided by the government. In Andhra Pradesh while it costs
them Rs.7.22 per meal the amount that they receive from the government is Rs.4.71 per meal
including the rice provided by the government. Per child they face a deficit of Rs.566 in an year.
Though the menu followed by Akshaya Patra Foundation and SHGs is similar the cost difference
is on account of quality of food provided. The organizers say that they managed to maintain
good quality, hygiene and nutritional value of food without compromising on cost. This deficit is
met by the Foundation through contributions from well wishers.

76
 Naandi Foundation
Naandi Foundation is a Hyderabad based organisation promoted by industrialists. The Board of
Naandi Foundation is chaired by Dr. Anji Reddy of Dr. Reddy Labs and another important
member of the Board is Mr. Anand Mahindra of Mahindra and Mahindra Company. It was
founded in the year 1998 with a vision to make poverty history. Child Rights is one of the broad
areas in which the Foundation is working. Its interventions in mid day meal (MDM) programme
are located in this broad area. MDM scheme being run from school, particularly those in the
urban setting is facing infrastructural bottlenecks. The schools in the urban areas are located in
congested buildings. There is not enough place even for students to sit. Let alone enough place to
set up a kitchen to cook meals for hundreds of children. Unlike in villages open spaces is also
scarce to come by in urban areas. Space is required even to store rice and other ingredients and
also cooking utensils. Any solution that addresses the mid day meal programme in urban areas
has to address this space constraint seriously. In rural areas in most of the schools
implementation of MDM is taken up by SHGs. But in urban areas there is no such well knit SHG
network. Some other innovative organisation need to be visualized to take this programme
forward. It is in this context that the centralized kitchen idea becomes relevant. But the
centralized kitchen throws up the problem of huge cost of cooking infrastructure for cooking the
meals and also transport logistics to take the cooked food to different schools in the urban
areas/city. Here the public private partnership (PPP) becomes relevant.

The centralized kitchen/cooking system pioneered by Naandi Foundation holds out a solution to
all the three above constraints. The MDM programme being implemented by the Naandi
Foundation on behalf of the government of Andhra Pradesh can be described as an exercise in
PPP. In partnership with state government and through corporate donations Naandi Foundation
runs the MDM kitchen. The state government gives the land and provides cereals from the FCI
godowns along with a minimum recurring cost per child per meal. Necessary equipment and
technology that will cook, pack and distribute is purchased for the kitchen by Naandi by raising
resources from individuals, corporations and philanthropists.

Naandi Foundation entered in to an MOU with the Government of Andhra Pradesh in 2003 to
implement the MDM programme in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad. The

77
programme was formally launched on 21 February 2003. As a part of it the state government
allotted 2 acres with built up area of 14,000 sq ft in Uppal industrial estate in the city for setting
up the centralized kitchen. Besides land Naandi Foundation also receives rice and funds towards
other ingredients for cooking the MDM on per child basis from the state government, as is the
case with other implementing agencies. The centralized kitchen set up in a factory setting was
expected to offer the benefits of cooking the meal under strict supervision and hygienic
conditions for a large number of school children without compromising on the nutrition and
quality of food. The centralized cooking was also expected to lead to economies of scale.

It is also an answer to bring down time spent by teachers in overseeing the MDM in the schools
and as a result teachers have more quality time to spend with the children.

Naandi Foundation serves MDM in schools located in urban setting. It can be described as a
pioneer in providing MDM through a centralized process unlike other implementing agencies,
mostly SHGs each serving one school. Naandi Foundation is serving 891 government and
government aided schools in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secunderabad serving 1,15,000
students.

Mid Day Meal consisting of rice and sambar (prepared with dal and vegetables) prepared at the
central kitchen is delivered to the schools between 09:30 am and 12:00 noon. A fleet of mini
trucks are engaged to transport these meals packed in stainless steal containers. These mini
trucks ply on pre-determined routes selected to bring down the cost of distribution to schools
located in different parts of the twin cities.

Along with rice and sambar children are also served egg once in a week and a fruit once in a
week. Besides this, children are being given four fortified biscuits twice a week as a part of mid-
day meal programme. This is made possible with collaboration between Naandi Foundation,
Britannia Biscuits and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN). These special
biscuits are fortified with the iron and other much-needed micronutrients for growing children.
The iron-fortified biscuits are supplement to the ongoing mid day meals programme. These
biscuits help in improving physical health, immunity, concentration, memory, learning ability.

78
The Naandi Foundation obtains rice needed under MDM from the godowns of Food Corporation
of India (FCI) on the basis of prior agreement. This rice comes free of cost to the foundation.
Other cooking ingredients like salt, pulses, cooking oil and vegetables are procured from
wholesale dealers at market prices. Every day about three tonnes of pulses and five tonnes of
vegetables are used in cooking.

Farming community is not involved in the procurement of the ingredients like red gram and
vegetables. As the Naandi Foundation basically caters to the students in urban areas and do not
have immediate contact with rural community the direct procurement of ingredients from the
farming community may not be possible.

Naandi Foundations centralised kitchen model under PPP attempts to address bottlenecks in
implementation of MDM in urban setting. This model is also hoped to bring down drain on
teaching time faced by schools in implementing MDM in their schools.

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 Ramakrishna Upper Primary School (RUPS), Yellammabanda
NGO Asha Hyderabads initiative
(A note prepared by Asha Hyderabad)

Ramakrishna Upper Primary School (RUPS), an initiative by Lions Club takes efforts to educate
poor and needy children in and around Kukatpally area, Hyderabad. A majority of the children
in the school belong to the local slum area and are mostly first generation literates. Parents of
most of these children are employed in the quarry or work as housemaids. Initially there was a
lot of resistance from parents to send their children to school mainly because of their poor socio -
economic background. Generally, male children used to accompany their fathers to work in the
quarries and girls assist their mothers at home and in the work place. Parents were reluctant to
send their children to school because of the expenditure involved in buying text books, uniform
fees, food, etc.

RUPS started with less than 100 students. When Asha Hyderabad (Hyderabad chapter of the
NGO Asha) an organisation committed to childrens education came to know of this initiative, it
volunteered to support the school financially. The immediate need then was to first understand
and overcome the basic difficulties the school faced with the children as well as the parents. It
was observed that children were suffering from malnutrition. Also they had problems arising out
of lack of hygiene. Asha Hyderabad then organized a health camp in association with Lions Club
members. It was revealed that most of the children were suffering from nutrition linked illnesses.
It was also found that many were affected with lung problem while few had minor skin related
problems.

Since academic year 2004, Asha is actively involved in the activities of this school and runs mid-
day meal programme for all the children by mobilizing funds. The mid-day meal programme at
RUPS became Asha Hyderabad chapters first real project. It has also taken the responsibility of
meeting a part of staffs salary. The school has been able to function well with un-interrupted
and systematic funds mobilized by Asha Hyderabad towards mid-day meal programme and
teachers salaries. Asha Hyderabad organizes programmes to mobilize funds for running the
school and mid day meal programme. Many corporate sectors have come forward to help the

80
mid-day meal programme at RUPS; Phase Forward is one such company. Phase Forward is the
donor of the mid day meal programme for the last three years. The company donates a lump sum
amount for the entire programme. Last year expenses related to mid day meal was around Rs 6
lakh. The total number of children during the last academic year was 240 and the cost per child
was Rs 2500.

Asha Hyderabad runs the mid day meal programme in RUPS through a caterer on contract basis.
The meal is prepared by a cook fixed by the caterer. Asha Hyderabad has appointed a helper to
clean the vessels and keep the school premises clean. Food served to the children in the school
varies on daily basis but the same menu is repeated every week. The weekly menu generally
comprises of rice with one curry or vegetable, jeera rice with raita, vegetable pulav with raita
and rice with dhal. Food is prepared using purified water and children are given purified water to
drink. Attention is paid to clean hygienic eating habits and good behavior among the school
children. The children are also advised to keep the surrounding area clean and neat. They are
encouraged to sit in a row and eat without spilling the food.

Due attention is also given to the academic performance of the children. To ensure regular
monitoring and guidance of their studies, regular class tests and revision classes are conducted
by the teachers. The teachers at RUPS also play an important role teaching them basic etiquette
and good values. Volunteers from Asha-Hyderabad visit the school and encourage the students to
widen their knowledge and guide them in shaping their future. Lions Club provides uniform and
text books to the children; a local doctor is appointed to conduct periodic health check-up.

The mid day meal programme by Asha Hyderabad has definitely made an impact on both the
health and well-being of the child. The mid-day meal programme encourages the parents to send
their children to school regularly. There has been great improvement in their daily attendance.
Dropout rate has also considerably decreased which was very high during the initial year of the
school. So much so the school which started with 100 students had 240 children during 2010.

81
 Chapter 5: The School Feeding Programme in Odisha
V.B. Athreya 40

The State of Odisha, located in the eastern region of India, just north of the State of Andhra
Pradesh, presents quite a contrast to the State of Tamil Nadu. Odisha is a State most of whose
social and human development indicators fall well below the all India average whereas Tamil
Nadu is an above average performer in respect of most such indicators. Table 5.1 below provides
some socio-economic indicators for Odisha.

Table 5.1: Some Social Indicators for Odisha and India

Indicator for Odisha Unit Source and Year Odisha India
Literacy Rate Rural % Census of India, 70.78 68.91
2011
Literacy Rate Urban % Census of India, 86.45 84.98
2011
Literacy Rate Persons % Census of India, 73.45 74.04
2011
Infant Mortality Rate Infant deaths SRS, 2009 65 53
per 1000 live
births
Institutional Delivery % NFHS-3, 2005-06 39 41
Life Expectancy at Birth Years SRS, 1999-2003 58.7 62.7

Drop-out Rate, Primary School, % 39.34 29

All
Drop-out Rate, Primary School, % 44.58 34.21
Scheduled Castes Annual Report,
Drop-out Rate, Primary School, % 2006-07 58.62 42.32
Scheduled Tribes Department of
Drop-out Rate, Upper Primary % School Education & 61.95 50.84
School, All Literacy, GoI
Drop-out Rate, Upper Primary % 2004-05 66.00 57.26
School, Scheduled Castes
Drop-out Rate, Upper Primary % 80.06 65.87
School, Scheduled Tribes

40
Advisor, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai and Visiting Professor, Tata Institute of Social
Sciences, Mumbai

82
It should be clear that Odisha is one of the more backward States in the Indian Union, with
practically all its social development indicators below the national averages. It is true that there
has been some progress over the years in the performance of Odisha with respect to social
development. In fact, the Census 2011 figures for literacy rate (among the 7 plus population)
suggest that Odishas rates are marginally better than the rates for India as a whole. Nevertheless,
its overall ranking among the Indian States is still quite poor. It is bracketed with states such as
Bihar, Chattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh as being among the
laggards in development.

The Census of India 2011 puts the provisional population of Odisha at 41.95 millions, of which
only 16.68% is urban, a marginal increase from 14.99% in 2001 when the previous population
census took place. It is thus a largely rural State. Its overall sex ratio is 978 females per 1000
males. The state has a low child sex ratio (CSR) of 934 girls to 1000 boys in the 0 to 6 years age
group, and the urban CSR is even lower at 909. A matter of serious concern is the steady fall in
the CSR from 1035 in 1961 to 995 in 1981 to 953 in 2001 and further to 934 in 2011. Females
thus face a distinct relative survival disadvantage in Odisha, especially in urban areas. This
largely rural state is divided administratively into 30 districts, and has 51,349 far flung villages.
Given its topography of hills and plains, and relatively poor transport infrastructure in terms of
roads, railways and public mass transport facilities, the state faces logistic problems in respect of
most large scale public programmes, including the school feeding programme. The fact that the
socially most disadvantaged group-namely scheduled tribes-are to be found in large numbers in
the more inaccessible hilly regions is also an important challenge.

The State is undergoing a demographic transition. The overall rate of growth of population
between 2001 and 2011 is just under 14%. The population under 6 years of age has actually
declined in absolute terms between 2001 and 2011 by a little over 6%, with the decline in rural
areas being close to 8%. These figures suggest a demographic transition in progress, although the
total fertility rate (TFR) at 2.4 in 2009 is still well above the figure needed for population
stabilization.

83
Against this broad background, let us turn to an analysis of the school feeding programme (SFP)
in Odisha.

The SFP in Odisha

As noted in the chapter on India, the central government initiated in 1995 a programme called
the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NPNSPE) under which
nutritional support was to be provided to children in primary schools across the country. It may
be recalled that the objective of the programme was to promote universalization of primary
education and also enhance the nutritional levels of students in primary classes.

However, many States did not implement the scheme, citing fiscal constraints. Odisha was one
of the states that did not implement the scheme immediately. In 2001-02, the state government of
Odisha started implementing a programme of provision of cooked meals in schools, but without
covering the entire state. In July 2001, the state government started a programme of provision of
a cooked meal to the primary school children in all government and aided primary school
children in specific regions of the state. The programme covered primary school children
enrolled and attending in the government and government-aided schools in the rural areas of 8
districts consisting of 80 blocks including 44 blocks coming under the integrated tribal
development authority (ITDA) and collectively known as the KBK districts. 41 It also covered
primary school children in another 74 ITDA blocks of the remaining districts. In the rest of the
state, the government implemented a scheme of distribution of 3 kilograms of rice per month as
dry ration to each primary school student. This meant that a large part of the state remained
uncovered by the scheme of provision of hot cooked meals at school.

Interestingly, in a letter dated June 22, 2001, the Chief Secretary to the government of Odisha
conveys the following decisions of the government 42 :
1. The system of hot cooked meal in the primary schools under the Mid Day Meal (MDM)
Programme will continue in the rural areas in the districts of Kalahandi, Nuapada,
41
KBK stands for the original Koraput, Bolangir and Kalahandi districts out of which these eight districts have
emerged.
42
Accessed at
http://www.wcdOdisha.gov.in/download/Revised%20guidelines%20for%20implementation%20of%20Mid%20Day
%20Meal%20Programme%20in%20the%20State%20with%20effect%20from%201.7.2001.pdf Emphasis added.

84
 Koraput, Nawarangpur, Rayagada, Malkanagiri, Bolangir and Sonepur (all KBK
districts); and ITDP blocks in other districts.

2. In all other areas besides these, including urban areas where the hot cooked meals under
MDM programme had been continuing, only dry ration of 3 kilograms of rice per eligible
student per month will be provided. No dal (dal is the Hindi word for pulses) will be
given.

3. All cooks and helpers engaged earlier in the cooked meals programme are to be
disengaged.

It would therefore appear that between 1995-96 when the National Programme of Nutritious
Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was initiated and June 2001, the state of Odisha was
implementing a cooked meals programme in areas additional to the ones to which the
programme was restricted after June 2001. However, no explanation is available in official
documents that the present author was able to access as to why the cooked meal scheme was
given up and a switch made to provision of dry rations in 2001.

A small extension of the cooked meals scheme to the backward district of Boudh followed a year
later in 2002. But even as late as August 31, 2004, only half the blocks-157 out of 314-had been
covered by the scheme of provision of cooked meals while the remaining half was covered under
the dry ration scheme. Thus, nearly three years after the Supreme Court orders of November 28,
2001 mandating the provision of cooked meals to children in government and aided schools, and
several months after the Courts more detailed orders of April 2004, Odisha was yet to
implement the scheme of universal provision of cooked meals in primary schools. This changed
with effect from September 1, 2004. From that date, Odisha is implementing a school feeding
programme of universal provision of cooked mid-day meals to children in government and
government-aided primary schools and children enrolled in centers under the education
guarantee scheme (EGS) and alternative and innovative education (AIE) scheme.

Given its poor record in terms of school attendance as well as the poor nutritional status of its
children, Odisha is a State where a universal and effective school feeding programme can make a
big difference. Data from the third National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) pertaining to

85
reference year 2005-06 for Odisha shows that 38.3% of children under 36 months of age were
stunted and 44% were underweight for age, while as high a proportion as 74.2 % were anaemic.
Similarly, the drop-out rates in 2004-05 were quite high at 39% for all primary school students,
44.58% for scheduled caste students and 59% for scheduled tribe students. On both the grounds
of promoting schooling and on the grounds of nutritional improvement in children, Odisha is
thus a prime candidate for a school feeding programme. It is unfortunate that the political will
has been conspicuously absent in this regard and that it required strong judicial intervention for a
universal school feeding programme to be put in place.

Slow and chequered progress towards a universal SFP

In 2001-02, the programme in the state of Odisha was reaching 41467 schools in 314 blocks
benefiting 4,423,250 children. By 2003-04, the numbers rose to 51,931 and 4,631,826. This was
mostly with dry rations of food grain, and not through a school feeding programme providing hot
cooked meals at school, except in the KBK districts and the ITDA blocks as mentioned earlier. 43
However, in 2008-09, despite having been extended to upper primary schools, the scheme
reached only 4,410,700 students consisting of 3,282,700 in primary schools and 1,128,000 in
upper primary schools. 44 Progress has thus been quite slow and uncertain.

The universal SFP in Odisha, functioning since September 1, 2004, has been under the
department of women and child development (DWCD) of the State government. The DWCD
department has been the nodal agency for the programme until recently. However, a decision
was taken during May 2011 to transfer the nodal responsibility for the scheme to the Department
of School and Mass Education (DSME), though the actual transfer had not taken place at the end
of July 2011. One of the possible reasons for the transfer of the scheme from DWCD to DSME
may have been allegations of a scam in procurement of pulses for the scheme. It is clear that the

43
In 2002-03, the number of schools and the number of children receiving cooked meals at school were respectively
18,599 and 1,523, 316. The corresponding figures for 2003-04 were 24,584 and 1,639,300. In both years, only 155
blocks out of 314 in the state were serving cooked meals at school. The provision of dry rations covered 27, 347
schools and 2, 992, 526 children in 2003-04. (Anima Rani Si and Naresh Kumar Sharma, 2008).
44
According to the Odisha governments DWCD annual report for 2008-09, the coverage for the financial year
2008-09 was 46,89,829 students in 66,230 Primary Schools and 17,77,230 students in 18,930 Upper Primary
Schools. The figures in the text are taken from a reply to unstarred question number 610 in the Lok Sabha (Lower
house of the Indian Parliament) given on 21-10-2008. If one were to go by the Odisha governments figure, it
suggests some rise in enrolment.

86
scheme has had a chequered history in Odisha. Not only has there been lack of clarity and
implementation weaknesses in the programme, there have also been shocking instances of social
exclusion practised in some villages with regard to the scheme. Thus, a news report dated
January 21, 2010 tells us that, in a village called Sanamarichapalli, not far from the district
headquarters town of Kendrapara, some members of the village education committee (VEC), an
institution at the village level that is officially mandated to monitor the programme, stopped the
cooks from cooking the school meals on the ground that they belonged to the scheduled castes
(SCs). 45 Two cooks belonging to the scheduled castes were locked up inside the school kitchen
until they were rescued by the school headmaster. The report goes on to quote the school
headmaster as saying: Upper caste parents insist that some of the cooks should be removed. It
also talks of how government agencies in the state had stopped recruiting dalit cooks, causing the
National Human Rights Commission to intervene. 46 While untouchability and other
discriminatory practices are not entirely absent in the other two states-Tamil Nadu and
Puducherry- whose SFPs have been described and analysed elsewhere in this volume, the scale
of such occurrences is definitely much smaller. This state of affairs only reinforces the
importance of ensuring universal education in Odisha, a task in which SFPs can play a crucial
role.

Programme Administration
Although a decision has been taken very recently (July 2011) to transfer the nodal responsibility
for the implementation of the school feeding programme in Odisha to the DSME, for the purpose
of this paper, which basically covers the period from 1995-96 to 2010-11, it would only be
appropriate to treat the DWCD as the nodal department. The administrative arrangements in
place during the period under review can be described briefly as follows, drawing on the annual

45
Scheduled castes, also called dalits, have historically been oppressed under the dominant caste system in place
among the Hindus. They have been subjected to the atrocious practice of untouchability for many centuries under
ritual rules of pollution. Though the Indian Constitution explicitly makes the practice of untouchability a crime, it
is still the norm in many parts of rural India. It is a confirmation of Odishas social and economic backwardness that
incidents of the kind reported here are not uncommon. The report discussed in the text can be accessed at
http://zeenews.india.com/news/state-news/Odisha-villagers-stop-mid-day-meal-cooked-by-dalit-
women_597834.html. It has been reproduced as Box 1 in this paper, see p.12 below.
46
We learn that Though the School Education Department initially did not allow Dalit women to cook mid-day
meals on the grounds that upper-caste children might skip the meals, it gave in after the National Human Rights
Commission last year asked the administration to stop the practice. See
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Odisha-villagers-stop-midday-meal-cooked-by-dalits/570249/0

87
report of the DWCD, the recent (March 2011) guidelines of the DWCD and other Odisha
government sources.

The nodal agency for the school feeding programme at the national level is the ministry of
human resource development of the government of India. It provides rice free of cost at the rate
of 100 grams per child for 210 days in a year for primary school students. The free allocation is
at the rate of 150 grams per child for the upper primary students. By 2008-09, each child was
receiving per day 473 calories and 14.2 gm of protein in the primary level and 690 calories and
20gm protein in the upper primary level. The government of India also provides rupees 75 per
quintal of rice as transportation charge from the depot of the Food Corporation of India (FCI) to
the school. In 2008-09, the government of Odisha provided funds for the purchase of dal
(pulses), vegetables, oil and condiments, and for meeting a part of the transportation charges at
the rate of 64 paise (1 rupee equals 100 paise) per student. The government of India provided in
2008-09 rupees 1.58 for each primary student and Rs 2.10 per upper primary student as daily
cooking cost. The total budgetary provision in Odisha for 2008-09 for this scheme was Rs 5172
million.

Coverage and costs have risen over the years. According to the new guidelines of March 2011,
there were nearly 6 million children in primary and upper primary schools in Odisha covered
under the cooked mid-day meal programme in 2011. The cost per meal was estimated at Rs 3.30
for primary and Rs 4.92 for upper primary students. This was shared between the government of
India and the state government in specific ways. The revised implementation procedures in effect
from April 2011 require the district collector to lift the allocated grain from the government of
India supplied by the FCI through engaging transport contractors to transport the rice to
schools. 47 For all other food items such as dal, condiments, soya chunks and eggs, procurement
has been decentralised to the local level. The new guidelines emphasize that district collectors
must make all efforts to hand over cooking responsibilities to self help groups (SHGs) in all the
schools before the start of the financial year 2011-12, which is the first of April. The guidelines
provide detailed instructions on handling finances at the school level. Local procurement is to be

47
The same is the case for rice supplied to the anganwadi centres under the programme of Integrated Child
Development Services (ICDS), but that need not detain us. For those unfamiliar with the administrative structure in
India, the district collector is the chief administrator for the state government in a district.

88
done by the SHGs or the school management committee (SMC), or in some cases, the village
education committees (VECs). 48 Headmasters or teachers are not to be involved at all in
procurement , cooking or implementation of the cooked meal programme, except that they must
monitor the implementation at the school level to ensure that quantity and quality norms are met,
hygiene is strictly observed both in cooking and serving the food and by the children consuming
the food. They must also ensure that entitlements of children are displayed prominently in the
school premises and the cook and helper are given periodical health check-ups. The guidelines
specify the daily menu. The quantities and the nutritional provisions have been enhanced to
ensure that norms are met and there is more diversity in the meals over the week. The guidelines
also specify the remuneration for the cook and the helper, and the procedures for maintaining
proper records of both physical stocks and financial flows. The decision on hiring of the cook
and the helper is with the SHG or the SMC or the VEC at the school level. There are also
financial provisions and norms for the construction of kitchen sheds and for cooking utensils
which the guidelines specify. Kindly refer to the case study-1 of SHG Managed Mid-Day Meal
Programme in Gadagundal, Koraput District, Odisha

Finally, while the guidelines specify norms and procedures, they also state that district collectors
can implement the guidelines in a flexible manner to ensure the achievement of scheme
objectives in specific local contexts.

An Assessment
There is no single comprehensive official or scholarly assessment of the SFP in Odisha.
One evaluation study of the MDM scheme in the KBK districts of Odisha, based on secondary
data from the government of Odisha and primary surveys in 48 schools from 25 blocks located in
the KBK districts, notes that there has been substantial improvement in school attendance since
the inception of the scheme. 49 It states that the dropout rate since inception of the scheme has
also decreased in KBK districts as a whole. This decrease in dropout rate is particularly
noticeable in Bolangir, Rayagada and Sonepur. In Bolangir, for example, the dropout rate of
48
Sometimes, the School Management Committee (SMC) is used interchangeably with the School Management and
Development Committee(SMDC) in official documents of the government of Odisha.
49
Evaluation of the Mid Day Meal and Emergency Feeding Programmes under the Revised Long Term Action
Plan, done by D.J.Research and Consultancy on behalf of Planning and Coordination Department of the
Government of Odisha, no date, not earlier than 2008 judging by the references cited.

89
boys, girls, and for both was 52%, 58%, and 55% respectively at MDM scheme inception year
1995-96. These rates have decreased to 28%, 30%, and 29% in 2004-05. In case of Koraput
district while there was a high rate of decrease up to 2003-04, a disturbing fact is the sudden
increase in the dropout rate in the year 2004-05. In case of Rayagada district primary dropout
rate for boys was 53%, girls 62% and for both 57% in the year 1995-96. It is a good sign that the
dropout rate is decreasing continuously for both boys and girls in Rayagada district. In the year
2004-05, the dropout rate for boys had decreased to 15%, for girls to 24%, and for both to 19%.
In Sonepur district, by the year 2003-04 the primary dropout rate had decreased to 1% in the case
of boys and 4% for girls. 50 According to the study, students, teachers and parents interviewed in
the study are generally satisfied with the quality of the meal, though there is also a view that the
quality can be improved. The universal view among parents and teachers was that the cooked
meal programme had led to increased attendance and not just enrolment. Though all teachers,
students and cooks were satisfied with the quality of the rice supplied, there was a problem of
storage and therefore of quality deterioration over time, especially in schools with small
enrolment. This is particularly so during the rainy season. The problem is more acute with dal,
where the immediate post-harvest supply is of good quality, but with poor storage, deterioration
is rapid. In schools where kitchen gardens are maintained, the meal becomes enriched with
locally grown vegetables and this is especially the case with residential schools. Fuel for cooking
is a major problem with the budgetary provision for this being very low. Often, cooks end up
having to do a great deal of unpaid work to collect firewood for cooking in rural schools. Other
issues highlighted by the evaluation study include inadequate provision for cooking utensils,
poor conditions of cooking sheds, many of them temporary constructions and hazardous as well,
abysmal wages for cooks and helpers, well below the minimum wage norms for the state, and
frequent changes in cost and quantity norms resulting in self-help groups (SHGs) entrusted with
the on-site management of the cooked meal scheme finding things difficult. 51 Refer to the
initiative on Nutritional School Garden in Boliguda Village presented as case study 2.

50
Ibid, p.ii
51
According to the study, the percentage of schools where the daily management of cooking and cleaning was
entrusted to SHGs varied across the KBK districts from a low of 37% in Bolangir to a high of 97 % in Nabarangpur,
with the remaining six districts ranging between 50% and 75%.

90
The overall assessment of the study, however, is that the cooked meal scheme had been running
well and resulting in improvement in enrolment, attendance, elimination or reduction of class
room hunger and in a reduction in drop-out rates. 52 The weakest part of implementation,
according to the study, was that of supervision.

In a study of the MDM programme in Khurda district of Odisha, Anima Rani Si and Naresh
Kumar found that the rate of increase in enrolment during the cooked meal scheme (3.8
per cent per annum) has been much higher compared to the rate of growth of enrolment
when the dry ration scheme (1.5 per cent per annum) was in operation This was found to be
true for enrolment for every class except class IV. The inference is inescapable that when the
MDM was introduced as a cooked meal scheme, it did stimulate significant motivation for the
students to enrol in the schools. 53 In Khurda district, the programme of cooked meals served in
school had been in operation from 1995096 to 2000-01. Comparing the period 1996-2001, when
the cooked meal scheme was in operation with the period 2001-2004 when the dry ration scheme
operated, Si and Kumar note that the growth rate of enrolment was markedly higher during the
regime of cooked meals for both boys and girls, and especially so for girls. The rates of growth
of enrolment for boys were 3.71% and 2.06% per annum for the cooked meal and dry ration
regimes. The corresponding rates for girls were 3.86% and 0.91% respectively. Ri and Sharma
conclude that the MDM scheme in its dry ration form was unable to reduce the gender
differential in the school enrolment, though it was being achieved when cooked meals were
served. They note further that the average rate of increase of enrolment during the period of
cooked meal scheme was over six times as large as the same during the period of dry ration
scheme in the case of ST students.there was a high rate of growth in the enrolment of SC
students as well (though smaller than that for ST students). However, once the schools switched
over to dry ration scheme, there was actually a fall in the enrolment of SC students. 54

52
Between 1995-96 and 2004-05, the percentage increase in enrolment in the KBK districts taken together
was 68%as compared to the overall increase for Odisha at 34%.
53
Anima Rani Si and Naresh Kumar (2008), An empirical study of the mid day meal programme in Khurda,
Odisha, Economic and Political Weekly, June 21, 2008, p. 53
54
Ibid, p.53 ST refers to scheduled tribes and SC refers to scheduled castes. Both STs and SCs are among the
most oppressed sections of the rural population of India, with high levels of educational and other deprivations.

91
The periods of operation of both the cooked meals scheme and the dry ration scheme have seen
increase in enrolment of students in primary schools in Khurda district, and this is also true of the
state as a whole. Si and Kumar note that provision of cooked mid-day meals in the school
improved afternoon attendance in Khurda, going by the testimony of parents and teachers. A
majority of mothers of children in the primary schools, when interviewed, preferred the cooked
meal scheme to the dry ration scheme. Of 150 parents interviewed, 149 said that the cooked meal
scheme had contributed to improved performance by their children in school and 145 said their
children had been stimulated by the cooked meal scheme to attend school and study. Only 19
parents said that the dry ration scheme had a similar effect. The evidence strongly suggests that
parents prefer the cooked meal scheme to a dry ration scheme. Ri and Sharma conclude that
Parents responses indicate that cooked meal had definitely helped in increasing enrolment and
attendance. Socialisation of the children was also more effective. The scheme had generated
some employment opportunities for the under-privileged sections. According to parents, all the
above objectives were achieved only at the time of cooked meals. Dry rations do have certain
advantages but these are outweighed by benefits of cooked meals. An overwhelming pro-portion
of households feel that cooked meal is more effective. Indeed, 132 households (88 per cent)
felt that the cooked meal scheme should be restarted, and only 18 households (12 per cent)
were against the view of restarting of the scheme. On the other hand, only 30 households (20
per cent) hold that dry rations should continue to be distributed. 55

Si and Sharma note that the supply side of the cooked meal scheme as it operated between
1996 and 2001, consisting of school authorities and teachers, preferred the dry ration scheme as
the cooked meal scheme was disruptive of the teaching process and a great deal of teachers time
was spent on procuring the materials and supervising and managing the cooking and serving and
the cleaning up afterwards. Problems also arose from the lack of infrastructure such as separate
kitchens, arrangements for storing the rice and dal and other materials, fuel and so on. However,
in the post 2004 period, with the revised norms for the MDM nationally, and adequate financial
support from the Central government for kitchens, storage structures and other infrastructure
including transport arrangements for the rice, the cooked meal scheme has stabilised to a certain
extent in Khurda and the rest of Odisha.

55
Ibid, p.54

92
The implementation of the school feeding programme in Odisha in the period since September
2004 differs in several respects from that between 1995 and 2004 when the National Programme
of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was in operation. Prior to 2004
September, Odisha had not followed a uniform scheme across the state or across the entire period
from 1995 to 2004. Between 1995-96 and 2000-01, the cooked meal scheme was in operation. In
2001, a decision was taken to limit the cooked meal scheme to the KBK districts and the ITDP
blocks in the remaining ones. It was only in 2004 September that a uniform SFP came into force
in Odisha. Data on enrolment and attention do suggest that the SFP has helped enhance
considerably enrolment and attendance in primary schools. The improvement in enrolment has
been greater in the case of STs, and to a lesser extent, the SCs, as compared with the rest of the
population. The improvement has also been significantly greater for girls than for boys across the
state. Naandi Foundations Partnership with Government of Odisha in Mid-day meal
Programme, Brahmapur, Odisha is presented as another initiative for better implementation of
the programme (case study 3).

The SFP in Odisha has faced major problems at both the level of state government policies and
on the ground, given the harsh socioeconomic realities of rural Odisha. We have already cited
the instance of protests by some caste Hindus against the employment of dalits as cooks in the
SFP. (See Box 1 below)

There have been serious allegations of corruption as well, and we had referred earlier to the scam
related to the procurement of dal. Box 2 on page 13 provides an extract of a new report in this
regard.

93
Box 1: Caste Discrimination disrupts MDM in Odisha

Kendrapara: The mid-day meal (MDM) in a government primary school in Odisha's Kendrapara
district was stopped with a section of villagers registering their protest allegedly against the meal
being cooked by women of a particular caste. MDM was stopped at Sidha Marichani primary school
at Sanamarichapalli village in Rajnagar tehsil yesterday. Some members of the Village Education
Committee (VEC) made their way to the school kitchen and forced the cooks to stop cooking the noon
meal, official sources said today. Two Dalit cooks were reportedly locked up inside the kitchen for
over an hour before the school headmaster rescued them, they said. Meanwhile, Maa Ambika women
self-help group, running MDM in the school expressed unwillingness to shoulder noon meal
responsibility. A complaint has been lodged in this regard by the SHG before the Rajnagar block
officials. The group alleged that they were being ill-treated because of their caste background. The
village has a population of about 700 people of which nearly one-third are Scheduled Castes. "Upper
caste parents insist that some of the cooks should be removed. But we cannot change the equation as
it's the decision of higher authorities to deploy them for cooking," said school headmaster, Rabindra
Nayak.
It is pertinent to note here that the School and Mass Education Department was earlier accused of
shutting the "Kitchen" doors for Dalit women on the ground that upper caste children may skip the
mid-day meals.
The government agencies monitoring the scheme in the district had allegedly stopped recruiting Dalits
as cooks, a senior district official said.
The retrenchment drive of Dalit cooks had triggered a furore with the National Human Rights
Commission last year directing the administration to stop the caste-bound practice, he said.
The Women and Child Welfare Department, through a notification, had ordered that the enrolment of
MDM cooks in primary schools should show preference towards women from Scheduled Caste and
Tribe communities.
Priority should be accorded to widows and destitute women from lower castes, it suggested.
PTI*
* PTI stands for Press Trust of India
First Published: Thursday, January 21, 2010, 18:26

In Tamil Nadu, the SFP is implemented through employment of a noon meal organiser at every
school, a cook and a helper, which enables reliable delivery of the mid-day meal without any
disruption to the teaching-learning process and takes care of both cooking and cleaning and the
procurement of materials as well as overall management. In Odisha, however, the responsibility
of cooking and cleaning has been outsourced mostly to womens self-help groups. A letter issued
by the women and child development department of the government of Odisha in 2005 states:
The government in Women and Child Development Department have decided to entrust the
management of MDM to Womens SHGs as Programme Implementing Agency (PIA). Besides,
a PIA can include (i) an NGO running the EGS Center or a school or (ii) in urban areas a NGO
working in a given areaor (iii) a willing Mothers Committee, or in the last resort, VEC

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(Village Education Committee) /SMDC (School Management-Cum-Development Committee) 56
This approach of outsourcing key parts of the SFP to non-government entities of varying kinds
has also contributed to the disruption in the SFP. With the programme implementation or at least
parts of it outsourced in this manner, and without a proper overseeing and monitoring
mechanism, it is not surprising that the SFP in Odisha has faced several disruptions on the
ground. There seems to be a basic lack of clarity of roles of various players and stakeholders.
Worse, in the absence of monitoring systems with well-designed role for the agencies entrusted
with monitoring, there is also a distinct lack of accountability as well. This has led, as we saw, to
various allegations and scam-like situations, with adverse notice in the mass media. One such
instance is given in Box 2 below.

Box 2: Disruptions in SFP functioning in Odisha

Mid-day meal scheme not working in many schools

BHUBANESWAR: Mid-day meal, the largest school lunch programme, which is already in
midst of controversy, seems to be not working in many schools in the State.

Women and Child Development department has received at least 42 allegations from
different districts where MDM is not being served for several months.

The WCD department has asked district Collectors to probe into the matter and take
exemplary actions.

In the meantime, sniffing corrupt practices in the implementation of MDM scheme, vigilance
sleuths have conducted raids in four districts and found concrete proof about supply of low
quality dal to schools.

As per grievances reaching WCD department, students in Toranpada UP School in Bhadrak

district have not been served with MDM for past eight months. Similar is the case with
Government Press Colony UGME School, Cuttack Sadar Block where MDM had not been
provided for one year.

56
Letter No. VI-ICDS-III-69/04-286/SWCD dated 27/07/2005 from the Commissioner and Secretary,Women and
Child Development Department, Government of Odisha

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With all such weaknesses, however, it appears that the SFP in Odisha has been stabilised. It
certainly seems to have wide support among parents and students, from the evaluation and other
field studies that have been conducted so far. There has been a significant growth in school
enrolment and attendance since 1995-96, at least a good part of which can safely be attributed to
the SFP. The gains have been particularly high among the traditionally disadvantaged sections of
the population such as scheduled tribes and scheduled castes. It is also clear from various reports
and secondary literature that we have cited that the cooked meal programme has had greater
impact than the dry ration programme. In any event, this issue has become academic and not of
great practical relevance, in view of the directive of the highest court of the land that a hot
cooked meal should be served to all students enrolled and present in the government and
government-aided primary schools across the country. The scope of SFP has since been widened
as a matter of official policy to upper primary students as well in the eligible schools and other
educational institutions, namely the educational guarantee scheme (EGS) centres and the centres
of alternative and innovative education (AIE centres). Its various programme weaknesses
notwithstanding, going by the monitoring reports of the National Steering and Monitoring
Committee of the government of India, the SFP in Odisha has also met to a large extent the
programme targets. 57 It seems to us, however, that the SFP in Odisha will be greatly
strengthened by emulating the staff structure provided in Tamil Nadu of a noon meal organizer,
cook and helper. This would ensure proper delivery of the meal without fail and without any
disruption. It would also free teachers from extra-academic responsibilities for the feeding
programme and minimise daily loss of time of formal instruction. As with Tamil Nadu, the fiscal
commitment on the SFP in Odisha is a fairly modest share of the states overall government
expenditure and a very minor share of the states net state domestic product.

57
PowerPoint presentation on Odisha in the PAB-MDM meeting of 10-05-2011, accessed at the MHRD, GoI site.

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 Case Study 1
SHG Managed Mid-Day Meal Programme in Gadagundal
Koraput District, Odisha
Tusar Ranjan Nayak 58

Government of Odisha has always had a policy of encouraging Self Help Groups (SHG) of
women to be actively involved in the implementation of Mid-Day Meal Programme in the State.
Since March 2011, with new guidelines has been issued by Women and Child Development
Department for the implementation of mid-day meal programme, the role envisaged for SHGs
gained further prominence. The guidelines clearly specify that government administration should
take efforts to appoint SHGs to run mid-day meal programmes in all eligible schools. In this
context, an account of SHG managed mid-day meal programme in a school in Gadagundal
village of Koraput district in the state of Odisha is discussed.

The upper primary school of Gadagundal was established in the year 1972 and has classes I to
VII with student strength of 168 in 2010-11 out of which 91 are boys and 77 are girls. All the
168 registered students take mid-day meals in the school. Since March 2010, the responsibility of
implementing the mid-day meal programme was vested with Daniel Self Help Group (SHG)
selected by the concerned village education committee. The Village Education Committee is
comprised of 16 members; school headmaster as secretary, two teachers, 11 villagers, elected
representative of local government and the health worker. Earlier to the Daniel women group, a
woman self help group named Biswashanti managed the mid day meal program for about 4
years from 2007 to 2010. The group was collapsed because of the conflict aroused among the
group members and could not be solved by them. Initially, the mid day meal program was
managed by the school administration and managed till responsibility was handed over to the
Biswashanti SHG. Daniel SHG was formed in the year 2005; the group has a total of 10
members primarily do the agricultural work either as wage labor or as small cultivators and some
of them depends upon both. Agriculture in Koraput district is mainly rain fed and is
characterized as subsistence agriculture. Given this context, women do look forward to
additional avenues for employment and managing the mid-day meal centre was taken up
enthusiastically by the group. However, only one SHG member of Daniel SHG has received
employment for running the mid-day meal centre and she works as a cook for a monthly

58
Senior Scientist, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation, Odisha

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honorarium of Rs.600, disbursed by the local self government (Village Panchayat). A helper has
also been employed to assist the cook in cooking and cleaning but she is a non SHG member.
The helper gets paid a monthly wage of Rs 400, disbursed by the local self government (village
panchayat). The school has storage cum kitchen shed, constructed during 2009 using state funds.
Rice and pulses that are required for preparing the meals are supplied directly to the schools
mid-day meal centre by the Government as soon they get the indent form the school. Other items
such as vegetables, fuel wood, spices etc. are purchased by the Self Help Group members from
the local market. At times vegetables are bought directly from the local farmers but mostly they
are purchased locally during the weekly market. To make the local purchase of vegetables, fuel
wood and other items, the SHG advances the required money to the cook. Expenditure per day
for the meals comes around Rs.125/ and per month it comes around Rs. 3000/- for 25days in an
average in a month. They do incur the amount from the SHG saving account and get reimbursed
the expenditure after 5/6 months, the amount credited directly to SHG account. Other members
involved in shopping vegetables from the market and in purchasing fuel woods. The members
cum account holders go the concerned bank at Kundra to draw and deposit their money in bank
account. As per the Government provision, its a voluntary service and they wont make any
profit but they make some adjustment of own expenditure from shopping. All the transaction
records are being maintained by the teachers as the members illiterate. The members have not
received any formal training on management of the program. Provision for various items of meal
is stipulated by the government (Revised norms by GoO, 2011) and it varies between the primary
school student and middle school student as given below:

Stipulated quantity/amount per child in Stipulated quantity/amount per child in

Class I to class V Class VI to VII

Rice - 100gms. Rice - 150gms.
Vegetables , condiments - 37paise Vegetables , condiments - 90 paise
Fuel - 22 paise Fuel - 22 paise
Transportation - 2 paise Transportation - 2 paise
Egg - 86 paise Egg - 86 paise
Supervision and monitoring - 20 paise Supervision and monitoring - 20 paise

Children are served rice with a gravy item prepared form mixing pulses, vegetables and spices.
As per local culture, mustard oil is used in the preparation of gravy. The same menu is fixed for

98
all the working days while boiled eggs are served six times in a month, usually on Wednesdays
and Fridays. Egg is being supplied by a local supplier tendered by the Government.

Our children are willing to attend school as the mid-day meal has become a major attraction for
them, says a parent.

We are poor and are not able to let them go to school with full stomach. Mid-day meal
programme has helped our children as they no longer remain in school with an empty stomach.

We want some change in the menu and dont prefer the same in all the days say most of the
students.

The school headmaster, Mr. Pradip Kumar Tripathy says that the school attendance has
improved due to the serving of mid-day meals. He further adds that on days when eggs are
distributed students even bring their younger siblings and share the egg with them. The
headmaster is also of the view that mid-day meals have helped in retaining children in school and
hence in bringing down the drop-out rates. Significant increase in enrolment of girls is also
observed: in 2007-08 there were only 56 girls which is now increased to 77 in 2010-11, likewise
numbers of boys were 97 in 2007-08 which is 91 in 2010-11. The head teacher of the school is
very appreciative of the impact in terms of enrolment because of the mid-day meal program
while he felt teachers can give more attention in teaching if the government can make a provision
for record maintenance concerning to the MDM implementation.

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 Case Study 2
Nutritional School Garden in Boliguda Village
Akshaya Kumar Panda and Tusar Ranjan Nayak 59

The concept of a nutritional garden for Boliguda primary school was conceived by M S
Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) during 2007. Setting up of a nutritional garden in
the school was not part of the design of any of the project activities of MSSRF. However, the
idea was considered by MSSRF staff while initiating homestead kitchen gardens in that village
during 2007. A staff of MSSRF narrated as to how the idea emerged or evolved: When we were
distributing seedlings of papaya, drumstick, lime and banana sucker to the families for promotion
of kitchen garden an idea came to our mind that we should also provide some seedlings to the
village primary school. We felt that in future the produce could be utilized in the mid- day meal
provided for the school children. In the mid-day meal, provision of money for vegetables is very
meager at 37 paisa per child per day. So one can imagine within 37 paisa how much quantity of
vegetable could be provided to the children. We believed that vegetables grown in the garden
would enhance the nutritional value of the meals. After discussion with the then Head Master it
was decided that MSSRF will provide seedlings and other seed materials as well as technical
guidance. School students will implement the activities with the help of the teachers. Thus the
idea of setting up a nutritional garden materialized during July, 2007.

School based gardening programme is one of the important initiatives to reduce micronutrient
malnutrition and improve food security by (a) promoting consumption of fruits and green leafy
vegetables; (b) teaching students how to establish and maintain home gardens; and (c) teaching
students how to grow vegetables in organic way with no chemical fertilizers or pesticides.

Once the school showed interest and agreed to establish a vegetable garden with the support of
MSSRF, the latter provided seedlings of papaya, drumstick, guava, lime, banana along with
some seeds of seasonal vegetables during 2007-2008. With the help of school children and
teachers the seeds were sown and the plants were planted. Some plants survived and some did
not. At present the garden has 15 banana plants, 2.papaya, 2 lemon and 2 guava plants. Senior
school children have been involved in maintaining the garden. They water and nurture the

59
Scientist, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation and Senior Scientist, M S Swaminathan Research Foundation,
Odisha

100
plants. Children have been advised to use vegetable waste and kitchen waste as manure for the
plants. For the past three years the students have taken care to water the plants and maintain the
garden.

Mid day Meal Programme is being managed by the School Management Committee (SMC)
since 2009. This committee, set up by Education Department, Govt. of Odisha, (to encourage the
school to adopt school based management) comprises of 12 members (9 parents, 1 school
teacher, 1 ward member, and 1 senior (5th standard) student representative) from the village.

Till April 2011 the MDM programme was run through the ration (cereals, pulses and soybean)
supplied by the Block Development Officer (BDO), and other items like oil, vegetables fuel was
managed by SMC. The expenditure was reimbursed monthly to the SMC by the BDO and
sometimes quarterly as per the MDM norms. Since April 2011 BDO is providing only rice while
other items for preparing mid day meal are purchased by SMC. SMC uses the money deposited
in its account to buy the required items.

Fresh vegetables from the garden are used in cooking mid day meal. They are used as
supplement to what is provided with Government resources. Market is little far from the school
and as discussed earlier the provision of budget is very meager in the mid day meal scheme to
buy nutritious vegetables like curry banana which are now readily available in the garden.
Banana bunches and produce from papaya plants from the garden are being utilized in the mid
day meal. In a year, on an average, at least 5 bunches of banana (roughly 70 fingers in each
bunch) and 20 kg. of papaya is used in mid-day meal. Usually, papaya and banana are mixed in
the lentil gravy, which is locally called as Dalma (Dhal+ vegetables). In case of lime it was
eaten as raw (as a substitute of pickle). Though the vegetables from the garden do not meet the
requirement of the mid day meal provided for children it supports them to some extent.

Establishment of nutritional garden in school campus can be an appropriate initiative which can
enhance the nutritional value in mid day meal programme. According to a teacher of Boliguda
primary school it is difficult to maintain the garden as the school has no compound wall and
domestic animals destroy the garden. The garden can be properly maintained if a compound wall
is constructed. Growing seasonal vegetables becomes difficult when garden is not fenced. Hence,
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at present only tree species are grown in the garden; it is not difficult to maintain the tree species.
The school has a tube well inside the campus and therefore water is not a constraint to manage
this small garden. However, in summer, the garden may face maintenance problem as the school
is closed for about two months during this period.

It has been learnt from the experience during the past three years that perennial plants like fruit
bearing trees are easy to maintain with the help of students as it needs less water and also needs
water during the plating period only. These plants also can be saved from grazing animals even if
fencing is not there. In case of vegetables, it needs regular care and watering; the students are to
be spared for this and also have to spend their valuable study time. School gardening can be a
successful initiative with the perennial plants even if there is no special provision by the
Government. Building a concrete fence to maintain the garden is an expensive proposition ( it
will cost a minimum of Rs. 100000). The school has a resource constraint to go for concrete
fencing. Bush fencing is less expensive but it needs regular maintenance and every year they
have to replace it with new bushes. However, there is a possibility that the school may receive
funds for permanent fencing and if that happens then a garden with diversity of vegetables may
be maintained.

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 Case Study 3
Naandi Foundations Partnership with Government of Odisha in
Mid-day Meal Programme, Brahmapur, Odisha
Tusar Ranjan Nayak
Brahmapur is located in the eastern coastline of Ganjam district and is about 160 kilometers
away from the state capital, Bhubaneswar. The concept of running MDM programme in Odisha
through a central kitchen has come into operation since December 1998. This programme has
been carried out in Ganjam district by the Odisha government in partnership with Naandi
Foundation, a non-governmental organization based at Hyderabad in Andhra Pradesh.
Established in 1988, Naandhi works on issues related to childrens rights, basic education,
sustainable livelihoods, safe drinking water, health and nutrition. Government of Odisha
identified this NGO to run mid day meal programme for all the eligible schools in Ganjam
District. This organization is the Nodal agency for the mid-day meal programme in this District.
It has been a challenging task for Naandhi to set up a central kitchen in Brahmapur city in a
backward state like Odisha.

Central kitchen offers the benefits of cooking the meal in food-grade quality vessels, under
strict supervision in a safe environment, ensuring hygienic standards of nutritious quality food to
a large number of school children. In the centralized kitchen steam cooking is done and the meal
is prepared untouched by hand. The kitchen is cleaned by the house keeping staff using high-
powered sanitation machines at regular intervals. Since the implementation of the program in
2008, hot cooked meals have been served to 65,000 children covering 606 schools in the District
of Ganjam. The centralized kitchen is a factory-like setting, which appears to optimize the
possibility of automation in the entire process and also achieve economies of scale. Standardized
procedures are followed in preparing, packing, transporting and delivering meals using state-of-
the-art technology, supported by proper monitoring and feedback mechanisms. Providing
fortified meals with Iron, Zinc and Folic Acid along with nutritional supplements such as boiled
egg/seasonal fruit/biscuits/berry (amla) candy/fortified candy once a week is another important
feature of mid day meal programme implemented by Naandi with support from corporate and
Institutional donors like Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) in addition to major
support from the State.

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A well equipped central kitchen has been established for cooking in a central location of the city
which has been provided by the State government. The cooked food is packed (with seal) in stainless
steel, food graded containers designed to keep the meal warm. The cooked meal is packed by 7 in
the morning and by 11 oclock the food is delivered in respective schools. Once trucks are loaded,
route coordinators verify the number of food containers against the corresponding truck log, which
indicates the authorized amount of food for every delivery route and to ensure safe delivery from the
kitchen to the classroom. All the staff members are employed by NAANDI except the helpers/daily
workers who work at the school level. These two helpers are employed by the School administration
as per the Govt. provision. Once the meal container reaches the school, they have to unload it,
distribute among the children and clean the place where they serve meals. The kitchen and
distribution of meals are managed by a well structured team as the diagram indicates:

National Director Midday Meal Program

Kitchen Manager

Assistant Kitchen Manager

Route Coordinators Cooks, maintenance staff and daily workers

With the involvement of Naandhi, the administrative and executive role played by schools in the
functioning of mid day meal programme has been considerably reduced. School teachers take
care that meals are provided in a hygienic place and also maintain discipline among students
during distribution of meals. The schools maintain a separate register which will be signed by
both the issuing and receiving authorities while receiving food. The teachers are able to devote
their time for teaching as they are not involved in any other activity of the mid day meal
programme.

According to the school teachers of Hill Patna Upper Primary School and Railway Upper
Primary School in Brahmapur children get nutritious, tasty meals in comparison to earlier mid-

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day meal programme managed by the schools. Students belonging to poor and disadvantaged
sections are more regular to school now and there has been increase in the attendance. Most of
the students go to school without taking any breakfast and timely serving of food satisfies
children. It further encourages them to be regular in attending school. Dropouts have been
reduced in Railway Upper Primary School and the attendance also increased since last three
years. Number of dropouts in 2008-09 was 14 (9boys and 5 girls), 2009-10 was 07 (5 boys and 2
girls) and in 2010-11 it has been reduced to 03 (1 boy and 2 girls). This school also registered an
increase in attendance from 60-70% in 2008-09, to 70 -75% in 2009-10 and 80-90% in 2010-11.
Enrollment of children in Hill Patna Upper Primary School increased from 352 (173 boys and
179 girls) in 2009-10 to 376 (194boys and 184 girls) in 2010-11.

A sample menu for a week is as follows:

Monday: Rice with lentil gravy (Dalma)
Tuesday: Rice with Potato and peas gravy (Alu Mutter)
Wednesday: Rice with Mix Vegetable Curry
Thursday: Vegetable rice
Friday: Rice with lentil gravy (Dalma)
Saturday: Vegetable Pulav with tomato Soup
(In addition to this each child is given 4 eggs and 2 bananas in a month

Nutritious value of a meal is around 450 calories and 12gms of protein for children of class I to
V and 600 calories and 20gms of protein for children of class VI to VIII.

District level monitoring committee headed by the District collector monitors the MDM
programme to improve its effectiveness and functioning. The committee includes school
teachers, Naandi representatives and other functionaries from Government;

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 District Level Monitoring Committee

District Magistrate / Additional District Magistrate

(Chairman)

Block Development Officers, few

DSWO Head Masters & teachers, DOs
(Member Deputy Inspector of Schools, Naandi
Secretary) Foundation representatives
(Members)

The committee reviews the functioning of the program and supports effective implementation.
District administration gives necessary support to run the programme successfully and has
requested Naandi to take up the remaining blocks in the District.

Mid day meal programme carried out through centralized kitchen is a challenging task but it is
seen as an appropriate solution to reach the objectives of the programme. One of the biggest
challenges is the complex logistics involved in the programme; right from setting up of the
kitchen to planning the routes for delivery of hot and nutritious meals to schoolchildren requires
lot of effort. Everything needs to be planned well and executed properly. Because of the nature
of the terrain and lack of access roads some areas of operations proved to be extremely difficult.
MDM Programme team has to carry food containers to distant places or across streams to
deliver them to some remote blocks. At the same time, it is also important to make the meal as
nutritious as possible. Vegetables and other items were introduced in the hope of adding more
nutrition but some time it is found many children refused to take the food because they do not
like the taste. Further, designing an appropriate fortified food involves a lot of time and money.
Major challenge in this process is raising resources for civil structure, machinery and equipment
and transportation in addition to funds / grant received from the Government.

106
References:
Anima Rani Si and Naresh Kumar (2008), An empirical study of the mid day meal
programme in Khurda, Odisha, Economic and Political Weekly, June 21, 2008, p. 53
Evaluation of the Mid Day Meal and Emergency Feeding Programmes under the
Revised Long Term Action Plan, done by D.J. Research and Consultancy on behalf of
Planning and Coordination Department of the Government of Odisha, no date, not
earlier than 2008 judging by the references cited
Guidelines for the implementation of Mid Day Meal [MDM] programme in Primary and
Upper Primary Schools of Odisha, March 2011, Women and Child Development
Department, Government of Odisha
Letter No. VI-ICDS-III-69/04-286/SWCD dated 27/07/2005 from the Commissioner and
Secretary,Women and Child Development Department, Government of Odisha
Powerpoint presentation on Odisha in the PAB-MDM meeting of 10-05-2011, accessed
at the MHRD, GoI site.
http://www.indianexpress.com/news/Odisha-villagers-stop-midday-meal-cooked-by-
dalits/570249/0
http://zeenews.india.com/news/state-news/Odisha-villagers-stop-mid-day-meal-cooked-by-dalit-
women_597834.html

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 Annexure 2

A Comparative Picture of Nutritional Norms/Quantity of Items in Implementation of MDMS

across India
Primary Classes Upper-primary Classes
calories Proteins
States (kcal) (gm) Calories (kcal) Proteins (gm)
Tamil Nadu 476 15.6 645.8 19
Puducherry 631 23.0 735.0 19
Odisha 473 14.2 690.0 20
Andhra Pradesh 450 12.0 751.5 20
Norms by GOI 450 12.0 700.0 20

Quantity of items provided in the MDMS, 2008-09, for Primary Classes (in gms)
Items Odisha Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Puducherry
Foodgrains 100 100 100 130
Pulses 20 35 20 10
Vegetables 70 50 75
Oil and fat 2 1 5 3
Salt and condiments 1.9
Any other items (egg) 2 days/week 3 *days/week 2 days/week 2 days/week
Note:* Since September 2010 Tamil Nadu has introduced eggs on all working days in a week

Quantity of items provided in the MDMS, 2008-09, Upper Primary Classes (in gms)
Odisha Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh Puducherry
Foodgrains 150 150 150 160
Pulses 30 15 40 10
Vegetables 50 60 75
Oil and fat 1 8 3
salt and condiments 1.9
3
Any other items (egg) 2 days/week *days/week 2 days/week 2 days/week
Note: Source: Annual Work Plan and Budget (National), 2008-09
http:education.nic.in/mdm/NATIONAL_AWP&B-2008-09_DS&AS.xls

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