Guidelines On PM POSHAN SCHEME 2022

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA "HKd 'HY«t»IY
MINISTRY OF EDUCATION . f^TSTT Tf^llel'i|

DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION & LITERACY f^TSTT 3 f k ^TTSRcTT f^ H H I
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SHASTRI BHAVAN
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NEW DELHI-110115
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Prachi Pandey
Joint Secretary (EE.I)
Ministry of Education '3PJcT
Tel:- 011-23389247
DO No : l-3/2022-Desk(PM POSHAN) Dated, the 21st December, 2022
As you are aware, Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) Scheme is one
of the foremost rights based Centrally Sponsored Schemes implemented in partnership with
States and UTs. This Scheme benefits about 12 crore children studying in Balvatika (just
before class I) and Classes I-VIII in Government and Government-Aided Schools.
2. This is to inform that the Scheme Guidelines have been comprehensively revised
incorporating, inter alia, several focus areas such as Public Financial Management System,
Quality and Safety Aspects, Social Audit, Joint Review Mission, School Nutrition Gardens,
Cooking Competitions, Tithi Bhojan, Supplementary Nutrition in Aspirational districts and
districts having high burden of malnutrition, Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
etc.
3. This document is an evolving document, which can be updated as per the changes and
developments in the Scheme. These guidelines are designed and formulated keeping the
children as the focal point with an aim to help States and UTs towards better and smooth
implementation of the PM POSHAN Scheme in an effective and efficient manner. In order to
effectively implement these guidelines, States and UTs are requested to develop their own
Standard Operating Procedures and undertake training and orientation of officials and other
stakeholders at various levels. You are also advised to ensure that these guidelines are
disseminated to all concerned upto the school level.
Let us join hands to ensure that every eligible child gets a nutritious hot cooked meal
on all school days in a healthy and nurturing environment.
With Regards,
Yours sincerely,
To,
1. The Additional Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of Dept, of

Education/ Nodal Departments for PM POSHAN of all States & UTs.
2. The Commissioners / Directors of PM POSHAN of all States & UTs.
Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman
(PM POSHAN)
Guidelines
Department of School Education & Literacy

Ministry of Education
Government of India
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PM POSHAN Guidelines Page 1 of 140
Contents
1. Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman
1.1 Background
1.2 Evolution
1.3 Objectives
1.4 Rationale
1.5 Beneficiaries under scheme
1.6 Components of the scheme
1.7 Food and Nutrition norms
1.8 Menu under the scheme
1.9 Convergence with other development programmes
1.10 School Health Component (RBSK, WIFS, NDD)
2. Implementation Structure and Programme Management –

Roles and Responsibilities
2.1 National level

2.2 State / UT level
2.3 District and Block Level
2.4 Village level
2.5 School level
2.6 Food Corporation of India (FCI)
2.7 Civil Society Organisations
3. Component wise Programmatic Norms and Financial Norms

under the scheme
3.1 Food grains

3.2 Cooking cost
3.3 Cook-cum-Helpers
3.4 Transportation Assistance
3.5 Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (MME)
3.6 Kitchen-cum-Stores
3.7 Kitchen devices- Procurement and replacement
3.8 Repair of kitchen-cum-stores
3.9 Innovation / Flexibility
3.10 Meals during summer vacation in drought affected areas and
during closure of schools in disaster affected areas
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4. Financial Management under the scheme
4.1 Release mechanism- Conditions of releases

4.2 Expenditure Sharing pattern
4.3 Release of 1st instalment
4.4 Release of 2nd instalment
4.5 Release of central assistance for non-recurring components
4.6 Release of funds on account of coverage of additional children
and / or additional working days in excess of PAB-PM POSHAN
approvals.
5. Food grains Management
5.1 Allocation of Food grains

5.2 Frequency of Allocation of food grains- Conditions of releases
5.3 Off take of food grains- Periodicity, lifting agency etc
5.4 Quality of food grains- FAQ, joint inspection at the time of
lifting, Maintenance, Storage
5.5 Payment of cost of food grains
5.6 Monitoring system
6. Quality and safety aspects
6.1 Lifting and transportation of food grains

6.2 Procurement of oil, pulses and condiments
6.3 Procurement of perishable raw material
6.4 Storage of raw material
6.5 Food safety measures
6.6 Tasting of meals by teacher
6.7 Testing of meals
6.8 Cleaning of cooking areas
6.9 Cleaning of utensils, equipment and other material
6.10 Personal hygiene, cleanliness and health check-up of cook-cum-
helpers
6.11 Pest control
6.12 Hand washing for children
6.13 Infrastructural requirement of food safety and hygiene
6.14 Water supply
6.15 Testing of water
6.16 Drainage and waste disposal
6.17 Food serving area
6.18 Disaster management plan / contingency measures
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7. School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens
7.1 Concept of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens

7.2 Objectives of School Nutrition Gardens
7.3 Need and benefits of School Nutrition Gardens
7.4 Impact of climate change and School Nutrition Gardens
7.5 Setting up of School Nutrition Gardens
7.6 Planning and monitoring of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens
7.7 Preparing the site and layout
7.8 Compositing
7.9 Vermi Compositing
7.10 Organic solid waste
7.11 Water harvesting
7.12 Importance of reuse and recycling of water
7.13 Drip irrigation for School Nutrition Kitchen Gardens
7.14 Involvement of children in drip irrigation
7.15 Using the water from school kitchen in SNG
7.16 Support from experts of Krishi Vigyan Kendra
7.17 Support from experts of the forest department
7.18 Child safety in the SNGs
7.19 Getting children interested in gardening
7.20 Setting up of SNGs in school which do not have adequate land
7.21 Selection of plants
7.22 Containers which can be used to grow plants
7.23 What shall we grow in school nutrition kitchen gardens
7.24 What parts of plants can we eat
8. Supplementary Nutrition in Aspirational districts and districts

having high burden of malnutrition
8.1 Selection of district

8.2 Selection of supplementary food item
8.3 Time frame for distribution – amount and frequency of provision
8.4 Baseline and end line data
9. Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
9.1 Display of entitlements of children at a prominent place

9.2 Display of logo
9.3 Public Grievance Redressal
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9.4 Publicity of the scheme
9.5 IEC through convergence
9.6 Awards
10. Vocal for Local & Atmanirbhar Bharat
10.1 Involvement of FPOs and SHGs

10.2 Use of millets and local Food items
10.3 Flexibility to District Collector
11. Grievance Redressal Mechanism
11.1 Grievance Redressal Mechanism

11.2 Contingency plan for medical emergency
12. Tithi Bhojan
12.1 Concept of Tithi Bhojan

12.2 Benefits of Tithi Bhojan
12.3 Initiatives already taken to promote the concept
12.4 Provision of Tithi Bhojan
12.5 Identification of the potential donors
12.6 Items to be provided under Tithi Bhojan
12.7 Frequency of Tithi Bhojan
12.8 Issues related to food safety and hygiene
12.9 Role of School Management Committee
12.10 Sabka Prayas
12.11 Monitoring of the Initiative
12.12 Awareness generation and publicity of the initiative
13. Capacity Building
13.1 Training of CCH

13.2 Training of personnel involved in PM POSHAN
14. Social Audit

14.1 Social Audit under PM POSHAN
14.2 Roles and Responsibilities at various levels in social audit
14.3 Social Audit Unit (SAU)
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14.4 Phases of Conducting Social Audit
14.5 Training and Capacity Building of Social Audit Resource Persons
14.6 Submission of Reports
15. Monitoring of the scheme
15.1 Arrangements for local level monitoring

15.2 Display of Information
15.3 Block Level Committee
15.4 Inspections by State Government Officers
15.5 District Level Committee
15.6 Periodic Returns
15.7 Grievance Redressal
15.8 State level Monitoring
15.9 National level:
15.10 Monitoring by Students of DIETs and RIEs etc
15.11 Joint Review Missions
16. Management Information System & Automated Monitoring

System
16.1 Management Information System
16.2 Automated Monitoring System (AMS)
17. Annual work Plan & Budget and Periodic Returns
17.1 Preparation of AWP&B

17.2 Assistance for drought and disaster affected areas
17.3 Meetings of Programme Approval Board
17.4 AWP&B formats
17.5 Periodic Returns
18. Cooking Competition
18.1 Cooking Competition as “Jan Andolan Movement”

18.2 Schedule (Time, Venue, days) for Competition
18.3 Identification/selection of CCH/others interested to participate
18.4 Identification of activities to be carried out
18.5 Selection of Judges for the competition
18.6 Award for winners and publicity
18.7 Other significant benefits
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1. Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman
1.1 Background
Three States namely Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and UT of Puducherry
started to provide cooked mid-day meals to the children of primary classes in
mid 1980s from their own resources. By 1990-91, 12 States namely, Goa,
Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram,
Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh were providing mid-
day meal from their own resources, to the children studying in primary
classes in the schools.
With a view to enhance enrolment, attendance and retention and

simultaneously to improve the nutritional status of children, a Centrally
Sponsored Scheme ‘National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary
Education (NP-NSPE)’ was launched on the 15th August 1995. The cooked
mid day meal was started under the Scheme on the following direction of
th
Hon’ble Supreme Court order dated 28 November, 2001 in Civil Writ Petition
No.196/ 2001: Peoples Union for Civil Liberties (PUCL) Vs Union of India &
others:
“We direct the State Governments/ Union Territories to

implement the Mid Day Meal Scheme by providing every child in
every Government and Government assisted Primary Schools
with a prepared mid day meal with a minimum content of 300
calories and 8-12 grams of protein each day of school for a
minimum of 200 days. Those Governments providing dry rations
instead of cooked meals must within three months start
providing cooked meals in all Govt. and Govt. aided Primary
Schools in all half the Districts of the State (in order of poverty)
and must within a further period of three months extend the
provision of cooked meals to the remaining parts of the State.”
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1.2 Evolution
The coverage of the scheme was extended to upper primary classes in 2008-
09. The scheme was renamed “National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in
Schools” in 2009 popularly known as Mid-Day Meal scheme and covered
children studying in elementary classes (I-VIII) in Government and
Government aided schools etc.
Legal backing for food and nutritional security under NFSA, 2013:
The National Food Security Act, 2013 provides that every child up to the age
of fourteen years shall have specific entitlements for his/her nutritional needs.
Section 5 (1) (b), inter-alia, reads as under:
“in the case of children, up to class VIII or within the age group of
six to fourteen years, whichever is applicable, one mid-day meal,
free of charge, everyday, except on school holidays, in all schools
run by local bodies, Government and Government aided schools,
so as to meet the nutritional standards specified in Schedule II.”
Schedule II of the NFSA, 2013 mandates provision of hot cooked meal

containing 450 calories and 12 gms protein for primary and 700 calories
and20 gms protein for upper primary class children.
1.3 Objectives
The objectives of the Scheme are to address two of the pressing problems for
majority of children in India, viz. hunger and education by:
i. Improving the nutritional status of children studying in Bal Vatika and
classes I – VIII in Government and Government-aided schools and Special
Training Centres (STCs).
ii. Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend
school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
iii. Providing nutritional support to children of elementary stage in drought
affected areas during summer vacation and during disaster times.
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1.4 Rationale
a) Preventing classroom hunger: Many children belonging to disadvantaged

sections of society reach school with an empty stomach. Even children, who
have a meal before they leave for school, get hungry by the afternoon and
are not able to concentrate. School meal can help children from families,
which cannot afford a lunch box or are staying a long distance away from
schools to overcome “classroom hunger”.
b) Promoting school participation: School meals have a significant effect on

school participation, not just in terms of getting more children enrolled in the
registers but also in terms of regular pupil attendance on a daily basis.
c) Facilitating healthy growth of children: School meals can also act as a

regular source of “supplementary nutrition” for children and facilitate their
healthy growth.
d) Intrinsic educational value: A well-organized school meals can be used as

an opportunity to impart various good habits to children (such as washing
one’s hands before and after eating) and to educate them about the
importance of clean water, good hygiene and other related matters.
e) Fostering social equality: School meals can help spread egalitarian values,
as children from various social backgrounds learn to sit together and share a
common meal. In particular, School meal can help to break the barriers of
caste and class among school children. Appointing cooks from SC/ST
communities is another way of teaching children to overcome caste
prejudices.
f) Enhancing gender equity: The gender gap in school participation tends to

narrow, as the Scheme helps erode the barriers that prevent girls from going
to school. The Scheme also provides a useful source of employment for
women and encourages employment of women as it eases the burden of
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cooking at home during the day. In these and other ways, women and girl
children have a special stake in the Scheme.
g) Psychological Benefits: Physiological deprivation leads to low self-esteem,

consequent insecurity, anxiety and stress. The Scheme can help address
these and facilitate cognitive, emotional and social development.
1.5 Beneficiaries under scheme
a) Bal Vatika Children
All children enrolled in Bal Vatika (i.e. just before class I) in Government and
Government Aided primary schools and attending school are entitled for one
hot cooked meal on all schools days.
b) All children enrolled in classes I-V
All children enrolled in classes I-V in Government and Government Aided

schools and attending school are entitled for one hot cooked meal on all
schools days.
c) All children enrolled in classes VI-VIII
All children enrolled in classes VI-VIII in Government and Government Aided

schools and attending school are entitled for one hot cooked meal on all
schools days.
d) All children enrolled in National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools
All children enrolled in classes I-V in schools run under National Child Labour
Project (NCLP) schools of Ministry of Labour & Employment, Government of
India and attending school are entitled for one hot cooked meal on all schools
days.
1.6 Components of the scheme
a. Food grains
b. Material Cost
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c. Honorarium to Cook-Cum-Helpers
d. Transportation Assistance
e. Management, Monitoring & Evaluation
f. Kitchen-cum-Stores
g. Kitchen Devices
h. Repair of Kitchen-cum-stores
i. Innovation and Flexibility
1.7 Food and Nutrition norms
For children of primary classes, a hot cooked meal per child consists of 100
grams of food grain (rice/wheat/nutri-rich cereals), 20 grams of pulses, 50
grams of vegetables and 5 grams of oil/fat to provide 450 calories of energy
and 12 grams of protein. For children of upper primary classes, it consists of
150 grams of food grain (wheat/rice/nutri-rich cereals), 30 grams of pulses,
75 grams of vegetables and 7.5 grams of oil/fat per child to provide 700
calories of energy and 20 grams of proteins.
Nutrition and food norms - Per child per day
S.
Items Primary Upper Primary
No.
A) Nutritional Norms as per National Food Security Act (NFSA),
2013
1 Calorie 450 700
2 Protein 12 gms 20 gms
B) Food Norms
1 Food grains 100 gms 150 gms
2 Pulses 20 gms 30 gms
3 Vegetables 50 gms 75 gms
4 Oil & fat 5 gms 7.5 gms
5 Salt & condiments As per need As per need
Micronutrients like IFA etc and de-worming medicines are provided in

convergence with M/H&FW
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1.8 Menu under scheme
i. State/UT will authorize district/block nodal agency for developing indicative

menus using locally available and culturally acceptable food items. The menu
may be designed in a manner that different and varied foods are provided on
different days.
ii. School managements may also be encouraged to seek local support for
drawing out varied, but wholesome and nutritious menus.
iii. Local support for drawing out varied, but wholesome and nutritious menus
may be encouraged.
iv. Eating a varied, well-balanced meal means eating a variety of foods from
each food groups daily, in the prescribed amounts. It is also important to
choose a variety of foods from within each food group in Menu because
different foods provide different types and amounts of key nutrients.
v. Choosing a variety of foods will help to make meals interesting, so that
children will not get bored with the served meal. Inclusion of green leafy
vegetables in the meal is of utmost importance to reduce the prevalence of
anaemia. Inclusion of drumstick, Moringa, Spinach leaves wherever available
may be included in the meal as they are good sources of iron in the diet of
the children.
vi. Inclusion of whole legumes shall ensure the availability of good sources of
proteins, vitamins & minerals in the diet of the school children.
vii. Inclusion of Millets which are rich sources of the micro-nutrients may also be
actively considered subject to local food habits and availability.
viii. Discussion with the SMC members, parents of the children during the meeting
may be carried out regarding additions of local variation in menu at a
frequent interval to increase and maintain the interest of children.
ix. Participation of the children while preparation of Menu shall add value in the
menu and also develop a sense of ownership of the scheme among them.
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x. Discussion with the Nutrition experts from the Home Science Colleges may be
carried out during the preparation of menu to include variety in the menu in
cost effective way.
xi. The menu may consider the recipes based on the seasonal availability of the
vegetables at a particular place, this may be helpful in reducing the cost as
well as increasing the nutritional value in the diet.
xii. Weekly menu may be prepared to increase the interest of the children in the
school meals. (There may be 4 sets of menu for a month, one set for each
week)
xiii. A State/UT specific variety “Recipe Booklet” at State/UT level may be
prepared in consultation with nutrition experts etc.
xiv. Serving of ‘Single Dish Meals’, occasionally, using broken wheat or rice and
incorporating some amount of a pulse or soya beans, a seasonal
vegetable/green leafy vegetable, and some amount of edible oil will save both
time and fuel besides being nutritious. Broken wheat pulao, leafy khichri, dal-
vegetable bhaat are some examples of single dish meals.
1.9 Convergence with other development programmes
In addition to the regular assistance available under the Pradhan Mantri

Poshan Shakti Nirman for the components under the Scheme, States/UTs
shall endeavour for convergence with other line Ministries and Departments
like Ministry of Rural Development & Panchayati Raj, Ministry of Health &
Family Welfare, Ministry of Women & Child Development, Ministry of
Agriculture etc. for kitchen-cum-store, kitchen devices, School Nutrition
Gardens, Social Audit, Hand Washing facilities, drinking water, dining halls,
supplementary nutrition etc.
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1.10 School Health Component (RBSK, WIFS, NDD)
MoE in convergence with M/o Health & Family Welfare effects health check-
up of children under Rashtriya Bal Swastha Karyakram. Referrals are being
made to nearest hospital or Primary Health Centre if required. Deworming
medicine is provided to children biannually on National Deworming Day
(NDD). Iron &Folic Acid (IFA) tablets are also provided to children under
Weekly Iron & Folic acid Supplementation Programme (WIFS).
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2. Implementation Structure and Programme Management – Roles and
Responsibilities
A programme of the scale and magnitude of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan

Shakti Nirman requires a Management structure which is robust and dynamic.
It is imperative that the Management system at various levels is clearly
articulated and the roles of the different agencies involved clearly delineated.
The programme requires close co-operation and coordination of the various
agencies involved in the implementation of Scheme. The Scheme envisages
putting in place the following Management structures at the National, State,
District/Block and Local levels.
2.1 National Level :
i) Empowered Committee: An Empowered Committee has been set up under

the Chairmanship of Hon’ble Shiksha Mantri for monitoring the access, safety,
hygiene and quality aspects in the implementation of the Scheme; Review
mechanism in place to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the
scheme; Review mechanism in place for community participation in the
scheme and its effective monitoring.
ii) National level Steering cum Monitoring Committee (NSMC): The
Department of School Education and Literacy has set up a National Level
Steering cum Monitoring Committee (NSMC) to oversee the implementation of
the programme. The composition of the NSMC is given in Annexure I. The
NSMC is mandated to:
a. Guide the various implementation agencies,
b. Monitor programme implementation, assess its impact, and take
corrective steps,
c. Take action on reports of independent monitoring/evaluation agencies,
d. Effect coordination and convergence among concerned departments,
agencies (e.g. FCI), and schemes, and
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e. Mobilize community support and promoting public private partnership for
the programme. Under the Scheme, the NSMC will also, in addition, be
expected to perform the following functions:
i. provide policy advice to Central and State Governments, and
ii. identify voluntary agencies and other appropriate institutions to
undertake training, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and
research connected with the programme at the national level.
iii) Programme Approval Board: The Department of School Education and
Literacy has also set up a Programme Approval Board under the
chairpersonship of Secretary, School Education and Literacy with membership
of nutrition experts and representatives, inter alia, of the Departments of
Women and Child Development, Ministry of Rural Development, Ministry of
Panchayati Raj, NITI AAYOG, Food Corporation of India, etc. The composition
of the Programme Approval Board is given in Annexure II. The Programme
Approval Board meets at the beginning of each financial year in order to
consider and sanction the Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) submitted
by the State Governments and UT Administrations.
2.2 State/UT level:
i) Steering cum Monitoring Committee:

a. States and UT administrations are also required to set up Steering cum
Monitoring Committees (SMCs) at the State, District and Block levels to
oversee the implementation of the programme which function, mutatis
mutandis, similar to those spelt out in above para for the NSMC. Besides,
District and Block level SMCs should also be constituted for all Districts and
Blocks. A suggested composition of Steering-cum-Monitoring Committees
at various levels is given at Annexure-I. A representative of the
Department of School Education and Literacy, Government of India,
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should be invariably invited to meetings of the State/UT level Steering
cum Monitoring Committee.
b. The State level Steering cum Monitoring Committee will meet at least once
in every six months.
c. The District and Block level Steering cum Monitoring Committee will meet
at least once in every month.
ii) Every State Government /UT Administration will designate one of its
Departments as the Nodal Department, which will take responsibility for the
implementation of the programme.
iii) State Governments/UT Administrations may set up Implementation Cell
attached to the State Nodal Department to oversee the implementation of the
programme by using a part of funds under MME.
iv) Taking into account the Central assistance available under the Scheme, every
State Government/UT Administration will prescribe and notify its own norms
of expenditure on the Scheme which cannot be less than the norms fixed by
the Central Government, based on which it will allocate funds for the
implementation of the programme. The norms, thus notified, will be referred
to as “State Norms”. The State Norms would spell out inter alia, modalities for
ensuring regular and uninterrupted provision of nutritious cooked meal.
v) To ensure uninterrupted supply of cooked food to all eligible children across
the State is a challenging task. State Governments/UT Administrations will
have to develop and circulate detailed guidelines taking into account common
obstacles which may come in the way of regular supply of cooked meal,
including for example:
a) In case of delay in flow of monetary assistance from the Centre to the

States (e.g. due to late or defective Utilisation Certificates or unspent
balances). State Governments will have to make adequate provision for
the programme (both for centre and state) in their annual budget, in
anticipation of actual flow of Central assistance. It must be understood
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that Central Assistance as per the PAB approval is committed, and will get
transferred in due course. However, if for any reason, there is some delay
in its actual transfer, that must not be allowed to interrupt actual provision
of hot cooked meal to children.
b) In case of delay in release of funds sanctioned by the Central Government
from the State Finance Department on account of the State’s ‘ways and
means’ position, State Nodal Departments will need to ensure that the
State Finance Department releases the funds intended for the Scheme
expeditiously as per the PFMS guidelines.
c) In case of delays on account of hierarchical level-wise releases from State
to district to taluk/block to gram Panchayat to School.
d) In case of irregular supply of food grains from FCI godown or interruption
in their timely transportation to schools. States will need to ensure that
FCI gives priority to the Scheme. States should also ensure that a
minimum of one-month buffer stock of food grains and cooking costs is
available in each school.
e) In case of failure of the local implementation agency to adequately
procure and stock up cooking ingredients.
f) In case of absence of cook for any reason, etc.
vi) The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education will
convey the allocation of food grains and central grants meant for food grains,
cooking cost, honorarium to CCH, Transportation Assistance, MME, kitchen-
cum-store, kitchen devices as approved by the PAB to the State Nodal
Department and the FCI. The State Nodal Department will convey district-
wise allocations to all District Nodal Agencies.
vii) The State Nodal Agency will ensure that the District Nodal Agencies have sub-
allocated the monthly district allocation to the sub-district level which in turn
will further allocate to each school.
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viii) Nodal agency for transportation of food-grains: Transportation of food
grains from nearest FCI depot to each School is a major logistical
responsibility. State Government will be expected to make arrangements in
this regard in the following manner: -
a. Wherever appropriate, a single Govt./Semi-Government agency with State

wide jurisdiction and network, e.g. State Civil Supplies Corporation, may
be designated as the State Nodal Transport Agency. This Agency will be
responsible for lifting food grains from FCI godowns and delivering them
to designated authority at the taluk/block level. State Government will also
need to make fool proof arrangements to ensure that the food grains are
carried from the district/block level to each school, etc., in a timely
manner.
b. Alternatively, District/Block Panchayats may be assigned the responsibility
for different districts/blocks or groups of districts/blocks in the State.
2.3 District and Block Level:
(i) Every State Government/UT Administration will designate one nodal officer or
agency at the district and block level (e.g. the District Collector,
District/Intermediate Panchayat, etc.) who shall be assigned overall
responsibility of effective implementation of the programme at the
district/block level.
(ii) In States which have devolved the function of primary education either by
legislation or executive order on Panchayats, the Chief Executive Officer of
District Panchayats or the Executive Officer of Block Panchayats will be the
Nodal Officer with overall responsibility for effective implementation of the
programme at the district level. In such States, the responsibility for
implementing the programme within their jurisdiction shall be that of the
Panchayats and the Urban Local Bodies concerned which have been assigned
the responsibility by the State.
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(iii) The District Nodal Agency will ensure that each school is informed of its
monthly allocation of food grains and financial sanctions. It shall also identify
the Transportation Agency to transport foodgrains from the nearest FCI
godown to school. The transportations could be done once in a month.
(iv) The district/ block nodal agency will also take responsibility for developing
indicative menus using locally available and culturally acceptable food items.
2.4 Village level
In States which have devolved the function of primary education through

legislation and/or executive order on Panchayats and Urban Local Bodies, the
responsibility of implementation and day to day supervision of the programme
shall be assigned to the Gram Panchayat/Municipality.
The School Management Committee mandated under Right to Free and

Compulsory Education Act, 2009 shall also monitor implementation of the PM
POSHAN Scheme and shall oversee quality of meals provided to the children,
cleanliness of the place of cooking and maintenance of hygiene in
implementation of the scheme.
2.5 School level-Teachers, CCH, SMC, Students, Parents
(i) As far as possible, responsibility for cooking/supply of cooked meal should be

assigned to one of the following:-
(a) Cook-Cum-Helpers
(b) Local women’s/mothers’ Self-Help Group,
(c) Local Youth Club affiliated to the Nehru Yuvak Kendras,
(d) A voluntary organization (as specified in guidelines for engagement of
CSO/NGO)
(ii) Responsibility of the day-to-day management of the programme at school
level may be given to School Management Committee.
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(iii) Very limited role of teachers: Under Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti
Nirman, States and UT have engaged cook-cum-helpers either directly or
through women self help groups, for cooking and serving meals under the
scheme. Teachers should, therefore, under no circumstances be assigned
responsibilities that will impede or interfere with teaching learning. Teachers
should, however, be involved in ensuring these:
a) good quality, wholesome food is served to children, and

b) the actual serving and eating is undertaken in a spirit of togetherness,
under hygienic conditions, and in an orderly manner so that the entire
process is completed in 30-40 minutes.
c) It should however, be ensured that the food prepared is tasted by 2-3
adults including at least one teacher before it is served to children.
(iv) Community Support:
a) School managements should also be encouraged to draw on the support

of the community. Gram Panchayats and School Management Committees
may be approached for arranging community members to regularly, on a
rotation basis, help the school management in ensuring efficient cooking,
serving and cleaning operations.
b) The involvement of teachers and community members in ensuring that
children eat together in a spirit of camaraderie and develop sensitivity to
their peers with different abilities, by offering them precedence, and
instilling values of equality and cooperation would be very valuable
support to the implementation of the programme.
c) Support of the community members, including mothers’ groups, could also
be solicited to ensure that children wash their hands with soap before
eating, use clean plates and glasses, avoid littering and wastage of food,
and clean their plates, rinse their hands and mouth after eating.
d) Scheme also offers wide opportunity of self-employment to poor women
who could constitute self-help groups. Such groups can take the
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responsibility of cooking and serving meals with the overall assistance of
the local level implementing agency.
e) Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman can provide the groups the scope
for income generating activities such as growing & supplying vegetables,
preparing condiments, etc.,
f) Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme could also provide
opportunity for involvement of SHGs in the management of the
programme, thus ensuring that teaching-learning processes in the
classroom are not affected, while SHGs take responsibility for regular. In
the selection, priority should be given to SHGs with membership of poor
women, and whose children are participating in the programme.
g) procurement, cooking and distribution process.
h) Tithi Bhojan is a community participation concept relying on Indian
traditional practice of providing food to large number of people on special
occasions such as festivals, anniversaries, birthdays, marriages, and days
of national importance etc. Under this community provides nutritious and
healthy food to the children as an additional food item or full meal on
such special occasions/festivals.
2.6 Food Corporation of India (FCI)
It will be the responsibility of the FCI to ensure continuous availability of

adequate food grains in its Depots [and in Principal Distribution Centres in the
case of North East Region]. It will allow lifting of food grains for any
month/quarter up to one month in advance so that supply chain of food
grains remains uninterrupted. For the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman,
FCI will issue food grains of best available quality, which will in any case be at
least of Fair Average Quality (FAQ).
FCI has also appointed a Nodal Officer for each State to take care of various
problems in supply of food grains under Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti
Nirman Scheme.
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The District Collector/CEO of Zila Panchayat will also ensure that food grains
of at least FAQ are issued by FCI after joint inspection by a team consisting of
FCI and the nominee of the Collector and/or Chief Executive Officer, District
Panchayat, and confirmation by them that the grain conforms to at least FAQ
norms. FCI will keep samples of such food grains supplied by it for future
verification and analysis; this will be available in case of any complaints
regarding the quality of food grains supplied.
2.7 Civil Society Organisations
CSO/NGO may be engaged for supply of hot cooked meal under the Scheme
for a Cluster of Schools in urban areas or in identified rural areas which have
good road connectivity, for the purpose of leveraging efficiency gains.
2.7.1 Constitution of a Committee
State may constitute a committee under the chairpersonship of the Principal

Secretary/Secretary of the nodal department, comprising of Officers/experts
from the fields of Food & Nutrition, Law, Women & Child Development, Health
etc.
2.7.2 Pre-requisite for selection Of CSO/ NGO
The above mentioned Committee should keep the following aspects in mind
while determining the suitability of a CSO/NGO for supply of cooked meals:
i) The CSO/NGO should be registered under the Societies Registration Act

or the Public Trust Act, and should have been in existence for a minimum
period of two years.
ii) The CSO/NGO should have a properly constituted Management /
Governing Body with its powers and duties clearly defined in its
constitution.
iii) Names of all office bearers involved in the establishment and
management of such organisations should be disclosed along with their
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roles and responsibilities in the organisation. If any of the office bearers
hold a public office, then details of that office should also be mentioned
specifically.
iv) Operation of the Centralized Kitchens should be entrusted under the PPP
model to reputed CSO/NGO with local presence and familiarity with the
needs and culture of the State.
v) The CSO/NGO should have a valid license under Food Safety and
Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
vi) CSO/NGO should give a commitment to supply meals to the cluster of
schools on 'No-Profit' basis.
vii) CSO/NGO should give commitment to abide by the Scheme Guidelines
issued by the Ministry of Education from time to time.
viii) CSO/NGO should give willingness to work with PRIs / Municipal bodies in
accordance with relevant guidelines of the State Government.
ix) The CSO/NGO should have financial and logistic capacity to supply the
meals on the requisite scale.
x) The CSO/NGO should have a robust transport system for carrying the
cooked meals from Centralized Kitchen to schools.
xi) The CSO/NGO should not discriminate in any manner on the basis of
religion, caste and creed, and should not use the programme for
propagation of any religious practice.
2.7.3 Responsibilities of the CSO/NGO
i) The CSO/NGO shall keep the food grains and other materials in hygienic
conditions, free of pests, insects, fungus etc.
ii) Drinking water should be tested for its potability, as per the schedule
decided by the States/UTs.
iii) Only packed dals, salt, spices, condiments and oil with AG-MARK, FSSAI
quality symbol should be used for cooking meals.
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iv) CSO/NGO shall ensure that the food articles shall be used in FIFO basis.
Shelf life of the food articles needs to be checked from time to time.
v) In case the State has provision of egg/milk/fruit in the Menu and the
CSO/NGO is not willing to provide the same, the State should make
alternative arrangements to supply egg/milk/fruit as prescribed in the
menu.
vi) CSO/NGOs should supply the cooked meal in good quality sealed
insulated/stainless steel containers. Temperature of the meal when
served should be maintained at or above 650C.
vii) CSO/NGO should have adequate Fire safety measures in the Centralized
Kitchen.
viii) Cooked Meal is fit for human consumption for four hours after cooking
and it should be transported to schools and consumed by children within
that time.
ix) The CSO/NGO should ensure that the cooked meal is transported and
delivered at the school under the supervision of an authorized person.
x) CSO/NGO shall carry out training of CCHs on health, food safety, hygiene
and methods of cooking at regular intervals.
xi) CSO/NGO shall also ensure that CCH working at centralized kitchens are
free from any disease particularly contagious diseases. CSO/NGO shall
arrange medical check-up of CCH at least once in six months.
xii) CSO/NGO shall ensure that the CCH are provided Aprons, Head-gears and
gloves during cooking of meals.
xiii) The CSO/NGO shall ensure that the premises should be clean, adequately
lighted and ventilated and have sufficient free space for movement.
Floors, ceilings and walls must be maintained in a sound condition. The
floor and skirted walls should be washed as per requirement with an
effective disinfectant. The premises should be kept free from all insects.
No spraying should be done during the cooking of meal, but instead fly
swats/ flaps should be used to prevent flies getting into the premises.
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Windows, doors and other openings should be fitted with net or screen,
as appropriate to make the premise insect free.
2.7.4 Responsibility of the State Government
i) Material Cost - The State Government will pay/reimburse the material

cost to the CSO/NGO as per the instructions/norms of GOI/State
Government.
ii) Supply of Food grains
a. The CSO/NGO shall lift the food grains from Food Corporation of India
(FCI)'s godown against the 'Release Order' issued by the State
Government on the basis of allotted number of children and working
days. Subsequently transportation charges will also be reimbursed to
the CSO/NGO as per the rates fixed by the Government of India or by
the State Government.
Or
b. The State Government shall make arrangements for delivery of food
grains at the centralized kitchen on the basis of allotted number of
children and working days.
iii) Cook-cum-Helpers — The honorarium to cook-cum-helpers can be
apportioned if the Centralized Kitchen is not serving meals at the schools.
The States/UTs may lay down the principle and procedure for
apportionment of admissible honorarium for cook-cum-helpers deployed
at schools and working at the Centralized Kitchen for cleaning of food
grains, cutting of vegetables, cooking of meals etc. at Centralized
Kitchen.
iv) The State may ensure that, the cook-cum-helpers already engaged in the
schools are not displaced in case of expansion of centralized kitchen. All
efforts should be made to retain them as helpers for serving of meals,
cleaning of utensils etc. in the schools.
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v) The State Government shall get the samples tested from any reputed
laboratory regarding requisite calories and proteins contents at its own
cost at regular intervals.
2.7.5 Assets Created through assistance from State Government:
CSO/NGO should give written commitment to return to the State Government

the permanent/semi-permanent assets, if any, acquired by it through the
grants received under the programme, once the agreement / MoU expires.
2.7.6 Important clauses also to be included in Agreement / Memorandum

of Understanding (MoU) (Model MoU is available on the Ministry’s
website)
i) A contract/MoU between the CSO/NGO and State shall be signed to

define the liabilities of the parties and the consequences of non-
performance on their parts. It should also include a stringent mechanism
to check and supervise the quality and quantity of meal supplied by the
CSO/NGO to the children.
ii) The duration of the agreement should be clearly mentioned in the
agreement.
iii) Further extension of the duration of Agreement/MoU should be done with
the prior approval of the competent authority.
iv) The performance of CSO/NGOs engaged in serving meals to children
should be assessed every year through a credible System of evaluation.
v) Renewal of MoU with a CSO/NGO should depend on its performance
evaluation.
vi) The number of students and schools along with name of the
districts/blocks to be covered by the CSO/NGOs should be clearly
mentioned.
vii) Meals would be prepared by CSO/NGOs as per prescribed food and
nutrition norms by MoE/State Government.
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viii) Weight norms for the per meal cooked food in accordance with the menu
will be finalized by mutual consultation between the State and the NGO,
so as to ensure adequate supply of hot cooked food as per the norms.
ix) The CSO/NGOs should furnish a monthly report to the implementing
State/UT on lifting and utilization of food grains and funds as well as
number of children covered. The CSO/NGO will also submit the duly
verified bills by 7th of the next month. The State Government will ensure
payment within one week upon receipt of duly verified bills from the
Second Party.
x) The CSO/NGO shall not entrust/ sub-contract the programme or divert
any part of the assistance (food grains/funds) to any other
organization/agency.
2.7.7 Report
i) The CSO/NGO will furnish to the State Government an Annual Report

along with audited statement of accounts in terms of all grants received
from the State Government and donations received in the name of PM
POSHAN both in cash and kind, duly certified by an approved Auditor.
ii) All accounts, stock and registers maintained by the CSO/NGO should be
open to inspection by officers appointed by the State Government /
Central Government.
2.7.8 Renewal / termination
i) The renewal of contract shall be subject to outcome of evaluation by a

credible third party commissioned by the State Government. The
evaluation study report should be submitted 2 months prior to the closure
of agreement
ii) In the event, CSO/NGO desires to stop the supply of the meal for any
reason, it shall give three months' notice in writing to the State
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Government, failing which the CSO/NGO shall be liable for penalties as
decided by the State Government.
iii) The State Government shall be at liberty to modify or terminate the
agreement at any time during the contract period by giving 30 days'
notice.
iv) The State Government can terminate the agreement by giving 3 months'
notice if the MoE, Government of India does object to this arrangement.
2.7.9 Liability/ Penalty clause:
i) The CSO/NGO will be responsible for any untoward incident such as food
poisoning of children due to the serving of adulterated, contaminated or
stale meal and entire responsibility for any civil and criminal liability
arising out of that shall rest entirely with the NGO.
ii) If the quality of the meals is found to be sub-standard or not fit for
human consumption, the school shall have the right to return the
whole/entire or part of the cooked meal supplied to the children. No
claim for compensations for such meals from the CSO/NGO shall be
reimbursed.
iii) The meal should be supplied at the fixed time on every school day. In
case the CSO/NGO fails to supply the cooked meal on a given day, the
authorities shall have the option to procure the supply from any other
supplier/market and the cost of the same shall be deducted from the
bills of CSO/NGO.
2.7.10 Contingency Plan for Medical Emergency: The State/CSO/NGO

should have a Contingency Plan for any untoward incident. The names
and telephone numbers of the nearest hospitals, Primary Health Centre,
Ambulance, Police, Fire-brigade should be displayed at prominent places.
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2.7.11 Arbitration
In the event of any dispute arising out of the agreement the same shall
be referred to the sole arbitration of the State Government or any officer
appointed by the State Government on its behalf. The proceedings held
by the arbitrator in making award will be in accordance With the
provisions of Indian Arbitration and Conciliation Act 1996 or any statutory
amendments thereof. The award of the arbitrator shall be final and
binding on both the parties.
2.7.12 Any-Other-conditions
State Government may prescribe such other conditions, as they may deem
appropriate, in addition to the conditions stated above.
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3. Component wise Programmatic Norms and Financial Norms under
the scheme
For children of Bal Vatika and primary classes, a cooked meal per child
consists of 100 grams of food grain (rice/wheat/nutri-rich cereals), 20 grams
of pulses, 50 grams of vegetables and 5 grams of oil/fat to provide 450
calories of energy and 12 grams of protein. For children of upper primary
classes, it consists of 150 grams of food grain (wheat/rice/nutri-rich cereals),
30 grams of pulses, 75 grams of vegetables and 7.5 grams of oil/fat per child
to provide 700 calories of energy and 20 grams of proteins.
3.1 Food grains:

i) 100 gram per child per day for children in Bal Vatika and primary classes.
ii) 150 gram per child per day for children in Upper primary classes and NCLP
schools.
iii) The cost of food grains is borne entirely by the Central Government. At
present Rs 3 per kg for rice, Rs 2 per kg for wheat and Rs 1 per kg for
coarse grains is provided to States and UTs as per the prevailing rates
under NFSA, 2013. The Department of Food & Public Distribution, Govt of
India bears the subsidy portion on the food grains.
3.2 Material cost
Material cost covers expenditure on pulses, vegetables, cooking oils,

condiments, fuel etc. The cooking cost is Rs 5.45 per child per day for
children in Bal Vatika and primary classes and Rs 8.17 per child per day for
children in Upper primary classes and NCLP schools w.e.f. 1stOctober, 2022.
The material cost is periodically revised by the Central Government.
3.3 Cook-cum-Helpers
One cook-cum-helper can be engaged for up to 25 students, two cook-cum-
helpers for schools with 26 to 100 students and one additional cook-cum-
helper for every addition of up to 100 students. Each of these Cook-cum-
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helpers is paid a minimum honorarium of Rs 1,000 per month. The States are
however free to give more honorarium over and above the prescribed
minimum to the cooks-cum-helpers from their own resources.
3.4 Transportation Assistance
Rate of Transportation assistance is as per PDS rate prevailing in State / UT,

for transportation of food grains from FCI godown to school door steps. This
is restricted to a maximum of Rs 1500 per MT for States and UTs other than
NER and 2 Himalayan States and 2 UTs.
3.5 Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (MME)

Funds for MME comprise of 3% of aggregate of cost of food grains, cooking
cost, Honorarium to Cook-cum-Helpers and Transportation Assistance. 90%
of this is released to States and UTs and remaining 10% are utilized as
national component.
State shall earmark 50% of the funds released under MME for school level
expenditure. Remaining 50% funds may be judiciously apportioned at State,
district and block levels.
3.6 Kitchen-cum-Stores
The norms for construction of kitchen cum stores are as per plinth area norm
and State Schedule of Rates. A 20 sq meter kitchen-cum-store may be
constructed for school having enrolment of 100 students. Additional 4 sq
metre may be added for every addition of up to 100 students. The slab of 100
students may be modified by the States / UTs depending upon local
conditions. In one State / UT, there can be more than one slab, however, the
modified prescription of plinth area have to conform to the above ceiling.
3.7 Kitchen devices- Procurement and replacement
States and UTs have the flexibility to incur expenditure on Cooking devices
(Stove, Chulha); Containers for storage of food grains and other ingredients;
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Utensils for cooking and serving etc. on the basis of the actual requirements
of the schools under the component of kitchen devices. There is a provision of
replacement of these kitchen devices after 5 years from the date of sanction.
Norm for procurement of kitchen devices is linked with enrolment as per the
details given below:
Enrolment (No. of Children) per Unit Cost (In Rs)

school
Up to 50 10,000
51-150 15,000
151-250 20,000
251 & above 25,000
3.8 Repair of kitchen-cum-stores
Rs 10,000/- per kitchen-cum-store, for the kitchen-cum-stores, which were

constructed 10 years ago with estimates based on State Schedule of Rates
(SoR). However, in case of unconventional items, which are not covered
under SoR, the rates would be approved by the State Level Steering cum
Monitoring Committee.
3.9 Innovation / Flexibility
Five percent of the aggregate of the cost of food grains, cooking cost,
transport assistance, honorarium to cook-cum-helpers and MME with no
separate additional budgetary support for this component. The requirement of
funds under this component will be met from available funds and
implemented as per Department of Expenditure’s OM No. 55(5)/PF-II/2011
dated 06.09.2016.
3.10 Provision of meals during summer vacation in drought affected areas and
during closure of schools in disaster affected areas.
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4. Financial Management under the scheme
4.1 Release mechanism- Conditions of releases
The recurring central assistance under the scheme was released in two
instalments in the ratio of 60% and 40% of the approval of Programme
Approval Board – PM POSHAN. Till 2021-22, the first instalment was bi-
furcated into two parts i.e. ad-hoc release and balance of first instalment. The
ad-hoc release was made @ 25% of the PAB approval for the number of
children and working days in the month of April of each financial year in order
to ensure uninterrupted implementation of the scheme without asking for any
information on the unspent balance as on 1st April from the previous year’s
releases with the States and UTs. As per the instructions of Ministry of
Finance regarding use of new procedure of release of funds under PFMS,
there will be no ad-hoc release and no revalidation of funds. As the amount
lying with the SNA at the closure of financial year may be used in the next
Financial year without the need for any revalidation. However, if any amount
of the central funds released during the financial year is still remaining with
the State treasury, which has not been transferred to the SNA, the same will
be returned to the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) through RBI Advice.
4.2 Expenditure Sharing pattern

Sharing pattern
Central Government provides 100% assistance for
i) Cost of food grains,
ii) Transportation Assistance,
iii) Management, Monitoring & Evaluation (MME), and
Assistance is shared between the Centre and States/UTs as per the approved
funding pattern of 90:10 for North Eastern Region (NER) States and 2
Himalayan States and UT of J&K, 100% for Union Territories without
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Legislature and 60:40 for other States as well as 2 Union Territories with
Legislature (Delhi and Puducherry).
i) Cooking cost,
ii) Honorarium to cook-cum-helpers and
iii) Construction of kitchen-cum-stores
iv) Kitchen Devices
v) Repair of kitchen-cum-stores
4.3 Release of 1st Instalment
As approved by the CCEA, the recurring central assistance under the scheme
will be released in two instalments of 60% and 40% as per the PAB- PM
POSHAN approvals. The first instalment of 60% (after adjusting the funds
available with SNA at the beginning of the financial year) will be released,
subject to submission of the following information / documents for the
preceding year by the State / UT :
i) Utilisation Certificate (UC) in the prescribed format of GFR-12C, duly

signed by the Secretary of the Nodal Department.
ii) Information of allocation, lifting and utilisation of food grains in the
prescribed format.
iii) Information of release of Central share, release of corresponding State
share and expenditure for the following recurring components :
a) Cost of Food grains
b) Material Cost (earlier known as cooking cost)
c) Honorarium to Cook-Cum-Helpers
d) Transportation Assistance
e) Management, Monitoring and Evaluation
f) Flexi component
iv) Interest accrued towards Central share in the account of State Nodal
Agency (SNA) is deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
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v) Entire amount of central share released to States/UTs till 31st March of
the previous year in full has been transferred to the SNA account. If
some amount is still remaining with the State treasury, which has not
been transferred to the SNA, the same will be returned to the
Consolidated Fund of India (CFI) through RBI Advice. However, the
amount lying with the SNA may be used in the next Financial year
without the need for any revalidation.
vi) Entire due State share against the Central share released in previous
year has been released by State Government from their treasury to SNA.
vii) Funds available in the SNA account including State share at the time of
release of funds should not be more than the instalment of Central share
likely to be released. In case of UT without legislature, Letter of
Authorisation (LoA) should be issued and the UT shall work directly in
PFMS without transferring fund to the SNA.
viii) State has utilised at least 75% of the funds released (both Central share
as well as corresponding State share in the prescribed ratios).
ix) Mapping of 100% Implementing Agencies (IA) with the SNA.
x) Separate budget line for central as well as state share under PM
POSHAN Scheme has been opened in the State’s Detailed Demand for
Grants (DDG).
xi) Any other information / document as and when sought by the
Department of School Education & Literacy.
4.4 Release of 2nd Instalment
The 2nd instalment of remaining 40% of the PAB-PM POSHAN’s approval will
be released subject to submission of the following information / documents
for the current year by the State / UT:
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i) Information of release of Central share, release of corresponding State
share and expenditure for the following recurring components :
a) Cost of Food grains
b) Material Cost (earlier known as cooking cost)
c) Honorarium to Cook-Cum-Helpers
d) Transportation Assistance
e) Management, Monitoring and Evaluation
f) Flexi component
ii) Entire amount of central share released to State / UT during the current
financial year in full has been transferred to the SNA account.
iii) Entire due State share against the Central share released in current
financial year has been transferred from their treasury to SNA by State
Government.
iv) Interest: The Single Nodal Agency (SNA) in the State shall compute the
total interest earned out of the funds received in its account (both from
the Central Government and the State Government) in the preceding
financial year in the first week of April each year. The interest earned will
be apportioned by the SNA between the Central and the State
Government as per the approved funding pattern of the scheme and shall
be deposited in the respective Consolidated Funds.
v) Funds available in the SNA account including State share at the time of
likely to be released. In case of UT without legislature, Letter of
Authorisation (LOA) should be issued and the UT shall work directly in
PFMS without transferring fund to the SNA.
vi) State has utilised at least 75% of the funds released (both Central share
as well as corresponding State share).
vii) Mapping of 100% Implementing Agencies (IA) with the SNA.
viii) Any other information / document as and when sought by the Department
of School Education & Literacy.
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4.5 Release of central assistance for Non-recurring components:
Under PM POSHAN Central Assistance is released for i) Construction of

kitchen-cum-stores, ii) Procurement / Replacement of kitchen devices, and iii)
Repair of kitchen-cum-stores constructed 10 years ago. The central assistance
for these will be released subject to the following :
i) Utilisation Certificate (UC) of the previous central assistance released in

the prescribed format of GFR-12C, duly signed by the Secretary of the
Nodal Department.
ii) Information of release of Central share, release of corresponding State
share and expenditure for the component in the prescribed format.
iii) Information on Physical progress of earlier sanctioned units in the
prescribed format.
iv) Interest accrued towards Central share in the account of State Nodal
Agency (SNA) is deposited in the Consolidated Fund of India (CFI).
v) Entire amount of corresponding State share in full has been transferred
to the SNA account.
vi) Funds available in the SNA account including State share at the time of
likely to be released.
vii) State has utilised at least 75% of the funds released (both Central share
as well as corresponding State share).
viii) Separate budget line for central as well as state share under PM
POSHAN Scheme has been opened in the State’s Detailed Demand for
Grants (DDG).
ix) Any other information / document as and when sought by the
Department of School Education & Literacy.
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4.6 Release of funds on account of coverage of additional children and /
or additional working days in excess of PAB-PM POSHAN approvals.
The quantification of resources on the basis of approvals made by the

Programme Approval Board – PM POSHAN Scheme for a particular financial
year are only an estimate for release of Central Assistance and allocation of
food-grains during that particular financial year under the Scheme. The
National Food Security Act, 2013, Rules, Guidelines and Instructions issued
under the PM POSHAN Scheme from time to time, provide that every child
attending an eligible institution is to be covered under the Scheme and shall
be served hot cooked meals or provided with Food Security Allowance, as
applicable, on all school days.
However, during the year, if it is noticed by the State / UT that more funds
are needed to implement the Scheme, due to increase in the attendance of
children, increase in school working days or for any other reason, they may
approach Government of India during the year with justification seeking
additional Central Assistance and food grains. Similarly, if the Central
Government observes less coverage than the approvals, the actual releases
may be restricted to actual coverage.
At present, the release of funds under PM POSHAN Scheme is subject to the

guidelines contained in Department of Expenditure’s OM No.
1(13)/PFMS/FCD/2020 dated 23rd March, 2021 captioned ‘Procedure for
release under Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS) and monitoring utilization
of funds released’. This shall be governed by the instructions issued from time to
time by Department of Expenditure, Ministry of Finance, Govt. of India.
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5. Food grains Management
5.1 Allocation of Food grains

i) Under the scheme, the food grains/ fortified food grains are allocated
biannually by the Department of School Education and Literacy with the
concurrence of Department of Food and Public Distribution.
ii) The allocation of food grains, as approved by the PAB are made to the
State Nodal Department and the FCI. The payment of the cost of food
grains, which was earlier centralized at the National level, has been
decentralized with effect from 01.04.2010 to the district level to ensure
greater stake holding and role of the district authorities in ensuring
prompt lifting of food grains and timely payment to FCI, which has
resulted in reducing time lag in making payment to FCI.
iii) It is the responsibility of the FCI to ensure continuous availability of
adequate food grains in its Depots (and in Principal Distribution Centres in
the case of North East Region). It will allow lifting of food grains for any
month/quarter upto one month in advance so that supply chain of food
grains remains uninterrupted.
iv) FCI will issue food grains of best available quality, which will in any case
be at least of Fair Average Quality (FAQ). FCI has also appointed a Nodal
Officer for each State to take care of various problems in supply of food
grains under the Scheme.
v) The District Collector/CEO of Zila Panchayat will also ensure that food
grains of at least FAQ are issued by FCI after joint inspection by a team
consisting of FCI and the nominee of the Collector and/or Chief Executive
Officer, District Panchayat, and confirmation by them that the grain
conforms to at least FAQ norms.
vi) FCI will keep samples of such food grains supplied by it for future
verification and analysis; this will be available in case of any complaints
regarding the quality of food-grains supplied.
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5.2 Frequency of Allocation of food grains- Conditions of releases
i) The first six monthly allocation will be made in the 1st week of February of
the previous financial year on the basis of number of children and number
of school days approved by Programme Approval Board of PM POSHAN
(PAB - PM POSHAN)for the previous year.
ii) The second and final allocation of food grains will be made in the first
week of August after deducting the unspent balance available with the
States/UTs out of food grains allocated during the previous year and also
the allocation made for the first six months from the annual allocation
approved by PAB-PM POSHAN for the current year.
iii) To ensure timely final allocation of food grains by Government of India,

the States/UTs will send the utilisation certificate of the food grains
supplied under the scheme during the previous year latest by 30th June. In
the utilisation certificate, only the quantity actually consumed at the
school/cooking agency level will be indicated as utilized whatever remains
in their stores or godowns at school, cooking agency, Block and District
levels will be shown as unspent balance.
iv) On receiving allocation from the Government of India, the States/UTs will
make district-wise allocation of the food grains, in accordance with the
number of children and number of working days approved for that
particular district.
v) District administration will ensure that every consuming unit maintains a

buffer stock of food grains required for a month to avoid disruption due to
unforeseen exigencies.
5.3 Off take of food grains- Periodicity, lifting agency etc.

i) It will be the responsibility of the FCI to ensure continuous availability of
adequate quantity of good quality of food grains, which will be in any case
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not less than Fair Average Quality (FAQ), in its depots. FCI will appoint a
Nodal Officer for each State to take care of various problems in supply of
food grains under the scheme
ii) The District administration on receiving the allocation from the State/ UT
will send a schedule (periodicity and date/week) of lifting of food grains to
the local FCI Depot depending on its requirement, transportation
convenience and storage capacity. Districts can lift food grains on
monthly, bimonthly or quarterly basis as indicated in their schedule.
iii) The FCI will allow lifting of foodgrains as per the allocation of the State
Government and lifting schedule provided by the District administration
starting from 1st day of the month preceding the allocation quarter and
upto 25th of the last month of the allocation quarter. For example, the
validity period for lifting of foodgrains for the quarter beginning April, 2023
will be from 1st March, 2023 to 25th of June, 2023.
iv) FCI will not make any modification in the quantity to be lifted.
v) The District administration and the FCI Depot will ensure that no lifting is
done in excess of the allocated quantity.
5.4 Quality of food grains- FAQ, joint inspection at the time of lifting,
Maintenance, Storage
i) The District Collector/CEO of Zila Panchayat will ensure that food grains of
at least FAQ are received from FCI Depot after Joint inspection by a team
consisting of FCI official and the nominee of the Collector and/or Chief
Executive Officer, District Panchayat and confirmation by them that the
food grain conforms to at least FAQ norms. The consignee receipt (in
triplicate) should be jointly signed by the in charge of FCI Depot and
nominee of District Collector One copy of the receipt will be retained by
the lifting official and another one is sent to District level paying authority
for its record.
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ii) The sample (in triplicate) of stocks proposed to be lifted will be drawn
jointly in the presence of the representatives of the State Government and
the FCI and the sample slips will be jointly signed and sealed. One such
sealed sample will be given to State Government representative, one will
be sent to FCI District Office and one will be retained at the depot.
iii) Samples of lifted food grains shall be retained for 3 months in token of
quality of grains received from FCI. In case any complaint of low quality of
food grains is received within this period, these samples can be used to
ascertain the veracity of the complaint.
iv) The process followed at the time of receipt of foodgrains from FCI depots
should be repeated at each level till the foodgrains reach the end user to
ensure that only good quality foodgrains is delivered for consumption by
children.
5.5 Payment of Cost of food grains
i) FCI will raise the bills pertaining to supply of foodgrains during a month to
the District administration by the 10th day of the next month in the
prescribed format and the District administration will ensure payment
within 20 days.
ii) State Government will nominate an officer who will be responsible for
receiving the bills submitted by FCI and ensuring payment to it in time. FCl
will intimate its account number and mode of receiving of payment to the
nodal officer who should be made responsible for payment.
iii) For the purpose of making payment to FCI in time, the States/UTs will
make adequate provision in its budget keeping in view the annual
requirement of funds for this purpose and release the same in advance to
the districts. The Govt. of India shall also release the funds to States/UTs
in advance as soon as the budget is passed.
iv) It has been observed that in several States/UTs, it takes around 2-3
months for the funds to reach the district level. In such an event, payment
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to FCI may get delayed for want of funds leading to disruption in the
scheme. In order to avoid such a situation, State Government should
authorize the district administration to draw money under the relevant
Treasury Rule (usually TR-27) to make payment to FCI for supply of food
grains under the scheme in case no budget is available. This payment will
be adjusted after receipt of budget by the districts. However, in the light
of new system for release of funds under PFMS, States may issue
appropriately suitable revised instructions.
5.6 Monitoring System
i) A monthly meeting will be held by the District administration with FCI

District Manager or his representative and all other concerned officials in
the last week of the month to resolve all the issues pertaining to lifting,
quality of food grains and payment and submit a report to the State
Headquarters by 7thof the next month.
ii) States/UTs will monitor the lifting, payment and quantity of food grains
sent to School/Cooking Agency on the 10 th of every month in a meeting
with the State nodal officer of the FCI and send a report to this
Department, by the 15th of every month.
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6. Quality and safety aspects under the scheme
The cooked meal should contain adequate nutrients and should be, palatable,
hygienic, and operationally feasible. These food safety guidelines are for
school level kitchens only, where the meal is cooked for children. Quality
assurance of the meal and food safety should be an integral part of food
handling procedures at the school kitchen. The food provided through these
kitchens should be nutritious, free from food adulterants, contamination
pathogens, artificial non food grade colours, and additives and adhere to food
safety and quality norms. Food safety encompasses selection, handling,
preparation, and storage of food in ways that prevent food borne illness and
contamination. This includes a number of routines that should be followed to
avoid potentially severe health hazards.
Food contamination refers to the presence in food of harmful chemicals
and microorganisms which lead to illness. The types of contaminants can be
categorised as under:
a) Biological contaminant: includes bacteria, yeasts, moulds, viruses or
parasites that are present in air, food, water, soil, animals and humans
etc.
b) Physical contaminant: Foreign bodies in food are usually due to
accidental contamination and / or poor handling practices these are
visible particles like pebbles.
c) Chemical contaminant: Includes Chemicals used for cleaning and
sanitizing food contact surfaces; Pest control chemicals, paints and water
treatment chemicals; Pesticides, fertilizers, fungicides.
6.1 Lifting and transportation of food grains
i. As mandated under scheme, food grains are provided by Food

Corporation of India. Food grains are to be allocated bi-annually by the
Department of School Education & Literacy with the concurrence of
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Department of Food and Public Distribution for primary and upper primary
school level separately. FCI is to ensure continuous availability of
adequate quantity of food grains, which will be in any case not less than
of Fair Average Quality (FAQ) in its Depots. FCI will appoint a Nodal
Officer for each State to take care of various problems in supply of food
grains under the scheme.
ii. The sample (in triplicate) of stocks proposed to be lifted will be drawn
jointly in the presence of the representatives of the Collector and/or Chief
Executive Officer, District Panchayat and the FCI and the sample slips will
be jointly signed and sealed. One such sealed sample will be given to
State Government representative, one will be sent to FCI District Office
and one will be retained at the depot.
iii. Samples of lifted food grains shall be retained for 3 months in token of
quality of grains received from FCI. In case any complaint of low quality of
food grains is received within this period, these samples can be used to
ascertain the veracity of the complaint
6.2 Procurement of oil, pulses and condiments
i. Only packed dals, salt, spices, condiments and oil with AGMARK quality
symbol should be purchased. Any ingredient being sold loose should never
be bought. The packaging and expiry date of the ingredients should be
checked.
ii. Only “double fortified salt” should be used for cooking meals. Food grains
should be stored in standard bins while, plastic food grade containers are
ideal for storage of dals, spices, condiments and other ingredients.
6.3 Procurement of perishable raw material
i. Vegetable, fruits and perishable food commodities should be procured

fresh and storing for longer time/duration should be avoided.
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ii. Perishable items should not be stored in plastic bags as these get spoilt
quickly due to lack of transpiration. Such items have to be stored away
from sunlight, in a cool place.
iii. Zero energy cool chambers are a low cost alternative to store horticulture
produce. This is an on-farm storage chamber, for fresh fruits, vegetables
to extend their marketability. Due to their high moisture content fruits and
vegetables have very short life and are liable to spoil. The zero energy
cool chambers can be constructed easily with materials like brick, sand,
bamboo, khaskhas/straw, gunny bag etc. The chamber can keep the
temperature 10-150 C cooler than the outside temperature and maintain
about 90% relative humidity. It is most effective during the summer.
iv. Storage of raw materials, ingredients should be subject to FEFO (First
Expire First Out) or FIFO (First in, First Out) stock rotation system as
applicable. Containers made of non-toxic materials should be provided for
storage of raw materials. The food materials shall be stored on racks /
pallets such that they are reasonably well above the floor level and away
from the wall so as to facilitate effective cleaning and prevent harbouring
of any pests, insects or rodents.
v. No raw material or ingredient should be accepted if it is known to contain
parasites, undesirable micro-organisms, pesticides, veterinary drugs or
toxic items, decomposed or extraneous substances, which would not be
reduced to an acceptable level by normal sorting and/or processing.
vi. All raw materials, food additives and ingredients, wherever applicable,
should conform to all the regulations and standards laid down under the
relevant laws.
vii. All raw materials should be physically checked & thoroughly cleaned. Raw
materials should be purchased in quantities that correspond to storage/
preservation capacity. Packaged raw material must be checked for 'expiry
date'/ 'best before'/ 'use by' date, packaging integrity and storage
conditions.
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6.4 Storage of raw material
i. The supply of food grains like wheat and rice should not be stored for
more than a quarter; they may be stored in airtight bins or stacked neatly
in gunny bags or bins and stored in area free of rodents and insects. Food
grain should not be stored directly on the ground; a wooden plank should
be used for stacking of food grains.
ii. In respect of storage of other raw materials, it should be stored in bags,
should be away from the walls (about one feet) to avoid absorption of
moisture; the height of the wooden plank may be at least 8 to 12 cms
above the floor.
iii. Ingredients like double fortified salt, condiments, oils soya bean, pulses
etc. should be stored in airtight containers.
iv. All containers should be of materials that do not impart toxicity to food.
These containers should be cleaned at regular intervals and thoroughly
dried before use. It should be ensured that ingredients used for cooking
such as food grains, pulses, vegetables, cooking oil and condiments, are
free from adulteration, contaminants, pest and infestation.
v. All stored raw materials and ingredients must be kept under dry &cool and
ventilated conditions that will prevent spoilage, protect against
contamination by pathogenic microorganisms, insects, rodents, foreign
bodies, chemicals and damage. This implies that food and non-food
materials should not be stored in the same area and not all food materials
can be stored together because of risk of contamination.
vi. Storage of fuels, disinfectants, detergents, cleaning agents should be
strictly away from the stored raw materials and under lock and key.
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6.5 Food Safety Measures:
6.5.1 Food Safety measures during preparation
i) The cereals and pulses should be manually cleaned before cooking to

remove any extraneous matter.
ii) ‘Single Dish Meals’ using broken wheat or rice and incorporating some
amount of a pulse or soya beans, a seasonal vegetable/green leafy
vegetable, and some amount of edible oil will save both time and fuel
besides being nutritious.
iii) Cereal pulse combination is necessary to have good quality protein. The
cereal pulse ratio could range from 3:1 to 5:1.Sprouted pulses have more
nutrients and should be incorporated in single dish meals.
iv) Leafy vegetables when added to any preparation should be thoroughly
washed before cutting and should not be subjected to washing after
cutting.
v) For chopping vegetables a clean chopping board should be used.
6.5.2 Food Safety Measures during Cooking
i. Recipes requiring fermentation and sprouted pulses lead to increase in

nutrition value and accordingly should be considered as an option in the
menu.
ii. Cooking must be done with the lid on to avoid loss of nutrients and
contamination.
iii. The containers should be checked for its cleanliness.
iv. Temperature of the meal when served should be maintained at 65°C.
Microorganisms multiply at a fast pace when the food is kept at
temperature between 5°C and 60°C which represents the danger zone
due to thermophilic and thermoduric nature. Therefore, food should be
served to children immediately after being cooked.
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v. Vegetarian and non-vegetarian items should be segregated. Fridge
wherever available should be cleaned at least once a week to remove
stains, ice particles and food particles. The temperature in the fridge
should be in the range of 4°C - 6°C
vi. Requisite number of CCHs should be deputed at school level for the
distribution of food from centralized kitchen for the distribution of meals
with proper gear (gloves, apron and caps etc).
vii. The school management should be encouraged to draw on the support of
the community. Gram Panchayats and School Management
Committees/Village Education Committees may be approached for
involving community members in regular inspections, on a rotation basis,
to help the school management in ensuring efficient quality cooking,
serving and cleaning operations. Support of the community members,
including mothers’ groups, should also be solicited to ensure that children
wash their hands with soap before eating, use clean plates and glasses,
avoid littering and wastage of food, and rinse their hands and mouth after
eating.
6.6 Tasting of the meals by teacher
The tasting of the food by a teacher just before serving is mandatory. The
teacher is to maintain a record of tasting in a register. SMC member should
also taste the food on a rotation basis along with the teachers before it is
distributed to the children.
6.7 Testing of meals
Hot cooked meal provided to children shall be evaluated and certified by the
Government Food Research Laboratory or any laboratory accredited or
recognized by law, so as to ensure that the meal meets with the nutritional
standards and quality specified in Schedule II to the Act. The Food and Drugs
Administration Department of the State may also collect samples to ensure
the nutritive value and quality of the meals. The Department shall collect the
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samples at least once in a month from randomly selected schools or
centralised kitchens and send such samples for examination to these
laboratories. In case of the samples do not meet the prescribed standards,
appropriate remedial action shall be taken.
6.8 Cleaning of cooking areas
The floors of kitchen and the slabs should be cleaned every day before and
after the food is cooked. Special attention should be paid to the cleaning of
obstructed sites including cooking areas and at the junction of floors and
walls. The cooking areas must be kept cleaned at all times. It is important
that surfaces in direct contact with food must be both clean and dry before
use. Cracks, rough surfaces, open joints etc. must be repaired as soon as
possible.
6.9 Cleaning of utensils, equipment and other materials
i. Cleaning accessories such as clothes, mops and brushes carry a very high
risk of cross contamination. They must therefore be thoroughly washed,
cleaned and dried after use. Cleaning accessories used in the cooking
area/packing area should not be used in other parts of the kitchen. Sun
drying of the cleaning accessories in a clean and tidy place should be done.
ii. Tables, benches and boxes, cupboards, glass cases, etc. shall be clean and
tidy. Cooking utensils and crockery should be clean and in good condition.
These should not be broken/ chipped.
iii. Utensils should be cleaned of debris, rinsed, scrubbed with detergent and
washed under running tap water after every operation. Wiping of utensils
should be done with clean cloth. Clean cloths should be used for wiping
hands and for clearing surfaces. Cloth used for floor cleaning should not be
used for cleaning surfaces of tables and working areas and for wiping
utensils. Dust or crumb from plates or utensils should be removed into
dustbin by using cloth or wiper.
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iv. Accessories and containers that come in contact with food and used for
food handling, storage, preparation and serving should be made of
corrosion free materials which do not impart any toxicity to the food
material and should be easy to clean and /or disinfect.
v. Equipment and utensils used in the preparation of food should be kept at
all times in good order and repair and in a clean and sanitary condition.
Such utensil or container should not be used for any other purpose.
vi. Every utensil or container containing any food or ingredient of food should
at all times be either provided with a properly fitted cover/lid or with a
clean gauze net or other material of texture sufficiently fine to protect the
food completely from dust, dirt and flies and other insects.
6.10 Personal hygiene, cleanliness and health check-ups of Cook cum

Helpers
i. Cooks and helpers should maintain a high degree of personal hygiene and
cleanliness.
ii. The person suffering from infectious disease should not be permitted to
work. Biannual health checks up should be undertaken to ensure fitness
for the job of CCH. Cooks/helpers should report immediately to their
supervisors, if they are suffering from any disease likely to be transmitted
via food, e.g. diarrhoea or vomiting, infected wounds like, skin infections,
jaundice or sores.
iii. All food handlers should remain clean, wear washed clothes and keep
their finger nails trimmed, clean and wash their hands with soap/
detergent and water before commencing work and every time after
touching, raw or contaminated food or using toilet. All Cook cum helpers
should avoid wearing loose items that might fall into food and also avoid
touching or scratching their face, head or hair.
iv. It should be ensured that all CCHs are instructed and trained in food
hygiene and food safety aspects along with personal hygiene
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requirements commensurate with their work activities, the nature of food,
its handling, preparation, service and distribution. Training programmes
should be regularly reviewed and updated wherever necessary.
v. Nail polish or artificial nails should not be worn because they can become
foreign bodies and may compromise on food safety. No watches, rings,
jewellery and bangles should be worn during cooking, serving and
distribution where there is a danger of contamination of product.
vi. Chewing, smoking, spitting and nose blowing should be prohibited within
the premises especially while handling food.
vii. The CCHs should have adequate and suitable clean protective clothing,
head covering hair should be tied up neatly and ensured that the CCHs at
work wear only clean protective clothes and head covering essentially
during operation.
viii. The CCHs should wash their hands at least each time work is resumed and
whenever contamination of their hands has occurred; e.g. after coughing /
sneezing, visiting toilet, using telephone, smoking etc; avoid certain hand
habits - e.g. scratching nose, running finger through hair, rubbing eyes,
ears and mouth, scratching beard, scratching parts of bodies etc.- that are
potentially hazardous when associated with handling food products, and
might lead to food contamination through the transfer of bacteria from the
employee to product during its preparation. When unavoidable, hands
should be effectively washed before resuming work after such actions.
6.11 Pest Control
i. Cleanliness is essential for effective control of all pests (mainly rodents,

birds, and insects). Wire mesh screens, for example on open windows,
doors and ventilators will reduce the problem of pest entry.
ii. Generally no pesticides/insecticides should be encouraged or used in
cooking area. However if unavoidable, care must be taken to protect
people, food, equipment and utensils from contamination before these are
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applied. Pesticides should always be kept in its original containers, clearly
marked and be stored in a locked storage separate from cooking
ingredients storage areas. Records of pesticides / insecticides used along
with dates and frequency should be maintained.
iii. Kitchen and the store area should be kept clean and tidy to prevent pest
access and to eliminate potential breeding sites. Holes, drain covers and
other places where pests are likely to gain access should be kept in sealed
condition or fitted with mesh / grills / claddings or any other suitable
means as required and animals, birds and pets should not be allowed to
enter into the food storage and cooking area. The school maintenance
grant made available under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan may be used for
this purpose.
iv. Adequate arrangements including installation of fire extinguishers should
be made to deal with incidents of accidental fire in the kitchen area of the
school.
6.12 Hand-Washing for Children
i. There should be a dedicated time within the daily time table that will allow
enough time for all children, cooks and teachers in the school to wash
their hands with soap. The hand washing of the children should be
supervised and monitored vigorously.
ii. Hand wash with soap before and after eating should be vigorously
promoted. The schools may define an area for hand washing where very
simple scalable and cost effective multiple hand washing facilities can be
installed to be used by large groups of children at a time. Empty plastic
bottles can be filled with liquid soap and diluted with water. 20-30 plastic
bottles filled with diluted hand wash liquid can be used for approximately
200 children for hand washing.
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iii. Wherever proper hand washing facilities are either not available or
inadequate for all children, buckets and mugs can be used to supplement
the available facilities.
6.13 Infrastructural requirements for Food Safety And Hygiene
Guidelines for Safety and hygiene of Kitchen-cum-Store
i. The Kitchen cum Store should be located in a clean and open place and
free from filthy surroundings and should maintain overall hygienic
environment.
ii. The premises should be clean, adequately lighted and ventilated and
have sufficient free space for movement.
iii. Floors, ceilings and walls must be maintained in a sound condition. They
should be smooth and easy to clean with no flaking paint or plaster.
iv. The floor and skirted walls should be washed as per requirement with an
effective disinfectant. The premises should be kept free from all insects.
No spraying should be done during the cooking of Meal, but instead fly
swats/ flaps should be used to kill flies getting into the premises.
Windows, doors and other openings should be fitted with net or screen,
as appropriate to make the premise insect free. The water used in the
cooking shall be potable.
v. Continuous supply of potable water should be ensured in the premises.
In case of intermittent water supply, adequate storage arrangement for
water used in food or washing should be made.
vi. Arrangements for cleaning of containers, tables, working parts of
machinery, etc. should be provided.
vii. All utensils should be kept clean, washed, dried and stored at the
Kitchen cum store to ensure freedom from growth of mold/ fungi and
infestation.
viii. All utensils should be placed well away from the walls to allow proper
inspection.
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ix. There should be efficient drainage system and there should be adequate
provisions for disposal of refuse.
x. Potential sources of contamination like rubbish, waste water, toilet
facilities, open drains and stray animals should be kept away from
kitchen.
xi. Kitchen should be separate from classrooms, preferably located at a
safe, but accessible distance. The current norm for a kitchen shed is 20
sq.m of floor space for every 100 children enrolled and thereafter 4 sq.
m for every additional 100 children.
xii. As far as possible, the layout of the kitchen should be such that food
preparation/processes are not amenable to cross-contamination from
washing vegetables/cereals/Pulses/ etc). Floors, ceilings and walls must
be maintained in a sound condition to minimize the accumulation of dirt,
condensation and growth of undesirable moulds.
xiii. Floors should be sloped appropriately to facilitate drainage and the
drainage should flow in a direction opposite to the direction of food
preparation. Adequate control measures should be in place to prevent
insects and rodents from entering the processing area from drains.
Windows, doors & all other openings to outside environment should
preferably be covered with wire-mesh or insect proof screen as
applicable to protect the premise from flies and other insects / pests /
animals.
xiv. Ventilation systems natural and /or mechanical including air filters,
exhaust fans, wherever required, should be designed and constructed so
that air does not flow from contaminated areas to clean areas.
xv. A display board mentioning do's & don'ts for the CCHs should be put up
inside at a prominent place in the premise in local language for
everyone's understanding.
xvi. Properly constructed chimneys are required in the kitchens. Chimneys
should not be the entry point of insects; reptile’s etc. Fuel (kerosene/fuel
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wood/ charcoal/LPG) should be stored/installed safely, so that there is
no fire hazard. Smokeless chulhas should be used to the extent possible.
The Kitchen should have full visibility with sunlight or artificial light.
xvii. If kerosene/gas is used for cooking, the CCHs should be specifically
trained in safe handling of stoves, gas cylinders, etc. Raised platform for
cooking, adequate light, proper ventilation and arrangement for
drainage and waste disposal. The dustbin should have a lid and should
be always covered.
xviii. The Right to free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act 2009 provide the
legal framework for the quality education in India and mandates
minimum norms and standards for infrastructure in schools including
kitchen cum store.
6.14 Water supply
i. Continuous supply of potable water should be ensured in the premises.

In case of intermittent water supply, adequate storage arrangement for
water used in food or washing should be made. Water used for cleaning,
washing and preparing food should be potable in nature.
ii. Water storage tanks, if available, should be cleaned periodically and
records of the same should be maintained. Non potable water can be
used provided it is intended only for cleaning of equipment not coming
in contact with food.
iii. Non potable water pipes should be clearly distinguished from those in
use for potable water.
6.15 Testing of Water
In the kitchens of bore water/tap water/hand-pump water is being used (in

general) for cooking, drinking and washing. Water needs to be tested for
chemical as well as microbiological contamination. The testing of water can
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be done in convergence with the concerned water supply/Public Health
Engineering departments of the States/UTs.
6.16 Drainage and Waste Disposal
i. Adequate drainage, waste disposal systems and facilities should be

provided and they should be designed and constructed in such manner
so that the risk of contaminating food or the potable water supply is
eliminated. Waste storage should be located in such manner that it does
not contaminate the food process, storage areas, the environment inside
and outside the kitchen and waste should be kept in covered containers
and removed at regular intervals. Periodic disposal of the refuse/ waste
should be made compulsory.
ii. Waste material generated during the cooking of food should be kept in a
separate container of adequate size with a proper cover preferably one
which need not be touched to open should be provided in the premises
for collection of food waste material. This should be emptied and
washed and dried daily before next use.
6.17 Food serving area
If the meals are served in a dining room, or school veranda/class room or a

hall in the schools, this should be spacious enough, well ventilated and with
windows having wire mesh. The room should be cleaned every day before
the school starts functioning.
6.18 Disaster management plan/Contingency measures
The States and UTs shall also develop dedicated mechanism for public
grievance redressal, which should be widely publicized and made easily
accessible (like toll free call facility etc.). The important phone no. viz.,
Primary health Centre, Hospital, fire brigade, police Station may be painted on
the wall of the school building at a place visible to all.
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7 School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens
Most people are familiar with the critical importance of learning a lifelong skill.
Setting up a School Nutrition Garden (also called Kitchen Garden) seeks to
achieve a similar goal as it is both a place and an activity where children learn
the skill of growing their own food.
7.1 The concept of a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens has the following
features:
i) Teaching students that a Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden can actually be set

up anywhere, even in a School in a crowded urban area. This learning is
critical because most people feel that a Nutrition Garden requires a large
plot of vacant land. However, the fact is that healthy vegetables, fruits
etc. can be grown in pots and containers on terraces, roofs or even in
the entrance area of the School. Climbing varieties such as the snake
gourd can be cultivated as they will creep up the walls and need no land
at all.
ii) Teaching students that, with a few exceptions, every part of the
vegetable or fruit can be eaten. In many parts of the country, different
parts of vegetables such as the flowers, the leaves, and the stems, are
all eaten. For example while banana flowers are considered a delicacy in
some cuisines, papaya leaves are in the limelight for their medicinal
properties. Thus, instead of throwing all leaves and stems away children
should be encouraged that most parts of the vegetable and fruit can be
eaten, and to include these in their diets. Cooking competitions should
accordingly be organized to support cooks in the Pradhan Mantri Poshan
Shakti Nirman Scheme to come up with innovative recipes using all parts
of vegetables.
iii) Teaching students to think out of the box and find a way. No land
available in the school? Not enough rainfall? Let these not be reasons
not to start Nutrition Gardens. Children should be encouraged to work
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actively in their School Eco-Clubs to identify local species which are best
suited to local conditions of topography, land and climate and also
identify different ways to provide water such as simple methods of drip
irrigation. Schools can invite local experts and farmers to share their
expertise with the children. The focus should be on finding innovative
solutions.
iv) Teaching students to follow the same learning and start a School
Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden in their own homes. The purpose of setting
up such a Kitchen Garden in Schools is to give students a lifelong skill
and to encourage them to go home and start their own garden, in
whatever space is available using their knowledge learnt in School.
v) The MoE has asked all schools both in rural and urban areas to develop
and maintain a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden with teachers,
students, parents and even local residents being involved. Technical
assistance, training, provision of seeds, sapling, organic manure etc can
be obtained in convergence with various line departments/agencies like
Krishi Vigyan Kendras, Department of Agriculture/Horticulture, Food &
Nutrition Board, State Agriculture Universities, Forest Department etc.
Moreover, activities like construction of boundary wall, levelling of land
etc can be taken up under MGNREGA.
vi) Working in the open and cultivating their own food is one of the finest
examples of experiential learning for school children and the benefits of
setting up these gardens in schools are manifold. The joy of watching
something they have planted is untold and students learn about
responsibilities, about learning to care for living organisms, teamwork,
social skills and about healthy food alternatives. These activities can also
be used for numeracy skills including measurement, areas and volumes,
data gathering and presentation.
vii) Plantation in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden may be carried out
under the activities of Eco-Clubs, which is being set up in every school.
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An Eco-Club is a group of children and teachers in schools who work to
contribute towards improving environmental conditions. Eco-Clubs in
schools shall empower students to participate and take up meaningful
environmental conservation activities and projects.
7.2 Objectives of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden
The main objectives of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden are as follows:
i) To help in addressing malnutrition & micro nutrient deficiencies by

consumption of freshly grown vegetables.
ii) To give children first-hand experience with nature and gardening.
iii) To enhance the knowledge of children regarding nutritional aspects of
vegetables and harmful effects of junk food.
7.3 Need and benefits of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens:
School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens have many advantages; some of them are
as under:
i) Good for learning: School Nutritional (Kitchen) Gardens are good for
learning: they are highly practical and a direct form of education, where
children can learn how to grow good food, which not only improves
health, but also provides opportunities for livelihood and increased self-
sufficiency. Apart from practical skills in agriculture and horticulture,
gardens are a living laboratory for the study of environmental issues and
life sciences.
ii) Essential for children’s health: These Gardens are good for children's
health and education: A good diet is essential for cognitive abilities which
help in learning. Children who eat well are likely to learn well. School
Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens are not just for food, but for better eating
and they can make a direct and immediate improvement in children's
diet. They can provide fruit and vegetables, rich in vitamins and minerals,
add nutritional value to Meals, increase the variety that is so important
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for health and growth, and help children to appreciate and enjoy this
variety.
iii) Improve environment: School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens improve the
environment: Respect for the immediate environment begins at home -
and also at School. The school grounds have elements of the natural
environment, the built environment and the social environment: earth,
plants and trees, insects and wildlife, sun and shade; water supply and
sanitation facilities, paths and fences, buildings and shelters; places for
recreation and study, social life and contacts with the outside world.
Children's awareness of these, and the way they learn to treat them, will
help them to grow into responsible adults.
iv) School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens are good for the earth: Organic
gardening conserves the soil, protects the environment and works with
nature rather than against it. It is a method of growing food that relies on
the earth's natural resources, such as land, sun, air, rainfall, plants,
animals and people. It uses natural methods to keep the soil fertile and
healthy and to control insects, pests and diseases. Organic methods can
help keep our water sources clean and free of chemicals. It is also safer
for children because there are no dangerous chemicals.
v) Good for child’s well-being: Children who are close to nature relate to it
as a source of wonder, joy, and awe. Wonder, rather than books, words,
or learning all the facts, provides the direction and impetus for
environmental education in early childhood. Environmental education
during the early years should be based on this sense of wonder and the
joy of discovery.
vi) Increases confidence in students: It is a forum through which students
can reach out to influence, engage their parents and neighbourhood
communities to promote sound environmental behavior. It will empower
students to explore environmental concepts and actions beyond the
confines of a syllabus or curriculum. While everyone, everywhere, asserts
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the importance of ‘learning to live sustainably,’ environment largely
remains a peripheral issue in the formal schooling system. Students of all
the Schools need to be encouraged to participate in the Eco- Club as an
active member.
7.4 Impact of Climate Change and how School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens will be
helpful:
i) There is overwhelming evidence that human activities are affecting the

climate and this has implications for human health.
ii) Role of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens in reducing the negative impact
of climate change: Plants, trees, vegetable and fruits play an important
role in reducing the harmful effects of climate change. Deforestation is
one of the major reasons why the quality of air has degraded to an all-
time low. The loss of trees and other vegetation can cause climate
change, desertification, soil erosion, fewer crops, flooding, increased
greenhouse gases in the atmosphere etc.
iii) According to scientists, planting of trees, vegetable and fruits is the
biggest and cheapest way to tackle the climate crisis. As trees grow, they
absorb and store the carbon dioxide emissions that are driving global
heating. Planting of new trees can help mitigate against climate change by
removing CO2 from the atmosphere. Combined with the sun's energy, the
captured carbon is converted into trunks, branches, roots and leaves via
the process of photosynthesis. It is stored in this "biomass" until being
returned back into the atmosphere, whether through natural processes or
human interference, thus completing the carbon cycle.
iv) The School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden is therefore not only good for the
School but it is also good for the environment because it reduces the
carbon footprint of food by decreasing the number of miles it takes to get
vegetables, fruits, legumes and pulses from the farm to school kitchen . If
plants, trees, vegetable and fruits are planted in the School Nutrition
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(Kitchen) Garden and at home, it will help store carbon from the
atmosphere into the soil.
v) Organic local vegetable and fruits that are in season may be planted in the
School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden rather than transporting food from far
away, whether by truck or jeep which uses fossil fuels for fuel and for
cooling to keep foods in transit from spoiling thereby increasing the
carbon footprints.
vi) Planting trees in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens shall be an
initiative towards reducing the harmful effects of climate change.
Development of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens in about 11.20 lakhs
Government and Government aided schools covered under the scheme
can have a significant positive impact on the climate.
7.5 Setting up of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden: Planning and

Monitoring
i) Set up Eco-Clubs in all Schools: The Eco Clubs established in the School
shall be headed by the Principal/Headmaster/Head Teacher. Preferably,
two teachers per School and one class in charge will assist in carrying out
activities. All the Students, teachers, and parents of the children may be
members of Eco Clubs. The Students Coordinator, in each class may
encourage the participation of students. The head of the Eco –Club shall
be responsible for execution of the activities of the Club with the help of
another Teacher. Plantation activities may be carried out under Eco-Club
activities.
ii) The Principal / Head teacher may be the team leader for establishment
and maintenance of the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens at School level
with the help of students, SMC members, and interested persons from
community through ‘Shram Daan’ etc. It is also a good idea to establish an
executive team of senior students who will be able to carry on the
activities without much supervision after training.
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iii) A committee may be formed at district level under the chairpersonship of
District Collector / CEO of Zilla Parishad with the following members:
a) District Collector / CEO of Zilla Parishad - Chairperson
b) KVK in-charge from the district
c) Representative from Forest Department
d) Representative from Rural Development,
e) Representative from Agriculture/Horticulture department
f) Child Development Project Officers.
g) District Education Officer - Convenor
iv) The District Magistrate may tie up with all schools for the setting up of
School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens in every School by converging with
concerned local departments, agencies and experts.
v) The place outside the School boundary may also be used for the School
Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden. As the involvement of children is the foremost
purpose, it does not matter even if the school has little space. Three or
four small beds (Kyaries) can make up a model School Nutrition (Kitchen)
Garden. In general, it is advised to choose crops, plants and trees that are
adapted to local conditions, easy to cultivate and fit into the School term
and are culturally accepted in the area. The produce should fit in with local
food habits. Most important of all is to have a supportive Head teacher
who fosters the interest of the whole school i.e., teachers, students,
members of School Management Committee, Parent-Teacher Association
etc.
vi) Under the ‘flexi fund component for innovative interventions’ in Pradhan
Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman, an amount of Rs 5000/- per School Nutrition
(Kitchen) Garden may be utilized for purchase of seeds, equipment,
compost etc. on sharing basis between Centre and States & UTs.
Moreover, as the power for implementing the scheme with minor
modifications from the existing guidelines has been delegated to District
Level Committee chaired by the District Magistrate, the committee may
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rationalize and allot funds on the basis of School specific requirement,
within the overall average of Rs 5000/- per School Nutrition (Kitchen)
Garden.
7.6 Planning and Monitoring of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens
i) Schools may consider each class putting in one to two hours a week, with
children taking on occasional extra responsibility for an extra half hour to
an hour a week on a voluntary basis or in rotation. Each class can work
separately from the others, with some coordination to avoid overlap. The
class can be divided into teams or groups which can work on their own
beds and also contribute to assigned tasks. This arrangement can foster
class pride. Individual students or small teams can specialize in particular
technical responsibilities, with impressive titles such as “Pump Engineer”,
“Tool Manager”, “Security Team” and “Compost King”.
ii) Children should be able to call on these “specialists” for information and
advice. It is very important to decide on a calendar of activities. It is vital
to incorporate the activities of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden – e.g.
when does the garden season begin and end, timings for different
activities, planting of vegetables etc. Children should inspect their crops
every day - on the way to class, during breaks, or going home.
Establishing this habit early in the year by leading the whole class out for
five minutes every morning will be very beneficial. Younger children can
observe and report orally; older students can collect measurements and
data to produce weekly reports to be kept in a portfolio or in their group’s
Garden File.
iii) Students may not be able to do all the work needed to establish a garden,
but they should be involved as much as possible. They can participate by
mapping and studying the site, discussing and researching supplies and
equipment needed, observing and recording garden works, guiding visitors
round the site and keeping families informed, studying garden layout and
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garden beds. Discussions may be carried out with SMC members and
community to decide on what measures to be taken to save School
Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden from chicken, birds, goats, wild pigs, buffalo,
monkeys etc
7.7 Preparing the site and layout:
i) Plain Terrain is most convenient. Steep slopes need terracing. Stones and
pebbles can be used for making walls. Tools may also be provided by
KVKs. Some schools manage without any tools or equipment of their own
at all.
ii) The main elements are beds, paths, plant nurseries, compost heaps and a
garden shed. Activities like construction of boundary wall, levelling of land
etc can be take up under MGNREGA. Good water supply provides an
opportunity to decide when to plant and when to harvest. If water is
scarce or expensive, measures like water conservation, drip irrigation may
be taken to optimise water use. Remember that plants need plenty of
sunlight (at least eight hours a day).
7.8 Composting
i) Compost is rich in nutrients. It is used, in gardens and organic farming.

The compost itself is beneficial for the land in many ways, including as a
soil conditioner, a fertilizer, addition of vital humus or humic acids, and as
a natural pesticide for soil. Compost is useful for erosion control, land and
stream reclamation, wetland construction, and as landfill cover.
ii) At the simplest level, the process of composting requires making a heap
of wet organic matter (also called green waste), such as leaves, grass,
and food scraps, and waiting for the materials to break down into humus
after a period of months.
iii) Composting is an aerobic method (meaning that it requires the presence
of air) of decomposing organic solid wastes. It can therefore be used to
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recycle organic material. Composting requires the following three
components: human management, aerobic conditions, development of
internal biological heat. Composting organisms require four equally
important ingredients to work effectively:
a) Carbon — for energy; the microbial oxidation of carbon produces
the heat, if included at suggested levels. High carbon materials
tend to be brown and dry.
b) Nitrogen — to grow and reproduce more organisms to oxidize the
carbon. High nitrogen materials tend to be green (or colorful, such
as fruits and vegetables) and wet.
c) Oxygen — for oxidizing the carbon, the decomposition process.
d) Water — in the right amounts to maintain activity without causing
anaerobic conditions.
7.9 Let the children prepare their vermicomposting pits:
Vermicomposting is a type of composting in which worms are used to convert

organic materials (usually wastes) into a humus-like material known as
vermin-compost. Vermicompost enhances plant growth, suppresses disease in
plants, increases porosity and microbial activity in soil, and improves water
retention and aeration. Vermicompost also benefits the environment by
reducing the need for chemical fertilizers and decreasing the amount of waste
going to landfills. Rules for Vermicomposting are as under:
i) The school children may be encouraged to carry out the activity.

ii) A bin made from untreated, non-aromatic wood may be used in the
School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens for vermicomposting.
iii) Children may be encouraged to prepare the pit with some form of
bedding, such as shredded paper, residues of cereals, pulses and peels of
vegetable and fruits from school kitchen and decaying leaves may be used
to fills the bin and mixes with a few handfuls of soil and the worms.
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iv) The vermicomposting process takes three to six months. The quality of the
compost depends on many factors. Let the school students explore what
they may be.
v) Earthworms are helpful in a vermicompost. There are two types of
earthworms namely burrowing and non-burrowing types. Red earthworm
species, like Eiseniafoetida, are most efficient in compost making. The
non-burrowing earthworms eat 10 percent soil and 90 percent organic
waste materials; these convert the organic waste into vermicompost faster
than the burrowing earthworms. They can tolerate temperatures ranging
from 0 to 40°C. The burrowing types of earthworms come onto the soil
surface only at night.
vi) Technical support regarding vermicomposting may also be obtained from
KVKs, State Agriculture/Horticulture departments.
7.10 Organic solid waste: green waste
Composting is a process for converting decomposable organic materials into

useful stable products. Therefore, landfill space can be used for other wastes
by composting these materials rather than dumping them on landfills. The
green waste from the school kitchens may be used to fill the land fill for
composting.
7.11 Water Harvesting
i) Water harvesting means capturing rain where it falls or capturing the run
off in the School or home and taking measures to keep that water clean
by not allowing polluting activities to take place in the catchment. Water
harvesting can be undertaken through a variety of ways.
ii) In general, water harvesting is the activity of direct collection of rainwater.
The rainwater collected can be stored for direct use or can be recharged
into the groundwater. Rain is the first form of water that we know in the
hydrological cycle, hence is a primary source of water for us. Rivers, lakes
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and groundwater are all secondary sources of water. In present times, we
depend entirely on such secondary sources of water. Water harvesting
means to appreciate the value of rain, and to make optimum use of the
rainwater at the place where it falls.
iii) The rain water may be stored in school and used to water the plants in
the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens. MoE has issued guidelines for
school children on how to save one litre of water per day. Various
methods and activities have been suggested to be carried out by school
children to use water judiciously.
7.12 Importance of Reuse and Recycling of Water:
i) If school/home water is recycled for use in one area, this means that the
school/home does not have to take water from other areas. When the
water is recycled, it makes it easy for places like the wetlands to keep
their water supplies. Reusing and recycling alternative water supplies is a
key part of reducing the pressure on water resources and the
environment.
ii) Helping the children to learn about the importance of reusing and
recycling water is of utmost importance and it may be one of the activities
to be carried out under the Eco-Clubs in schools.
iii) Letting children learn to Reuse and Recycle Water in School and at home:
Some of the suggested activities are listed below, which may be carried
out in school as well as in homes.
a) The water that is being used to wash fruits or vegetables is suitable
for reuse. This water can be used in School Nutrition (Kitchen)
Gardens.
b) Water used in boiling vegetables etc. shouldn’t be discarded. Instead,
once this water has cooled down, it may be used to water the garden
or for other purposes at school and home.
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c) Children should be encouraged that while doing laundry or washing
hands, the water that usually goes down the drain should be
redirected for other purposes at home and school. For example, water
draining from the laundry can be diverted to flush the toilet.
d) If a water bottle has been in the fridge for too long or water in
kitchen at home is kept for too long, and you do not wish to drink it,
then go to the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden and feed a thirsty
plant with it.
7.13 Drip Irrigation for School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens:
i) Drip irrigation is a type of micro-irrigation system that has the potential to

save water and nutrients by allowing water to drip slowly to the roots of
plants, either from above the soil surface or buried below the surface. The
goal is to place water directly into the root zone and minimize evaporation.
Drip irrigation systems distribute water through a network of valves, pipes,
tubing, and emitters. Water and nutrients are delivered across the garden
in pipes called ‘dripperlines’ featuring smaller units known as ‘drippers’.
Each dripper emits drops containing water and fertilizers, resulting in the
uniform application of water and nutrients direct to each plant's root zone,
across an entire field.
ii) Depending on how well designed, installed, maintained, and operated it is,
a drip irrigation system can be more efficient than other types of irrigation
systems, such as surface irrigation or sprinkler irrigation. With the
technical support from KVKs and the local Horticulture/Agriculture
Department a drip irrigation system may be put in place in Schools.
iii) Drip Irrigation is an efficient and simple way to grow plants and the major
benefits are as under:
 Higher consistent quality yields
 Huge water savings: no evaporation, no run off, no waste
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 100% land utilization - drip irrigates uniformly in any topography and
soil type
 Energy savings: drip irrigation works on low pressure
 Efficient use of fertilizer and crop protection.
 Less dependency on weather, greater stability and lower risks
7.14 Involvement of children in drip irrigation
i) Under the activities of Eco-Club children can calculate the water used to
irrigate the plants in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden through
traditional methods and the amount of water used via drip irrigation.
ii) This activity will enable the Students to learn the actual requirement of
water in cultivating plants, and therefore how to save water.
7.15 Using the water from the School kitchen in the School Nutrition
(Kitchen) Garden:
i) The water used in the kitchen for washing the cereals and pulses may be
utilized to water the plants in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden.
Students should be encouraged to start this practise in their own homes
also.
ii) Methods may also be developed to store the water used in kitchen for
future use in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden if required.
7.16 Support from Experts of the Krishi Vigyan Kendras
i) Krishi Vigyan Kendras work under the Indian Council of Agriculture

Research. Presently, over 700 KVKs are functional under the jurisdiction of
various Agricultural Technology Application Research Institutes (ATARIs)
across the country.
ii) KVKs are an integral part of the National Agricultural Research System
(NARS), which aims to identity location specific technology modules in
agriculture and allied enterprises, through technology assessment,
refinement and demonstrations.
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iii) KVKs have been functioning as Knowledge and Resource Centers in
agricultural technology supporting initiatives in the public, private and
voluntary sectors.
iv) KVKs can play a crucial role in the establishment of School Nutrition
(Kitchen) Gardens through provision of technical support, free
seeds/seedlings, sapling, organic manure, and training of all the
stakeholders at all levels as well as continuous capacity building.
7.17 Support from Experts of the Forest Department
The Forest Department in every State/UT is a rich source of expertise and

plant saplings. All schools should work actively with the local Dept.
7.18 Child safety in the School Nutrition Garden
It is essential that the garden is safe for children and the following safeguard
are required to ensure this:
i) Select the correct-sized tool.

ii) Keep sprays and fertilizers out of reach.
iii) Do not use chemicals. Garden organically whenever possible.
iv) Provide safe storage for equipment and tools.
v) Secure fences and gates.
vi) Limit the exposure to high sunlight and warm temperature.
vii) Make sure that where it’s appropriate, children wear suitable clothes.
viii) Do not leave buckets of water unattended around very young children.
7.19 Getting children interested in gardening
Children can be involved and motivated to create a garden by letting them

carry out the following activities:
i) Simple activities under Eco-Clubs for gardening.

ii) Give them their own garden space, this does not have to be big and you
can start with a large container or a few pots.
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iii) Involve older children in the planning and design of the garden.
iv) Use lightweight, easy-to-handle, correct-sized tools and garden
equipment.
v) Encourage children to dig in the soil. (younger children love making mud
structures)
vi) Grow interesting plants such as sunflowers, corn, pumpkins, tomatoes
and potatoes
vii) Plant flowers that attract butterflies, ladybirds and other interesting
insects or birds.
viii) Install a water feature (a birdbath) .
ix) Set up a vermicomposting pit.
x) Visit community gardens, children’s farms or botanic gardens for ideas
7.20 Setting up a School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden in schools which

don’t have adequate vacant land
Today with the rapid rate of urbanization, many Schools do not have free
space to grow vegetables etc. For them there is an effective alternative that is
simple and practical way i.e. gardening in “Containers”. Such a garden has
many benefits for Schools in urban areas as they help to "green" the school
and reduce air pollution. Other major benefits are:
i) Students learn to grow vegetables and fruits in containers,

understanding that a large piece of land is not essentially required for
this.
ii) Utilizes and reuses discarded containers
iii) Organic garbage such as kitchen scraps and anything that decays, can
be processed into compost in such containers
iv) Through a careful selection of the plants, the temperature of the
immediate area of the School can be lowered. This is very useful in the
hotter parts of the country.
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v) Students will learn to think creatively and out of the box, understanding
that a garden can be effectively created everywhere.
vi) The greenery will definitely beautify the School and make it a visually
more appealing place.
vii) It will enable school children to practice “intensive” gardening through
maximum utilization of limited space.
viii) It will provide an opportunity to practice “intercropping” (i.e. planting a
variety of plants in one container) which ensures the health of plants
due to diversity.
ix) Such gardens “make use of unused School spaces” (vacant staircases,
school entrance sites, etc.)
7.21 Selection of Plants
i) Climber vegetables may be grown because they need less space to grow
and almost all the parts of the plant are edible. Climbers can also be
moulded into different shapes of arches and railings.
ii) Though most climbers are grown against walls and pulled upto to the
next floor, the container should be slightly away from the walls and after
the plant is put in it, the roots may be covered with soil and pressed. If
the climber has tendrils then some kind of net can be hung from the
maximum height of the wall. The tendrils will hook themselves on to the
net and keep pulling themselves up. Thin ropes and string can also be
used. Tendrils or winding shoots will gradually climb up the wall. Best
climbing vegetables are:
a. Pumpkin (Kaddu)
b. Bottle Gourds, (lauki) Ridge Gourds, Bitter Gourds
c. Cucumbers
d. Beans
e. Tomato
f. Tinda
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7.22 Containers which can be used to grow plants
i) While most containers can be used, it is essential that no container

which earlier held any material that could be considered poisonous
(e.gkerosene) is used. This kind of garden is an excellent way to reuse
discarded items that would otherwise have reached the landfill sites
only. Pots and containers viz., cement pots, damaged bowls / water
tanks/ buckets, tin boxes, boxes, crates, bags, unused water cans,
drums of different sizes, damaged sink / wash basin, etc can be used for
growing fruits and vegetables.
ii) Earthen pots made of burnt porous clay in various sizes can be used to
hold enough quantity of soil for cultivation. They have straight sides and
are wider at the top than at the bottom to hold the compost and also
facilitate easy removal of soil. In India, pots of varying sizes viz., tube
pots, ¼ size, ½ size and ¾ size are used commonly.
iii) Old plastic pots of round and square types can be used for raising
plants.
iv) Old polythene bags with punched holes at the bottom for drainage and
filled with a porous rooting medium can be used for propagation.
Sometimes, young seedlings which are raised in the nursery are
subsequently transplanted in these polythene bags (e.g., papaya, curry
leaf etc.). The soil mixture is filled in polythene covers and used for the
cultivation of vegetables like tomato, brinjal, chilli, turmeric, coriander,
etc.
7.23 What shall we grow in the School Nutrition (Kitchen) Garden?
A huge range of vegetables and fruits including roots & tubers, pulses &
legumes, medicinal plants and herbs can be grown in School Nutrition
(Kitchen) Gardens.
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i. Roots and tubers: (e.g. sweet potato, potato) are very good sources of
carbohydrates, energy and some vitamins, but have less protein than
cereals. They can be eaten with many other foods and can be grown in
the School Nutrition(Kitchen) Gardens as per the season.
ii. Legumes: (e.g. cowpeas, chickpeas, beans, soya beans)are a rich source
of protein. Some also have fat, vitamin E, calcium, iron and zinc, which
children need to grow for the development of their brains.
iii. Vegetables and Fruits: are rich in many different vitamins and minerals
and other substances which protect health, especially dark green leafy
vegetables and yellow or orange fruits and vegetables (e.g. pumpkin,
yellow/orange sweet potatoes, papaya, mango, carrots). Dark green
leafy vegetables release all their nutritional value when combined with
other foods. It is essential to select only those vegetables and fruits for
the SNG which are local and best suited for the topography and weather
conditions. Please consult your local KVK, and also ask experts including
farmers for their advice before making the final selection. Some
suggested vegetables and fruits which are appropriate for the SNG are:
Vegetables Fruits
Amaranth Leaves (Chaulai) Apple (Seb)
Ash Gourd (Petha) Banana (Kela)
Brinjal Eggplant (Baigan) Black currant (Falsa)
Beetroot (Chukandar) Black berry (Jamun)
Bitter gourd (Karela) Custard apple (Sharifa)
White gourd (Lauki /ghia) Fig (Anjeer)
Cabbage (Patta Gobi) Gooseberry (Amla)
Carrot (Gajar) Grapes (Angur)
Capsicum (Shimla mirch) Guava (Amrud)
Cauliflower (Phoolgobhi) Mango (Aam)

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Cluster Beans (Guar ki phalli) Orange (Santara)
Cucumber (Kheera) Papaya (Papita)
Fenugreek leaves (Methi) Pear (Nashpati)
Spinach (Palak) Pineapple (Annanas)
Mushroom (Khumb) Pomegranate (Anar)
Mustard leaves (SarsokaSagg) Sweetlime (Mausmi)
Okra, lady finger (Bhindi) Water-melon (Tarabooj)
Pumpkin (Kaddu) Plum (Allobukhara)
Potato (Aloo) Peach (Aadoo)
Turnip (Shalgam) Mulberry (Shahatut)
Tomato (Tamatar) Grapes (Angoor)
Moringa (Drumstick) (Sehjan) Muskmelon (Kharabooja)
Jack fruit (Katahal)
iv. Suggestive Plants (Medicinal): Medicinal plants, also called medicinal

herbs, are a good option which may also be grown in School Nutrition
(Kitchen) Gardens in schools. These plants have been used in traditional
medicine practices and many are helpful in the treatment of common
diseases.
a. Papaya Leaves: Papaya leaves have high levels of antioxidants, like
saponins, flavonoids, tannins, and alkaloids. These antioxidants,
along with vitamins C and A, improve blood circulation count. It is
claimed that papaya leaves help the body to heal faster from dengue
fever by increasing the platelet count drastically.
b. Tulsi: For centuries, Tulsi (the queen of herbs), has been known for
its remarkable healing properties. Tulsi is taken as a herbal tea and
its juice gives relief in cold, fever, bronchitis and cough. It is very
effective against indigestion and headaches.
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c. Aloe Vera: Sap from aloe vera is extremely useful to speed up healing
and reduce the risk of infections for wounds, cuts, burns and for
reducing inflammation. Apart from its external use on the skin, aloe
vera is also taken internally in the treatment of digestive problems.
d. Ginger: Ginger is one of the most delicious and healthiest spices. It is
full of nutrients and bioactive compounds that are beneficial for the
brain and the body, helping to alleviate symptoms of motion
sickness, chronic indigestion, etc.
e. Garlic: This has a unique flavor, which makes it an indispensable
element in many dishes. It has several health benefits which make it
a very desirable part of any SNG.
f. Curry leaves: Curry leaves or curry patta is popular because of its
aroma. The leaves are rich in Vitamin A,B, C and B2. They are also a
good source of iron and calcium.
g. Moringa: Fresh Moringa leaves are incredibly nutrient dense and they
are rich in Antioxidants.
7.24 What parts of plants can we eat?
Most plant foods are grouped into two categories i.e. vegetables and fruits.
We usually eat the roots, leaves or fruits of the plant. But some parts of some
plants, which we may not usually eat and discard, are very nutritious. For
example, Beet greens have more than 8 times the nutritional content of beet
roots. Some parts of plants which have high nutritional content other than the
Vegetable and fruit are:
a) Pumpkin leaves and flowers: Pumpkins are very versatile in their use for
cooking. Most parts of the pumpkin are edible, including the fleshy shell,
the seeds, the leaves, and even the flowers.
b) Potato’s skin: The skin of the potato is rich in fiber and many recipes can
be prepared with this.
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c) Carrots tops: Carrot tops are rich in vitamin A and minerals that can be
added to vegetable curries.
d) Cauliflower Leaves: Often cut off at source, these leaves are just like
cabbage and can be used in preparing a meal as they are a good source
of iron.
e) Pea-shoots: The young leaves and tendrils of pea plants taste like peas.
These can be lightly cooked or eaten raw and are rich in proteins.
f) Beet root leaves: Beetroot leaves can be used as spinach, in salads or can
be added to pulses also.
g) Sweet potato leaves: They have edible leaves and tendrils which make a
nice spinach substitute and the greens are easier to grow than the tubers.
h) Banana stem and flower: Banana stem and flower are good sources of
Iron and minerals which can be used in the preparation of vegetables.
i) Citrus peel: Peels of citrus fruits (such as lemons) can be used as
flavouring agents in vegetables and pulses. They are rich in vitamin C.
It is recommended that these parts of such vegetables should be used in the

Meal prepared in the School. Competitions can be organized and the cooks
who prepare the best meals may be appreciated.
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8 Supplementary Nutrition in Aspirational districts and districts having
high burden of malnutrition
Appropriate provision for supplementary nutrition may be made in aspirational

districts/tribal districts/districts with identified high cases of malnutrition
etc.over and above the existing provisions under the scheme. State may use a
maximum of 5% of total recurring Central and minimum mandatory State
share for this purpose. There will be no separate additional budgetary support
for this component and this expenditure will be met from the funds available
with the State (recurring Central Assistance + State Share).
8.1 Selection of district
In addition to the aspirational districts, selection of the other district(s) shall

be based on the level of prevalence of malnutrition and prevalence of
anaemia.
8.2 Selection of supplementary food item
Selection of the supplementary food item with proven nutrition values, shall
be made on the basis of acceptability of food choices and food preferences of
the children and the geographical area. The selection of the food items may
be done on the basis of shelf life of the food item. Utmost care should be
taken in the preparation and its distribution.
8.3 Time frame for distribution – amount and frequency of provision
Preferably the distribution may be made in such a manner that the nutritional
benefits to the children are maximised.
8.4 Baseline and end line data along with regular monitoring
The baseline health data may be captured before the intervention. After the
intervention of supplementary food is made the end-line data may also be
captured to understand the efficacy of the intervention to replicate in the
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other districts also if required. The health data may be captured in
convergence with the State/UT level health department.
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9 Information, Education and Communication (IEC)
9.1 Display of entitlements of children at prominent place:
9.1.1 At the school level, the following information related to per meal entitlements
of children should be displayed at a prominent place visible to common
public:
S. No. Items Primary Upper Primary
A) Nutrition norm per child per day

1. Calorie 450 700
2. Protein 12 gms 20 gms
B) Food norms per child per day
1. Food grains 100 gms 150 gms
2. Pulses 20 gms 30 gms
3. Vegetables (leafy also) 50 gms 75 gms
4. Oil & fat 5 gms 7.5 gms
5. Salt & condiments As per need As per need
C) Per child per day cooking cost
Latest cooking cost
9.1.2 In addition to the above, the following information may also be displayed on
weekly/monthly basis as suomoto information under the Right to Information
Act.
i) Weekly menu and its ingredients

ii) Quantity of food grains received and utilized
iii) Other ingredients purchased, utilized
iv) Number of children provided meals.
v) Roster of Community Members involved in the programme.
9.2 Display of logo: Logo of the Scheme may be displayed at a prominent place
for the visibility and awareness generation of the community.
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9.3 Public Grievance Redressal: The States and UTs shall also develop
dedicated mechanism for public grievance redressal, which should be widely
publicized and made easily accessible (like toll free call facility etc.).
9.4 Publicity of scheme : IEC activities in connection with the programme, are
extremely important that following messages are communicated to parents of
the children in the target group, the community at large, and other persons
connected with the programme, so as to derive optimal benefit from it:-
i) It needs to be explained to parents belonging to weaker sections that

School meal is meant to be in addition to, and not a substitute for, meals
which parents should in any case provide to children at home.
ii) Importance of balanced and nutritious meals, and how to provide them
economically.
iii) Safety, health and hygiene aspects. Good storage, cooking, serving and
eating practices.
iv) Community participation/contribution in, and supervision of the
programme.
9.5 IEC through convergence: State Governments/UT Administrations,

Panchayati Raj Institutions (PRIs) and Municipal Bodies will be expected to
undertake above IEC activities using their regular budget for publicity as also
by mobilizing contributions from media groups, philanthropic organizations
and the community.
9.6 Awards: State / UT may institute Awardsfor Best school, Best cook-cum-
helpers, School Nutrition gardens and any other best practices at different
levels in order to popularise and encourage the best practices under the
Scheme. This is only illustrative and not exhaustive, State / UT may devise
their own such awards. At district and block level this information may be
publicised in various social media platforms.
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10 Vocal for Local & Atmanirbhar Bharat
10.1 Involvement of FPOs and SHGs: Scheme encourages enhanced

involvement of Farmers Producer Organizations (FPO) and Women Self Help
Groups in implementation of the scheme widely.
10.2 Use of millets and local Food items: Usage of locally grown food items
like millets, vegetables, condiments etc. may be systematically undertaken by
States/UTs under the Scheme. This not only promotes nutrition through local
traditional food items, but also contributes to local economic growth.
10.3 Flexibility to District Collector: District Collector / District Magistrate may

be given enhanced powers to decide the menu suitable to the local conditions
within the prescribed nutrition and food norms and to procure locally grown
food items from Farmers Producers Organizations, Federation of Women’s
Self-Help Groups etc. so as to promote local employment generation and
economic development while simultaneously improving the nutrition status of
children.
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11 Grievance Redressal Mechanism
11.1 Grievance Redressal Mechanism

i) States and Union Territories are required to develop a dedicated
mechanism for public grievance redressal, which should be widely
publicized and made easily accessible.
ii) In addition to above, the States and UTs shall also develop dedicated
mechanism for public grievance redressal, which should be widely
publicized and made easily accessible (like toll free call facility etc.).
11.2 Contingency Plan for Medical Emergency:

The Implementing Agencies should have a Contingency Plan for any
untoward incident. The names and telephone numbers of the nearest
hospitals, Primary Health Centre, Ambulance, Police, Fire-brigade and any
other relevant information should be displayed at prominent places.
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12 Tithi Bhojan
12.1 Concept of Tithi Bhojan:
i. The Concept of “Tithi Bhojan”, a community participation programme was

originally initiated by the State Government of Gujarat under the erstwhile
Mid-Day Meal Scheme by relying on the Indian traditional practice of
providing food to large number of people on special occasions such as
festivals, anniversaries, birthdays, marriages, and days of national
importance etc.
ii. Members of the community provide nutritious and healthy food to the
children as an additional food item or full meal on such special
occasions/festivals.
iii. This is completely voluntary, and the people in the community contribute
either a complete full meal or contribute food items in the form of sweets,
namkeens, fruits or sprouts etc. as an additional item. Tithi Bhojan is not a
substitute to school meal. This only supplements or complements the meal
provided in the school.
iv. To encourage the community participation in the scheme the concept of
“Tithi Bhojan”, in which the community provides nutritious and healthy
food to the children as an additional food item or full meal is being
initiated in all the States and UTs under Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti
Nirman (PM POSHAN). Under this programme the members of the
community contribute /sponsor either utensils or food on special
occasions/festivals in the form of sweets, namkeen, fruits etc as an
additional item or complete full meal.
12.2 Benefits of Tithi Bhojan:
Tithi Bhojan helps to develop a sense of belonging among the community. It

also helps in supplementation of the nutritional value of meal provided under
PM POSHAN. Tithi Bhojan facilitates development of rapport between a school
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and the local community. The concept also helps in inculcating the feeling of
equity among the children of all communities. Tithi Bhojan through the
supplementary nutrition helps in strengthening the immunity of the school
children during this challenging pandemic period.
12.3 Initiatives already taken to promote the concept:
A D.O. letter No. F.1-7/2014-Desk (MDM) dated, 20th November, 2014 from
Honorable Shiksha Mantri, Govt of India has been issued to all the State/UTs
to encourage this concept. Several States and UTs have enthusiastically
initiated the concept in different forms and given State specific name to
popularize this nutritional intervention.
Some of the States and UTs have given a State specific name to Tithi Bhojan
viz., Gujarat (Tithi Bhojan), Assam (Sampriti Bhojan), Andhra Pradesh ((Vindu
Bhojanam), Punjab (Priti bhojan), Dadra & Nagar Haveli and Daman & Diu
(Tithi Bhojan), Karnataka (Shalegagi NaavuNeevu), Madhya Pradesh and
Maharashtra (Sneh Bhojan), Chandigarh (Tithi Bhojan), Puducherry (Anna
Dhanam), Haryana (Betika Janamdin-School mein Abhinandan) and
Uttarakhand (Tithi Bhojan), Rajasthan (Utsav Bhoj) Tamil Nadu (Nal
Virundhu) etc.
12.4 Provision of Tithi Bhojan :
Possibilities may be explored for the provision of nutritious and healthy food
to the children as an additional food item or full meal under Tithi Bhojan. This
will help in facilitating restoration of children joy of sitting and eating together
which was disturbed during the closure of schools due to pandemic.
Moreover, Tithi Bhojan is also likely to be helpful in alleviating malnutrition.
12.5 Identification of the potential donors:

i. Possibilities may be explored to find potential donors in the community,
who can provide Tithi Bhojan at least once a month on rotation basis.
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ii. The donors may be honoured during school functions/annual day of the
schools etc. to encourage them.
iii. The nature of the food donation could be termed as a major donation e.g
for a class or many classes or the whole school then the Donor may be
invited to be present during the serving of Tithi Bhojan or Donor’s name
may be announced in the morning assembly.
12.6 Items to be provided under Tithi Bhojan:

i. Food items to be provided may be a full meal or as an additional item or
ingredients for a full meal or additional item.
ii. The food articles, ingredients to be provided may be as per food habits of
the children of the region.
iii. Combination of cereal, pulse & vegetable may be provided in case of full
meal.
iv. Fruits, milk, sweets, eggs, biscuits, halwa, Chikki (groundnut and jaggery),
sprouts or any other item liked by children may be provided.
v. Seasonal fruits should be selected as they are nutritious and cost effective.
vi. A list of food items preferred by children may also be prepared and shared
with the concerned interested community people for future use to ensure
maximum satisfaction of the children.
vii. The concept was started in Gujarat where cash/cheque donations are not
accepted. The same model may be followed by other States and UTs.
12.7 Frequency and sense of involvement in Tithi bhojan:
i. To strengthen deeper involvement the community may be encouraged to

provide “Tithi Bhojan” to school children at least once a month by adhering
to hygiene and cleanliness protocols.
ii. Children may sit together and enjoy a meal/additional food items in its true
spirit.
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12.8 Issues related to Food Safety and Hygiene:
Issues related to Food Safety and Hygiene along with some of the important
points from ‘Guidelines on Food Safety and Hygiene for School Level Kitchens
under PM POSHAN, are reiterated as under:
i. Freshly prepared food items may be provided to children. The expiry date
should be checked in case of any packed items.
ii. The food items should contain adequate nutrients and should be
palatable, hygienic, and operationally feasible.
iii. Vegetables, fruits and perishable food commodities should be selected
fresh for consumption.
iv. Perishable items should not be stored in plastic bags as these get spoilt
quickly due to lack of transpiration. Such items have to be stored away
from sunlight, in a cool place.
v. The containers used for serving of meal should be made of non-toxic
materials.
vi. The food articles should be tasted by the teachers/SMC members/ cook
cum helpers just before serving to the children.
vii. Accessories and containers that come in contact with food and used for
food handling, storage, preparation and serving should be made of
corrosion-free materials which do not impart any toxicity to the food
material and should be easy to clean and / or disinfect.
viii. Every utensil or container containing any food or ingredient of food should
at all times be either provided with a properly fitted cover/lid or with a
clean gauze net or other material of texture sufficiently fine to protect the
food completely from dust, dirt and flies and other insects.
ix. All food handlers should maintain cleanliness, wear washed clothes and
keep their finger nails trimmed, clean and wash their hands with soap /
detergent and water before commencing work and every time after
touching, raw or contaminated food or using toilet.
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x. All food handlers shall strictly adhere to Covid protocols and conduct
themselves in accordance with covid appropriate behavior.
xi. All Cook cum helpers / the person serving the food items, should avoid
wearing loose items that might fall into food and also avoid touching or
scratching their face, head or hair
12.9 Role of School Management Committee :
i. During the meetings of the School Management Committee the provision

of Tithi Bhojan, identification of donors, schedule of Tithi Bhojan
distribution may be discussed.
ii. The type and quantity of food items to be provided to children during Tithi
Bhojan may be discussed in the SMC meetings.
iii. Adequate care shall be taken in providing food items that are culturally
acceptable.
12.10 SabkaPrayas
To encourage community participation, concept of “SabkaPrayas” may be

practiced to augment Tithi bhojan. SabkaPrayas may be an effort of the
community for which the community may be made aware about the
following:
i) Nutritional benefits of the provision of additional food items for school
children. Seasonal fruits that are low-cost and full of vitamins and
micronutrients may be provided to children.
ii) A roster may be prepared at school level of all the community members
interested in providing additional meal under tithi bhojan.
iii) The community member who made the maximum contribution may be
felicitated at Independence day / Republic day celebration.
iv) It’s actually through SabkaPrayas in which all the community members
shall put in efforts to provide food items in the form of either full meal or
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fruits/sweets etc the concept of Tithi Bhojan may successfully be made a
Janandolan.
12.11 Monitoring of the initiative:
i) A Register may be maintained for recording the information of number

and type of meals/additional food items provided and periodicity.
ii) State and UTs may develop State specific IT tools to gather information
in this regard in conjunction with their MIS systems.
12.12 Awareness generation and Publicity of the initiative:
i. Creatives, booklets, pamphlets, posters, memes, small videos may be

prepared and disseminated for awareness generation at all levels.
ii. Various official media platforms like departmental websites and social
media platforms like Twitter, Facebook, WhatsApp etc. may be
appropriately used for awareness generation and publicity.
iii. To ensure the publicity of the scheme States and UTs also may consider
to award/felicitate the good performing schools/blocks/districts at
appropriate frequency to elevate this noble nutritional intervention to a
Janandolan.
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13 Capacity Building
13.1 Training of CCH
Preparation of hygienic and wholesome meal under the scheme is contingent

upon the knowledge and skills of staff and cook-cum-helpers engaged for
providing meals in the school
The Self Help Groups and cook-cum-helpers who are the pillars of the
scheme, mainly come from the deprived sections of the society, where they
have limited information about nutrition, cooking processes, health and
hygiene, preparation of raw grains and vegetables, recipes, serving skills etc.
It is, therefore, essential that the capacity of the workforce at the field level is
built on an on-going basis. States / UTs may take up Training of cook-cum-
helpers in collaboration with Ministry of Tourism, Govt. of India through their
Institutes of Hotel Management and Food Craft Institutes, FSSAI, State
Agricultural Universities etc.
13.2 Training of personnel involved in PM POSHAN
State / UT may impart training to personnel involved in implementation of

scheme at all levels on various aspects of implementation of scheme like –
Financial management, use of IT for management and monitoring etc.
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14 Social Audit
Social audit is an audit that is conducted by the people, especially by those

people who are affected by, or are the intended beneficiaries of the scheme
being audited and facilitated by the Government. Thus Social Audit can be
described as verification of the implementation of a scheme and its outcomes
by the community with the active involvement of the primary stakeholders i.e.
children and their parents. This should be done by comparing official records
with actual ground realities. Social audit is not only an audit of expenditure or
decisions but also covers the issue of equity and equality in program
implementation.
14.1 Social Audit under PM POSHAN
14.1.1 Mandate for social audit
Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman( PM POSHAN) is one of the

foremost rights based Centrally Sponsored Schemes under the National Food
Security Act, 2013 (NFSA). Section 28 of National Food Security Act, 2013
inter alia envisages that every local authority, or any other authority or body,
as may be authorised by the State Government, shall conduct or cause to be
conducted, periodic social audits on the functioning of the scheme and cause
to publicise its findings and take necessary action, in such manner as may be
prescribed by the State Government. The Central Government may, if it
considers necessary, conduct or cause to be conducted social audit through
independent agencies having experience in conduct of such audits.
14.1.2 Objectives of Social Audit

Social Audit aims to promote transparency and accountability in the
implementation of the scheme by informing and educating people about their
rights and entitlements under the scheme. Social Audit is also a collective
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platform for people to express their needs and grievances while promoting
people’s participation in all stages of implementation of the scheme alongwith
improving capacity of local stakeholders who participate in social audit. The
objectives of Social Audit under PM POSHAN can be put down in the following
manner:
i. To verify that the entitlements of a child as guaranteed under the NFSA,

2013 are being provided in the school, in a timely and equitable manner.
ii. To check the enrolment, attendance and retention of students in the
school.
iii. To check that hot cooked meals is provided during all school days to all
children present in the school.
iv. To verify that no discrimination is meted out to any child or other
stakeholder under the scheme.
v. To verify the timely allocation and utilisation of food grains and funds.
vi. To check implementation of extant Rules and Guidelines in letter and
spirit.
vii. To check the Status of infrastructure (Kitchen-cum-store, Kitchen
devices, Eating utensils, School Nutrition Garden, Drinking Water etc.) in
the schools.
viii. To develop a participatory approach towards school development
through community support like Tithi Bhojan, School Nutrition Garden
etc.
14.1.2 General Principles

The following General Principles should be followed in all aspects of the Social
Audit and by all the agencies involved including the Social Audit Team.
1. There is a clear distinction between conduct of social audit and facilitation

of social audit. The mandate for the conduct of social audit rests with the
statutory body of the Gram Sabha.
2. The Social Audit Unit is to be tasked with the mandate of facilitating the
Gram Sabha in conducting Social Audit. The facilitation is required for:
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i) Consolidating information, translating and sharing records in to
information that can be easily understandable to the stakeholders,
ii) Verifying the information recorded in official documents with primary
stakeholders,
iii) Facilitating and open, participatory and inclusive discussion in the Gram
Sabha where people can speak freely,
iv) Documenting the decisions taken,
v) Submission of the audit reports and
vi) Follow up on the action being taken by the Governments and display
the same in public domain.
14.1.3 Social Audit by its own nature is distinct from Financial audits in
the following aspects
i) Social audit is more interactive. The members of the Gram Sabha, who
are members of the social audit team, are active auditors and at the
same time users of its findings and conclusions.
ii) In addition to relying on documentary evidence, Social audit uses
significant inputs of oral evidence, school visits and views expressed at
the public hearing while meticulously documenting the evidence.
iii) Social audit needs to rely more on school visit and interaction with the
stakeholders while adhering to preponderance of probabilities.
14.1.4 Children as the focus:
The PM POSHAN scheme is aimed at providing nutrition to the children, the

primary focus of the social audit shall be children while co-opting their
parents as well as cook-cum-helpers.
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14.1.5 Transparency:
i) The functioning of the Social Audit Team should be transparent.

ii) A clear and complete introduction of the Social Audit Facilitators must be
provided to the community.
iii) All findings of the audit should be presented in their true form and with
supporting evidence.
iv) All findings of the Social Audit process should be made available in the
public domain.
14.1.6 Accountability:
i) Accountability shall be fixed within the Department implementing the PM

POSHAN scheme.
ii) Timelines shall be fixed against each entitlement/activity and its violation
must be redressed within that time frame by the relevant authorities.
iii) Overall responsibility for taking action and ensuring compliances on the
Social Audit findings rests with the State/UT Nodal Department
implementing the PM POSHAN scheme.
14.1.7 Participation:
i) The Social Audit should be based on community participation (children and

parents) as they have a direct stake in the PM POSHAN Scheme.
ii) In particular, participation of persons from marginalized communities must
be ensured.
iii) During the social audit there should be no discrimination based on gender,
religion, caste and occupation and participation should be encouraged
from across all backgrounds.
iv) There should be equal opportunities for all stakeholders to make a
representation to the Social Audit Facilitation Team.
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14.1.8 Objectivity:
i) The Social Auditors should maintain objectivity and neutrality throughout

the audit process. No sides must be taken during the auditing process and
nor should it be dictated by anyone’s personal agenda or viewpoints.
ii) No special favour should be given or solicited from the teachers or any
official or public representative who is related to the implementation of the
PM POSHAN Scheme.
iii) No politicization of the monitoring process should be allowed.
iv) Decisions to resolve irregularities in implementation reflected during the
auditing process should be taken only after both sides are given a fair
chance to present their views/clarifications.
14.1.9 Dialogue:
i) Solutions to the problems identified in the Social Audit should as far as

possible be resolved through a process of dialogue between the
community and the administration.
ii) Platforms for dialogue should be established at different levels, especially
close to the people to facilitate their participation.
iii) Dialogue process should be recorded and its proceedings should be
formalized/ institutionalized.
iv) Action should be initiated on the basis of the dialogue process.
14.2 Roles and Responsibilities at various levels in social audit
A significant societal intervention such as Social Audit of PM POSHAN calls for

well concerted participation and synergised action by various functionaries at
all levels.
14.2.1 School level
a) The Head teacher/Principal will facilitate Social Audit team during the
verification at the school level.
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b) The Head teacher/Principal will provide all the information related to the
school such as details of students, teachers, SMC representatives,
attendance registers.
c) The Head teacher/Principal will provide various registers including food

grain stock register, account books, tasting of meal register and other
relevant records as prescribed by the State Government.
d) The Head teacher/Principal along with SMC members will also facilitate
physical visit of the school and interaction with students, parents, cook-
cum-helpers and teachers.
14.2.2 Block / Taluka level
a) The conduct and follow up action of Social Audit shall be discussed in the
meeting of Block level Steering cum Monitoring Committee.
b) The Block Education Officer shall try to organise the public hearings in
convergence with other line Departments like Rural Development,
Panchayati Raj, Health, Women and Child Development, Drinking water
and sanitation etc.
c) The Block Education Officer shall notify in writing the dates of the Social
Audit to all the public representatives and concerned staff implementing
the PM POSHAN Scheme well in advance.
d) The Block Education Officer shall instruct the concerned Head teachers to
proclaim the dates of Social Audit through beat of drum (Dugdugi) or any
other suitable means.
e) The Block Education Officer shall endeavour that all stakeholders are kept
informed about the entire process and shall take adequate measures for
their presence during the Social Audit and Public Hearings.
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14.2.3 District level
a) The conduct and follow up action of Social Audit shall be discussed in the
meetings of District level Steering cum Monitoring Committee.
b) The conduct and follow up action of Social Audit shall also be discussed in
the meetings of District Development Coordination and Monitoring
Committee (DISHA) under the chairpersonship of senior most Member of
Parliament of Lok Sabha.
c) The District Collector shall cause to organise the public hearings in

convergence with other line Departments like Rural Development,
Panchayati Raj, Health, Women and Child Development, Drinking water
and sanitation etc. for efficiency gains and quick follow up action.
d) The District Education Officer (DEO) shall notify in writing the dates of the
Social Audit to all the public representatives well in advance.
e) The DEO shall ensure that administrative machinery cooperates in conduct

of the social audit processes.
f) The DEO shall facilitate organize the training of the Cluster Social Auditors
(CSAs) at the district level.
g) The District Collector and DEO shall attend at least one Social Audit public
hearing at the school level, cluster and block level in every quarter and all
meetings at District level to discuss the findings and corrective actions.
h) The DEO shall ensure that remedial / corrective action is initiated on the
findings and recommendations of social audit reports as per applicable
rules and procedures prevalent in the State.
14.2.4 State / UT level
a) The State Nodal Officer (SNO) shall coordinate with the Social Audit Unit
(SAU) engaged for Social Audit.
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b) The SNO shall cause the SAU to prepare a comprehensive action plan
detailing all activities at various levels for conducting Social Audit.
c) The SNO shall provide the information related to the scheme within the
stipulated period to the SAU.
d) The SNO shall obtain list of District wise Master Trainers and Cluster Social
Auditors (CSAs) from Social Audit Unit.
e) The SNO shall arrange the training of Master Trainers from NIRD&PR, NIN
and SIRD in coordination with SAU.
f) The SNO shall facilitate Master Trainers to impart training of Cluster Social
Auditors (CSAs) at district headquarters in coordination with SAU.
g) The SNO shall organize sensitization programs for all implementing
functionaries of the scheme and especially for the functionaries at school
level such as teachers and headmasters about the objective, process and
expected outcomes of social audit.
h) The SNO shall communicate in writing information regarding the Social
Audit process and date of the Social Audit public hearings to the PM
POSHAN functionaries and ensure smooth functioning of the entire
process.
i) The SNO shall take immediate corrective action on the issues arising out
of social audits and shall ensure that decisions taken during social audit
public meeting translate into administrative action.
j) The SNO shall dispose-off any dispute or complaint recorded in the Social
Audit report in a time bound manner.
14.2.5 Ministry of Education / Dept of School Education & Literacy
a) Prepare the Social Audit module including training materials, field

verification formats, Social Audit calendar of activities in coordination with
NIRD&PR, NIN and State Nodal Officers for conducting Social Audit of PM
POSHAN.
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b) Design and develop MIS portal/dashboard in convergence with NIC,
NIRD&PR, NIN and State Nodal Officers to monitor Social Audit findings
and action taken. It may also provide an ‘app’ for field level data collection
through mobile phone.
c) Review the Social Audit findings and the action taken reports submitted by
the States/UTs regularly.
d) The details of Social Audit findings and action taken shall form an integral
part of Annual Work Plan & Budget to be submitted by the States and
UTs. These will be reviewed in the Programme Approval Board meetings.
e) On the basis of the Social Audit Reports, Ministry shall handhold the State
Governments to take necessary corrective measures in implementing PM
POSHAN.
f) A Social Audit cell, as required, may be constituted in the Department of
School Education & Literacy for monitoring and continuous improvement
in implementation of the Social Audit process.
14.3 Social Audit Unit (SAU)
The Social Audit Unit (SAU) is an independent organisation, that would

facilitate conduct of Social Audit by Gram Sabha and identifies, trains and
deploys suitable resource persons at village, block, district and State level
drawing from primary stakeholders and other civil society organisations
having domain knowledge and experience of working for the rights of the
people.
The SAU is registered as a Society under the Societies Registration Act. It is

responsible for planning and conducting social audits, technically supporting
the audits, collating and consolidating reports and following up persuasively
on the results of audit. SAU must maintain a higher standard of transparency,
accountability, objectivity, impartiality and professionalism for itself.
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14.3.1 The roles and responsibilities of the SAU
a) The SAU Resource Persons along with the primary stakeholders shall
i) Visit the schools and kitchens,
ii) Verify the records related to payment, procurement of materials and

financial records
iii) Verify the actual stock of food grains with the stock register
iv) Contact the children, parents, cook-cum-helpers, PDS dealers / Fair

Price Shop dealers, doctors of PHC, local health workers / ASHA
worker, members of local women self-help groups
v) Collate records and convene a Gram Sabha to discuss the findings of

the verification exercise and to review the compliance on transparency
and accountability, fulfilment of rights and entitlements of the children
and proper utilisation of funds.
b) The Social Audit report shall be prepared in the local language. The
Resource Persons shall not be resident of the same village.
c) The SAU shall facilitate the conduct of social audit through recruited and
identified Resource Persons at various levels including Master Trainers and
Cluster Social Auditors
d) The SAU shall establish and periodically review minimum training
requirements for engaging Resource Persons at each level.
e) The Resource Persons under SAU shall display qualities of domain
knowledge, competency, accountability, honesty and integrity peppered
with joyful disposition during the conduct of Social Audit
f) The SAU shall access all the relevant official records at the levels of
school, block, district & State and will do the verification as mentioned in
the scheme guidelines
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g) The SAU shall conduct focused group discussion with children, their
parents, during door to door visit in the community.
h) The SAU shall create awareness amongst the beneficiaries about their
rights and entitlements under the scheme
i) The SAU shall ensure that conclusions in opinions and reports are based
exclusively on evidence obtained and inputs received from the
functionaries and collated in accordance with the auditing standards.
j) The SAU shall enter the data in the MIS and host reports in the public
domain
k) The SAU shall depute personnel to attend various public hearings and
ensure that periodic reports on the social audit findings are prepared
l) The SAU shall Review the ATRs and close issues or escalate it to DoSEL
m) Prepare annual report containing summary of social audit findings and
ATRs and disseminate it widely
n) The SAU shall designate a Grievance Redressal Officer for accepting
complaints, if any in such manner which is easily accessible to all, from
citizens about the staff and practices of SAU.
o) The SAU shall develop and maintain a quality assurance and improvement
programme covering all aspects of the Social Audit activities in order to
ensure Social Audits are conducted conforming to consistently high quality
standards.
14.3.2 Engaging a Social Audit Unit
a) The State/UT will sign a MoU with the Social Audit Unit established in the
State which is registered as a society under the Societies Registration Act.
The Social Audit Unit of neighbouring State may be selected for
conducting Social Audit, if the State does not have a SAU.
b) All the States/UTs will appoint a Nodal Officer of sufficient seniority for
the Social Audit of PM POSHAN Scheme. The Nodal Officer will coordinate
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with the DoSEL, Ministry of Education, Nodal Department at State and
Social Audit Unit to facilitate the Social Audit process.
14.4 Phases of Conducting Social Audit
The conduct of Social Audit involves detailed operational plan that includes
laying out the school wise schedule of activities to be carried out for the year
and accordingly assigning and deploying Social Audit teams. The various
important phases of conducting Social Audit are elucidated below:
14.4.1 The Preparatory or Pre-Audit Phase
This process includes the following steps:

i. A one-day workshop/orientation programme on Social Audit will be held
at Ministry level with the Nodal Officers of States/UTs designated for
social audit in the beginning of financial year.
ii. The State Government will organize a briefing meeting with the State
Government officials including the designated nodal officer for Social
Audit, officials from SAU etc. Representative/s from the Ministry of
Education may also be invited to participate in the meeting.
iii. The SAU will share the district wise list of master trainers and cluster
wise social auditors with the Nodal Officer. The district-wise master
trainers will be mapped with the cluster/s of the respective districts.
iv. Training will be provided to Master Trainers at the State/UT level in

coordination with SIRD and School Education Department. The Master
Trainers will then be deployed at the district level to provide training to
the Cluster Social Auditors (CSAs) for PM POSHAN Scheme. The Master
Trainers will also provide training to SAFT members in conjunction with
DIET.
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v. The Cluster Social Auditor (CSA) will collect the data and records from
the school and verify it during the Social Audit phase. The list of data to
be collected from the school is attached at Annexure-III.
vi. The Cluster Social Auditor (CSA) deployed by the SAU at each cluster will
intimate Gram Panchayat about the schedule of conducting Social Audit
in the schools under their jurisdiction. The BEO shall also notify the
schedule to Gram Panchayat in writing and ensure that it is advertised
publicly in order to maximise the community participation in public
hearings at Village/Cluster and Block level i.e. at Gram Sabha and at
Block respectively.
vii. Block Panchayat will constitute a team for the facilitation of Social Audit
process at cluster level. The team will be constituted with the people
who are interested to be part of the Social Audit on volunteer basis. This
team may be termed as Social Audit Facilitation Team (SAFT). The team
will visit the school/s and facilitate the Social Audit for the Scheme under
the supervision of the CSA. The SAFT will consist of 6-8 persons and the
composition of the team will be as follows:
i) Two parents (one parent belonging to the EWS or socially backward

category/CWSN category).
ii) Two representatives from Village Organization of Woman (VOW) /
Women Self Help Groups (under NRLM) or in case, VOW is not
available in a particular village, two youths (preferably girls) from
nearby college
iii) One representative of a Civil Society Group working on education
iv) One retired Govt. Official or Rt. Defence Personnel
v) One representative of Local Authority (LA)
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viii. The following persons shall not be included in SAFT:
i) Any person directly or indirectly involved in activities associated
with PM POSHAN.
ii) Any Government official currently associated with the education or
related department.
14.4.2 The Social Audit Phase:
14.4.2.1 Social Audit Process at School/Community Level:
The Social Audit in the school will include the following:

i) Understanding the role played by the different functionaries involved
in the scheme.
ii) The Social Audit should be conducted in a manner that does not
disrupt the regular functioning of the school.
iii) The SAFT must make an effort to meet not just the teachers and the
headmaster but also the SMC members.
iv) The Social Audit facilitators must also speak to a sample of children
from each class using child-friendly methods to get information from
them.
v) A sample of parents, other than the SMC members should also be
part of the SAFT’s mandatory list of respondents.
vi) The SAFT’s visit (under the supervision of CSA) should be publicized
widely to enable parents or other community members to give their
inputs to the Team if they so desire.
vii) The SAFT should be accessible to seek inputs from all stakeholders
during the Social Audit period.
viii) The views of the students & parents related to various aspects of the
PM POSHAN scheme should also be sought and recorded.
The detailed checklist of documents to be provided to social audit team is
attached at Annexure III.
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The major points which may be paid more attention during the actual
verification/audit at the school level are attached to Annexure IV.
14.4.2.2 Public Hearings
a) Support for Public Hearings: Public Hearings open to all will be

organized at Village, Block and district level as a culmination of the
Social Audit process phase. The administration will widely publicize
about the Public Hearings including its date and venue for participation
of public to the hearings. The basic facilities including drinking water,
microphones and video recording set up etc. will be arranged by the
administration. The hearing must be attended by all elected
representatives and functionaries at that level. The District Magistrate
may attend or depute a senior official to attend the public hearings.
b) Village level Public Hearing: Within three days after the Social
Audit in all identified schools in particular GP, a village level Public
Hearing open to all shall be conducted at the Gram Panchayat. In the
Public Hearing, the school-wise Social Audit findings will be read out.
In scheduled areas, public hearing shall be held at the block level only.
c) Public Hearing at Block/District level: After completion of social

audits at GPs in a block, a Block Panchayat/ Mandal Panchayat/
Panchayat Samiti level public hearing should be organized within 15
days. The Block level public hearing panel may include representatives
of the Deputy Commissioner, SAU, District Panchayat, SHG federation,
CSO, media and academic representative. The Block level public
hearing shall:
i) Conduct the social audit of PM POSHAN expenditure at the

Intermediate Panchayat level i.e. Block level
ii) Hear appeals on decisions taken at the GP level and pass orders
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iii) Pass orders on issues which were referred to it from the GP
iv) Review the issues on which no action has been taken
v) Review issues on which appropriate action has not been taken
vi) Refer certain issues to the district level for deliberation and
decision
vii) Give suggestions to improve the implementation.
d) Similarly, at district level, findings of audit will be presented before

public authorities. The line Departments are required to attend the
meeting/public hearing to address the issues pertaining to their
department.
e) The following points should be paid attention while organizing the

Social Audit public hearings for the PM POSHAN scheme:
i) The local community shall be informed about the Public Hearing by

the Department as well as the Social Audit Unit to ensure full
participation
ii) The PM POSHAN scheme functionaries of various levels including

officials/representatives from MoE, Government of India, may
participate in the Social Audit public hearings
iii) All participants shall be encouraged to testify, and the concerned

official/functionary will respond by giving a clarification or an
explanation in public as to why a certain action was taken or not
taken
iv) The functionary will specify the time period and mode of action to
be taken by him/her to rectify gaps or lapsesas identified during
the audit process in the implementation of the scheme
v) Nodal Department for PM POSHAN Schemeshall ensure that timely

remedial / corrective action is taken on the findings and
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recommendations of social audit reports as per applicable rules
and procedures prevalent in the State. In case of inaction or delay,
the SAU may escalate the issue to DoSEL, Ministry of Education,
Govt of India.
14.4.2.3 Periodicity of School Social Audit
a) The SAU shall finalise the schedule to conduct Social Audits in active
consultation with the DoSEL / Nodal Department implementing PM
POSHAN scheme in the State. The schedule shall be designed in such
manner that all activities of social audit are completed within the
finalised time frame. A suggestive timeline for different activities is
given at Annexure – V.
b) At least 2% of the schools or 20 schools, whichever is high, in each

district will be covered under social audit. Also, the social audit of
centralised kitchens shall be conducted every year including visits to
the centralised kitchen.
c) The Social Audit Facilitation Team (SAFT) will conduct the social audit
in such a manner that all schools are covered within the prescribed
timelines.
14.4.3 The Follow-up or Post Audit Phase - Action on the social audit
findings
a) Action on social audit findings shall be taken in a time-bound manner.
b) It is mandatory for the representatives of the implementing agency of

the State as well as District level to be present at the social audit public
hearing and shall ensure that corrective action is taken on the findings
and shall implement the decisions taken at the public hearing
positively;
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c) Wherever, in the course of a social audit, if evidence, through written
and oral testimonies against those who have misappropriated funds or
food grains etc, remedial / punitive action shall be initiated, and
recovery shall be made. The action for recovery shall be without
prejudice and action to be taken against the person / agency should be
as per relevant laws/rules;
d) The reporting formats to conduct the Social Audit must include all the
information starting from the basics. The format should consist of the
information received by CSA in pre-Audit Phase, verification reports
and the reports of issues found during the Audit Phase. Separate
formats for ATR may be included in the reporting format. (See
Annexure VI, VI A, VI B and VI C)
14.5 Training and Capacity Building of Social Audit Resource Persons
The training of various Resource Persons constitutes an important activity

in implementing and institutionalizing social audit:
a) National Institute of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj

(NIRD&PR)and National Institute of Nutrition(NIN) along with State
Institutes of Rural Development (SIRDs) shall be the training partners
for capacity building and training of the Social Audit Resource Persons.
b) NIRD&PR, NIN and SIRDs shall prepare Field Verification formats, and
training materials etc. in collaboration with Department of SE&L, on:
i) Framework for implementation of PM POSHAN scheme including the

availability of school infrastructure, entitlements of children under
NFSA etc.
ii) Social Audit process, preparation of annual calendar, ethical

guidelines, mobilization, facilitation of Gram Sabha, public hearing,
conduct of group discussion, interaction with beneficiaries etc.
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iii) PM POSHAN Social Audit guidelines.
iv) MIS Module for social audit including data entry on the portal.
14.5.1 Training of Master Trainers
The district wise Master Trainers identified and selected by the SAU will be
trained at the State/UT level. The training will be imparted by the SIRD
and the SAU, based on training modules prepared by NIRD&PR and NIN.
Further, the training modules will be modified according to the language
and culture of States/UTs by the respective SIRDs.
14.5.2 Training of Cluster Social Auditors
The Cluster Social Auditor (CSA) identified by the SAU for conducting the
Social Audit at the cluster level will be responsible for conducting the
Social Audit in the schools of that cluster. The Master Trainers (SAU
Resource Person at district level) will train the CSAs (SAUs Resource
Persons at Cluster Level) from a theoretical and practical point of view.
The CSAs will be trained on the basic concepts of Social Audit, details of
entitlements and interventions under PM POSHAN scheme, National Food
Security Act, the roles and responsibilities, records & data collection, use
of MIS, Methodology of conducting Social Audit, including filling up the
various formats and report preparation on the findings during the Social
Audit process.
14.5.3 Training of the Social Audit Facilitation Team (SAFT)
It must be ensured that the persons involved in conducting the Social

Audit have a clear understanding of the PM POSHAN scheme, Social Audit
process and the National Food Security Act. For this, thorough training
must be organized for the SAFTs at BRC/CRC level. The training to SAFT
shall be imparted by Master Trainer immediately after the constitution of
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SAFT. The training of 4-5 SAFTs may be conducted together. The SAFT
members will be trained on entitlements under PM POSHAN scheme,
community involvement in PM POSHAN scheme, social accountability,
social audit etc.
14.6 Submission of Reports
a) The SAU engaged for conducting social audit should submit the report
to the State Government within one month of completion of public
hearings.
b) The State Nodal Officer shall take action/ensure appropriate action is

taken by implementing officials at village/Block/District/State nodal
department and submit Action taken reports to Principal Secretary of
Nodal Department within 30 days of receipt of report.
c) The Principal Secretary of Nodal Department shall review the ATR and
recommend whether the issues can be closed. If no action is taken or
ATR is not satisfactory, the issues will be reverted to the State Nodal
Officer for re-examination within 15 days of receipt of ATR from SNO.
Thereafter, the SNO shall address the issues within 15 days and
apprise the Principal Secretary of Nodal Department.
d) The State / UT will share the final State level report and ATR thereon
with DoSEL, MoE within 3 months of receipt of report from SAU.
e) Reports of Social Audit and action taken thereon may be uploaded on

MIS portal available in public domain.
f) MoE shall review of the progress of Social Audit of PM POSHAN scheme

on half yearly basis. State/UT shall prepare a consolidated report on
Social Audit progress highlighting the major issues found and Action
Taken. The officials from SAU should also participate in the half yearly
review meeting of the Social Audit of PM POSHAN Scheme.
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14.7 Funding for Social Audit
For the conduct of Social Audit, funds will be required for various activities
such as hiring of resource persons for facilitation of Social Audit, training
of resource persons, organizing seminars/meetings/workshops, monitoring
and evaluation of Social Audit process, preparation and submission of
reports etc. The expenditure on conducting Social Audit will be met from
the Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (MME) funds under PM
POSHAN Scheme. Upto 10% of the funds available under MME component
may be earmarked for Social Audit. Moreover, States and UTs shall
endeavour to pool-in resources in convergence with other schemes.
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15. Monitoring of the scheme
Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman also provided for a 4-tier institutional
mechanism for programme management, through the constitution of
Steering-cum-Monitoring Committees at the National, State, District and
Block levels as mentioned earlier. Department of School Education and
Literacy, Ministry of Education has prescribed a comprehensive and
elaborate mechanism for monitoring and supervision of the Scheme. The
monitoring mechanism includes the following:
15.1 Arrangements for local level monitoring: Representatives of Gram

Panchayats/ Gram Sabhas, members of SMCs, VECs, PTAs, SDMCs as well
as Mothers’ Committees are required to monitor the (i) regularity and
wholesomeness of the meals served to children, (ii) cleanliness in cooking
and serving of the meals, (iii) timeliness in procurement of good quality
ingredients, fuel, etc, (iv) implementation of varied menu, (v) social and
gender equity on a daily basis.
15.2 Display of Information: In order to ensure transparency and

accountability, all schools and centres, where the programme is being
implemented, are required to display the following information at a visible
place in the campus for the notice of the general public:
a) Quantity of food grains received, date of receipt.
b) Quantity of food grains utilized
c) Other ingredients purchased, utilized
d) Number of children provided meals.
e) Daily Menu
f) Roster of Community Members for supervision and monitoring.
15.3 Block Level Committee: A broad based Steering-cum-Monitoring

Committee also monitors implementation of the Scheme at the block level.
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15.4 Inspections by State Government Officers: Officers of the State
Governments/UTs belonging to the Departments of Revenue, Rural
Development, Education and other related sectors, such as Women and
Child Development, Food, Health etc. are also required to inspect schools
and centres where the programme is being implemented. It has been
recommended that 25% of the schools/special training centres are visited
every quarter.
15.5 District Level Committee: Besides a District Level Steering-cum-

Monitoring Committee for monitoring the scheme, a District Level
Committee under the Chairmanship of senior most Member of Parliament
(MP) of the district has been constituted to monitor the scheme on
quarterly basis.
15.6 Periodic Returns: The State Government/UT is also required to submit

periodic returns to the Department of School Education and Literacy, GOI
to provide information on (i) coverage of children and institutions, (ii)
number of school days (iii) Progress in utilization of central assistance (iv)
availability of necessary infrastructure in schools, (v) any untoward
incident etc.
15.7 Grievance Redressal : States and Union Territories are required to

develop a dedicated mechanism for public grievance redressal, which
should be widely publicized and made easily accessible
15.8 State level Monitoring: States and UT Administrations are also required
to set up a Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee at the State level to
oversee the implementation of the Scheme. States/UTs have deployed
independent institutions for the evaluation of the Scheme.
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15.9 National level:
a) Empowered Committee has been set up under the Chairmanship of
Hon’ble Minister, Ministry of Education for monitoring the access, safety,
hygiene and quality aspects in the implementation of the scheme; Review
mechanism is in place to ensure effective monitoring and evaluation of the
scheme; Mechanism is in place for community participation in the scheme
and its effective monitoring.
b) National Level Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee (NSMC) under the
Chairpersonship of Secretary (SE&L)
c) Programme Approval Board (PAB) under the Chairpersonship of Secretary
(SE&L).
d) National Meetings with Education Secretaries and Regional Review
Meetings are also held to monitor implementation of the scheme.
e) The Department of School Education & Literacy may engage third party
independent monitoring institutions like food and nutrition departments of
various Central/ States universities, National Institute of Nutrition under
ICMR, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, etc. who are domain experts,
to collect anthropometric measurement data of children like height,
weight, food quality etc. which will be useful to monitor periodically the
health, nutrition, food parameters towards better implementation of the
scheme.
f) Field visits for monitoring the implementation of the scheme in the States
& UTs.
15.10 Monitoring by Students of DIETs and RIEs etc: States and UTs have
been advised to involve students of eminent Universities / Institutions and
also trainee teachers of District Institute of Education Training and
Regional Institutes of Education, for enhanced monitoring of
implementation of scheme at field level.
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15.11 Joint Review Missions
a) DoSEL has constituted Joint Review Missions Headed by Deans/ HOD of
Home Science Colleges/ Scientists of NIN, members from MoE, State
Governments, members from UNICEF and Consultants of TSG – PM
POSHAN visit State and UTs as per defined Terms of Reference and
submit report for necessary actions.
b) Every year the JRM shall visit 8-10 States to review the implementation of
the scheme at State, district and at school levels on defined parameters.
The report helps in understanding the status of the scheme at all levels
and provides actions points to deal with the issues with the available
resources.
c) The report also brings out the status of nutritional status of the identified
children through anthropometric measurements and dietary intake. The
nutrition experts help in recording Anthropometric data such as Body Mass
Index (BMI), dietary intake on real time basis etc.
d) The concerned State / UT will submit Action taken report on the findings
of JRM within a period of one month of submission of report for review by
the Bureau Head.
e) Follow up visits will be undertaken within six to nine months of visit of
JRM.
f) The Terms of Reference of JRMs are as under:
i. Review the fund flow from State to Schools/implementing agencies.
ii. Review the coverage of the Scheme
iii. Review the availability of Management Structure at State, District,
Block level
iv. Review the delivery mechanism of food grains from State to
Schools
v. Review the smooth implementation of the Scheme with particular
reference to Interruptions.
vi. Review the Creation of Capital Assets
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vii. Construction of Kitchen-cum-stores
viii. Procurement/Replacement of Kitchen Devices
ix. Review the involvement of NGO’s/Trust/Centralized kitchens in the
Scheme
x. Review the payment of Cost of Food grains to Food Corporation of
India
xi. Review the convening the meetings of District Level Committee
under Chairpersonship of senior most Member of Parliament.(Lok
Sabha)
xii. Review the Management Information System (MIS)
xiii. Review the implementation of Automated Monitoring System
xiv. Convergence with Rastriya Bal Swasthya Karyakram for health
check-up, supplementation of micronutrients under WIFS &
deworming medicine under National deworming day and health
checkups and supply of spectacles to children suffering from
refractive errors.
xv. Operationalization of Mid-Day Meal Rules, 2015
xvi. Dissemination of Food Safety Guidelines up to District, Block and
School
xvii. Enrolment of children and Cook-cum-Helpers under Aadhaar
xviii. Payment of Honorarium to Cook-cum-Helpers
xix. System of Storage food grains and other ingredients
xx. Role of Teachers in PM Poshan.
xxi. Tasting of meal by Teacher, Parents and Community.
xxii. Testing of meals
xxiii. Involvement of Community
xxiv. Bank Account of Cook-cum-helpers
xxv. Awareness of the Scheme
xxvi. Contingency Plan
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Nutritional aspects:
xxvii. To assess the anthropometric measurements of a sample of

children availing Meal
xxviii. Height, Weight, Mid arm Circumference
xxix. To Calculate the Body Mass Index (BMI) on the basis of
measurement of height and weight.
xxx. To identify the children who are undernourished and over
nourished.
xxxi. To review the quality and quantity of the served Meal.
xxxii. To review the satisfaction of the children parents and community
on the served meal in respect of quality and quantity.
xxxiii. To suggest some nutritionally balanced region specific recipes.
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16. Management Information System & Automated Monitoring System
16.1 Management Information Systems:

i. Web enabled PM Poshan-MIS has been launched for effective online
monitoring of the Scheme.
ii. The portal captures information on important parameters like category
wise enrollment, teacher details, cook-cum-helpers details with social
composition, availability of Infrastructural facilities like Kitchen-cum-stores
& Kitchen devices, mode of cooking, drinking water, toilet facilities etc. on
annual basis.
iii. The States/UTs are also feeding monthly data into the portal, which helps
in monitoring the critical components/ indicators of the scheme such as
no. of meals served, utilization of food grain & cooking cost, honorarium
paid to cook-cum-helpers, school inspection details etc.
iv. State will ensure that monthly data for 100% schools is entered in the MIS
portal by 15th of succeeding month.
v. The data available on MIS in the form of a dashboard may be used for
monitoring purposes.
16.2 Automated Monitoring System (AMS) :
i. This department has put in place an automated system of data collection

for real time monitoring of PM POSHAN.
ii. Such data (on number of meals served on that particular day and reasons
if meals not served) is being captured from schools with no cost to school
Head Master/Teacher.
iii. Under the automated monitoring system, States/UTs have set up a
suitable system of data collection (i.e. Interactive Voice Response System
(IVRS)/SMS/Mobile Application/Web Application) from schools on a daily
basis and using it for purpose of monitoring and timely follow up action.
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iv. States/UTs are pushing data on specific fields in a predefined format on a
real time basis to the Central Server maintained by NIC.
v. A central portal for analysis and display of data at the Central level. Based
on the data collected, various drill down reports are made available for
real time monitoring of the scheme at National/State/District/Block level.
Data on important parameters available on dashboard may be used for
monitoring purposes.
vi. Daily email alerts are sent to States/UTs regarding number of schools
which have reported data on that particular date and schools where meals
have not been served. It has been implemented in all the States and UTs.
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17. Annual work Plan & Budget and Periodic Returns
17.1 Preparation of AWP&B
i) Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Scheme assigns importance to the

preparation of Annual Work Plan & Budget (AWP&B) by States/UT
Administrations based on information maintained at school level and
aggregated in Block, District and State level. It envisages a bottom-up
approach, rather than a top-down approach to planning. It is necessary
that there is documentation of the process of plan preparation to ensure
that they have been prepared at the School level through participatory
planning processes.
ii) The AWP&B framework is designed to provide a comprehensive picture of
present scenario in the State as far as implementation of Scheme is
concerned. It contains details of Management Structure, Implementation
processes, Monitoring systems, infrastructure position, findings of
evaluation studies, strategies to tackle problems, community participation,
best practices and new initiatives etc.,
iii) State governments and UT Administrations will prepare a comprehensive
AWP&B, inter alia, with detailed district-wise vital information on coverage
of children, working days and schools; enrolment in schools; utilisation of
food grains, utilisation of cooking cost, Transportation Assistance, MME,
payment of honorarium to CCH, payment of cost of food grains to FCI,
Engagement of CCH, construction of kitchen-cum-stores, procurement of
kitchen devices etc. The AWP&B also contains proposals on the above
parameters for the ensuing year also.
17.2 Assistance for Drought Affected Areas and Disaster Affected Areas:
i) Central Assistance will also be given to schools during disaster times and
during summer vacations in areas which are formally notified by the State
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Government as ‘drought affected’ in accordance with its established
procedure and guidelines of Government of India, if any.
ii) Since the notification is valid for a period of one year, the State
Government may submit their Action Plan in the framework of Annual
Work Plan & Budget itself.
iii) In case notification declaring an area as ‘drought-affected’ is issued at a
time when summer vacation has already commenced or is about to
commence, State Govt. should provide meals in schools located in such
areas in anticipation of release of Central assistance. Food grains for
implementing the programme in summer vacation should be drawn
against the concerned district’s annual allocation, which will be suitably
augmented by the Ministry in due course to cover the resultant additional
requirement of food grains for the year. Such arrangements apply to
disaster affected areas also.
17.3 Meetings of Programme Approval Board:
i) The AWP&B presented by the State Governments and UT Administrations

will be placed before the Programme Approval Board. Approval will be
contingent on the budgetary commitments made by the concerned State
Governments and UT Administrations for the State’s contribution towards
its minimum mandatory share. Based on the deliberations and approval
accorded by the PAB, Central Assistance would be sanctioned/ released:
ii) While seeking Central Assistance States and UTs will be required to give
an undertaking that they have not actually reduced their own budgetary
allocation in any year below the level of BE.
iii) It will also be mandatory for State Governments and UT Administrations
to ensure that in case of any saving in material cost (per child per meal),
the same may only be utilised for providing supplementary nutritional
items to those children. In case such savings are not used for
supplementary nutrition the same shall be added to the unspent balances.
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17.4 The AWP&B formats shall have Write up and Tables, these may be
reviewed and revised from time to time and are available on the
Ministry’s website:
i. State and District Write up: shall contain information on all the
components in brief. Implementation of the scheme throughout the year
along with the proposal for next year.
ii. State and District Tables shall have district wise information on all the
components in a tabular format. Implementation of the scheme
throughout the year along with the proposal for next year.
iii. Appraisal of AWP&B: the appraisal of implementation of scheme and

proposal for coming year shall be carried out prior to the PAB meeting at
MoE. On the basis of the State/UT wise appraisal the recommendations
shall be made for PAB meeting for consideration. During the PAB meeting
the proposal of the State/UT Administration are considered and approvals
along with appropriate advisories and directions for the next year are
given by the PAB.
17.5 Periodic Return
The State Nodal Department will furnish progress reports as per the formats
made available on the Ministry’s website, on the Scheme to the Ministry of
Education, as per following details: -
S No Title of the Return Due date for receipt in the

Ministry
1 Monthly Report on Off-take of 15 of the following month
th
Food grains
2 Quarterly Progress Report Within one month from the end of
(QPR) the Quarter
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It may be noted that the proforma for the QPR includes, inter alia,
information regarding coverage of children, progress of provision of
infrastructure, and unspent balance of Central assistance at the end of the
quarter. Failure to furnish information about unspent balance will affect
further release of Central assistance.
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18. Cooking Competition
18.1 Cooking Competition as “Janandolan Movement”

States & UTs may organize the competition like “Janandolan movement”
basis in all blocks/Tehsils to ensure wider participation.
18.2 Schedule (Time, Venue, days) for Competition

i) The competition may be organized preferably on a school holiday
(Sankranti, Onam, Bihu, Chatt, Navratrietc to create festive atmosphere)
may be selected so that meals preparation during the school days is not
affected due to the participation of the cook cum helper in the
competition and number of participants increases.
ii) A suitable place may be selected for competition to ensure that the
competition is held in a safe and hygienic environment.
18.3 Identification/selection of CCH/others interested to participate

i) All cook-cum helpers may be encouraged to participate in the
competition. Interested community members may also be allowed to
participate along with CCHs in the competition.
ii) They may also be informed about the prize to be given to the winner of
the competition. Two participants (cook cum helpers/community
members) may be rewarded per block after competition.
18.4 Identification of activities to be carried out

i) Cooking of pulses/cooking of vegetables/different types of chapattis
ii) Methods of cooking,
iii) Methods of washing and cleaning food items,
iv) Food safety aspects,
v) Personal hygiene, hand washing etc.
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18.5 Selection of Judges for the competition
Students (2 children each from primary and upper primary classes), teachers,
nutritionists, community members etc of that block/district may be made
judges for these competitions.
18.6 Award for winners and publicity

i) The winners of these competitions may be awarded suitably. Expenditure
for the cooking competitions may be met from MME funds.
ii) A compendium of the winning recipes may be circulated to all the
districts and a copy may also be shared with MoE.
iii) Publicity in social/local media before and after competition may be
carried out.
18.7 Other significant benefits
i) The whole cooking completion may be very interactive, for creating

interest and increased effectiveness. Discussions during the Cooking
competition may be carried out among the cook-cum-helpers, experts of
nutrition and children regarding the importance of green leafy
vegetables, (as sources of minerals and vitamins) pulses (as a source of
good proteins) and Double fortified salt (importance of iron and iodine in
diet) etc.
ii) Discussions may be done with nutrition experts regarding food safety
measures viz., washing vegetables before cutting, cooking a recipe in a
container with lids on to preserve vitamins and essential nutrients during
the process of cooking may be helpful.
iii) These cooking competitions among the cook cum helpers of different
districts of the same State and UT shall bring out the local variation in a
same recipe through addition of different condiments or modes of
preparation (i.e. frying/boiling/shallow frying etc).
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iv) During the Cooking Competition emphasis may be given on making a
recipe more interesting so that the children are motivated for
consumption, as if the children are satisfied while eating a recipe he/she
shall converse in family and the parents shall also learn the ways to
prepare same recipe the way the child wants to consume. This way the
cooking competition may act as a source of training about a recipe in a
cascading way up to family level also.
v) State and UTs may need to develop their own standard operating
procedures and undertake the cooking completion in a holistic manner
on a continuous basis.
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Annexure-I
Suggested Composition of Steering cum Monitoring Committee at

National, State, District and Block Levels under PM POSHAN Scheme
Sl. Position National State District Block

No
1. Chairman Secretary, Chief Secretary / Collector/CEO-Zila Sub-Divisional
Department of Additional Chief Panchayat Officer/Block
School Education Secretary / Dev. Panchayat Officer
& Literacy Commissioner
2. Ex-Officio 1. Joint Secretary 1. Ppl. Secy./Secy. 1. Distt. Education 2. Block Edn.
Members in charge of the School Education Officer Officer
Programme in
Deptt. of School 1A. Ppl. Secy/Secy in 1a. Distt. Level 1A. Block level
Education & charge of Nodal Officer of Nodal Officer of Nodal
Literacy Deptt. for the Deptt. for the Deptt. for the
Programme (where it Programme (where Programme
is a Deptt. other than it is a Deptt. other (where it is a
school Edn.) than School Deptt. other than
Education) School Education)
2. Fin. Advisor, 2. Ppl. Secy/Secy, - -
Ministry of Finance Department
Education
3. Advisor 3. Ppl. Secy/Secy, - -
(Education), Planning Commission
Planning
Commission
4. Joint Secretary, 4. Ppl. Secy/Secy, 2. Civil Surgeon / 2. Med. Officer in-
Ministry of Health Health & FW Distt. Med. Officer charge. PHC
& FW
5. Joint Secretary, 5. Ppl. Secy./Secy. 3. Distt Food & Civil 3. Block / Sub
Ministry of Food & Food & Civil Supply Supplies Officer. Divn. Level Officer
PD of Food Deptt.
6. Joint Secretary, 6. Ppl. Secy/Secy. 4. Distt. Level 4. Block / Sub
Deptt. of WCD (in Deptt. of WCD Officer of FCI Divn. Level Officer
charge of of FCI.
Nutrition)
7. Jt. Secretaries 7. Ppl. Secy/Secy.: 5. i) CEO. Zila 5. i) CEO. Block
in the Ministries of i) Rural Development Panchayat. Panchayat
i) Rural ii) Urban ii) One rep. Of a ii) One rep. Of a
Development Development Municipal body / MPL. Body.
ii) Urban &Poverty Alleviation Deptt. of MPL.
Employment & Admn.
Poverty Alleviation
8. Managing 8. State Level Officer 6. Distt. Level 6. Block / Sub
Director, FCI or his of FCI Officer of FCI Dvn. Level Officer
Representative of FCI
3. Other 1. Two Experts in 1. Two Experts in the 1. One Expert in 1. One Expert in
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Sl. Position National State District Block
No
Members the area of area of nutrition the area of the area of
to be nutrition 2. Four persons of nutrition/child nutrition / child
nominated 2. Four persons of whom at least two development development (if
by whom at least two shall be women with 2. Four persons of available)
Chairman shall be women, significant whom at least two 2. Four persons of
with significant contribution/achieve shall be women, whom at least two
contribution / ments in the area of with significant shall be women
achievements in nutrition / child contribution / with significant
the area of welfare/community / achievements in contribution/
nutrition / child women’s mobilisation the area of achievements in
welfare / / school education / nutrition / child the area of
community/women child health welfare / nutrition’s / child
’s mobilization / 3. Representatives of community / welfare /
school education / 3-5 Districts women’s community
child health. 4. At least one mobilization / women’s
3. Representatives representative of school education / mobilization /
of five State Govts. teachers child health school education /
(one from each 3. Representatives of child health
region) 3-5 Blocks / 3. Representa-
4. At least one Municipal Bodies tives of 3-5 Gram
representative of 4. At least one Panchayats
teachers representative of 4. At least one
teachers representative of
teachers
4. Member Deputy State level HOD of District level Officer Block/Sub-
Secretary Secretary/Director the Nodal of the Nodal Divisional level
in-charge of the Department for the Department Officer of the
Prog. in Programme Nodal Department.
Department of
School Education
& Literacy
Note:-
1. In addition to the membership suggested above, State Governments should also
nominate MPs and MLAs on State and District level SMCs, in a suitable manner.
2. One of the six persons to be nominated in State-level SMC under sub categories (1)
and (2) of category 3, may, as far as possible, be the senior most officer of Food &
Nutrition Board of the Govt. of India, posted in the State/UT capital. Other experts
could be drawn from institutions like:-
I. National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad.
II. Nutrition Foundation of India
III. National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development (NIPCCD), New
Delhi.
IV. All-India Institute of Hygiene & Public Health, Kolkata.
V. Central Food & Technological Research Institute, Mysore.
VI. University Department /Faculty of Nutrition (Wherever in existence)
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Annexure-II
No. F. 5-1/2006-Desk(MDM)
Govt. of India
Ministry of Human Resource Development
Department of Elementary Education & Literacy
Mid-Day Meal Division
***
Shastri Bhawan, New Delhi
9th March, 2006.
ORDER
With the approval of the competent authority it has been decided to

constitute a Programme Approval Board for Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDM-PAB) to
examine the Annual Work Plan of programme implementation of each State/UT
before releasing Central Assistance. Each State Government’s Department incharge
of Mid-Day Meal Scheme shall furnish all essential/relevant information in the Annual
Work Plan (district-wise) including new initiatives/innovations/good practices, and
the same shall be considered by the MDM-PAB at the commencement of each
financial year for approval.
As Central Assistance under MDM Scheme is being released biannually in two

instalments, the progress of implementation would also be appraised by the MDM-
PAB before releasing the IInd instalment.
2. In pursuance of the above, the MDM-PAB shall comprise of the following

persons:-
1. Secretary to Govt. of India, Ministry of Human Resource Chairperson

Development, Department of Elementary Education & Literacy
2. Director, NIEPA, or his representative Member
3. Director, NCERT, or his representative Member
4. Joint Secretary, Elementary Education-II, Department of Member
Elementary Education & Literacy
5. Joint Secretary, Elementary Education-I, Department of Member
Elementary Education & Literacy
6. Joint Secretary, Adult Education, Department of Elementary Member
Education & Literacy
7. Joint Secretary, Planning, Department of Secondary & Higher Member
Education
8. Financial Advisor, HRD Member
9. Advisor (Education), Planning Commission or his representative Member
10. Joint Secretary, Women & Child Development Department Member
11. Joint Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution Member
12. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Incharge of SGRY Member
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13. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern States Member
14. Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Prabha Gupta, Technical Advisor, Food & Member
Nutrition Board, Department of WCD, New Delhi.
15. Dr. (Mrs.) Prema Ramachandran, Director, Nutrition Foundation Member
of India, New Delhi
16. Director/ Dy. Secretary/ Dy. Ednl. Adviser incharge Member
Secretary
3. The non-official members shall be reimbursed TA/DA as per Central Govt.

rules.
Sd/-
(P. K. Mohanty)
Dy. Educational Advisor
Copy:
1. Private Secretary to Minister of Human Resource Development
2. Private Secretary to Minister of State in the Ministry of Human Resource
Development
3. Sr. Principal Private Secretary to Secretary, Department of Elementary
4. Sr. Principal Private Secretary to Secretary, Department of Secondary &
Higher Education
5. Financial Adviser, MoHRD
6. Adviser (Education), Planning Commission
7. Director, NIEPA, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016.
8. Director, NCERT, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi-110016.
9. Joint Secretary (Elementary Education-II), Department of Elementary
10. Joint Secretary, Adult Education, Department of Elementary Education &
Literacy
11. Joint Secretary, Planning, Department of Secondary & Higher Education
12. Joint Secretary, Women & Child Development Department
13. Joint Secretary, Department of Food & Public Distribution
14. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development, Incharge of SGRY
15. Joint Secretary, Ministry of Development of North-Eastern States
16. Joint Secretary (Elementary Education-I) Department of Elementary Education
& Literacy
17. Dr. (Mrs.) Shashi Prabha Gupta, Technical Advisor, Food & Nutrition Board,
Department of WCD, Jeevan Deep Bldg, 2nd Floor, Parliament Street, New
Dlehi.
18. Dr. (Mrs.) Prema Ramachandran, Director, Nutrition Foundation of India, 1-
13, Qutab Institutional Area, New Delhi-110016.
19. Principal Secretary / Secretary of the Nodal Department for NP-NSPE in all
State Governments / UT Administrations, for information.
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Annexure-III
List of Documents and Data to be provided by the school to Social Auditor
1) Stock register of Food grains
2) Stock register of other ingredients i.e. pulses, oil, condiments & Salt etc
3) Daily attendance register
4) Statement certifying payment of honorarium to Cook-cum-Helpers
5) Tasting of meal register
6) Monthly and Annual data entry report under MIS
7) Document certifying the prominent display of entitlements
8) Detailed list of representatives in SMC
9) Minutes of SMC meetings
10) Details of complaints and ATR
11) Account statements
12) Any other relevant record
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Annexure – IV
Indicative parameters for verification during Social Audit
1. Regularity of provision of hot cooked meal

2. Food grains
3. Utilisation of cooking cost
4. Cook-cum-Helpers
5. Prominent Display of information
6. Kitchen-cum-stores
7. Kitchen Devices
8. School Nutrition Garden
9. Tithi Bhojan
10. Availability of children health cards
11. Health check up of children – regularity
12. Distribution of IFA, de-worming tablets, spectacles
13. Safety and hygiene aspects
14. Disaster mitigation preparedness
15. Tasting of meal by SMC / teachers / parents
16. Grievance Redressal Mechanism
17. Community Involvement
18. Vocal for Local
19. Involvement of women self help groups
20. Involvement of farmers producer organisations
21. Cooking competition
22. Inspection reports of officials – points raised, followup remedial action
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Annexure – V
Activities and Suggestive timelines for conducting Social Audit
S. Activity Timeline
No.
1 A one-day workshop/orientation programme on Social By 15th April
Audit at national level with States & UTs
2 Briefing meeting with the State Within the month of
Government officials involved in Social Audit. April
Representative from MoE may also be invited.
3 Selection of schools (20 schools or 2% of the total By 15th May
schools in the district, whichever is higher)
4 District wise mapping of Master Trainers with Cluster By 15th May
wise social auditors
5 Training of social audit teams By 15th June
6 Data collection from schools By 15th August
7 Notification of Public Hearing (Jan Sunwai) schedule to Within 7 days of data
Gram Panchayats in writing and its advertisement and collection
wide publicity to maximise community participation
8 Conduct of Public Hearing (Jan Sunwai) Within 15 days of data
collection (By 31st
August)
9 Submission of Report by SAU to SNO By 30th September
10 Action Taken report by SNO to Principal Secretary of By 30th October
Nodal Department for PM POSHAN Scheme
11 If no action is taken or ATR is not satisfactory, the issues By 15th November
will be reverted to SNO for re-examination by Principal
Secretary
12 SNO addresses the issues and submits revised ATR to the By 30th November
Principal Secretary of Nodal Department
13 Discussion on social audit findings and action taken By 15th December
thereon in State Steering cum Monitoring Committee
(SSMC) meeting
14 Submission of final State level report and ATR thereon, By 30th December
incorporating the remarks of SSMC to DoSEL, MoE
15 Discussion of findings from Social Audit in PAB meeting PAB meeting of
of Respective State / UT respective State/UT
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Annexure - VI
Reporting Formats
The reporting after each social audit consists of three sections (Basic Data,
Verification Details, and Issues) as detailed below:
1. Basic Data
S. No. Data Remarks
1. Social Audit Period
2. Public hearing dates
3. Number of people who attended public hearing
4. Observer name and designation
5. Photos/Videos (if possible) #
Note: Minutes of the meeting should be attached.
# Photos/Videos may be uploaded on Google drive and the link may be shared.
2. Verification Details
 For each school that was visited, certain core information such as
current school infrastructure, photo of the school, details of free books
and uniforms distributed to the students.
 The response of each beneficiary (students and parents) who was
interacted should be provided.
 It should be verified whether the beneficiary is aware of the benefits
and entitlements provided.
3. Issues
 All issues, irregularities, grievances noticed during the audit should be
noted down and the implementing agency should respond to each of
these, in a time bound manner.
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Annexure – VI (A)
Issues & Decisions in Public Hearings at Village Level and Block Level:
Category Sub- Issue Description Response / Responsible

/compon categor Decision in Gram Person for
ent y/Sub- Sabha taking
compon corrective
ent measures
(HM/Teacher
/BEO/ DEO
etc.)
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Annexure – VI (B)
Action Taken Report (ATR)
Issue Action Taken Verification Issue

by Resource status(closed/open)
Person If open, why?
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Annexure – VI (C)
Annual Report (School/Cluster/Block or District/State)
S.N. Issue Brief description of the Number of Number of

Category/Sub- issue issues filed issues
category closed
satisfactorily
1.
2.
3.
4.
Note:
 The annual report shall be prepared at different levels – school, cluster,
district &State.
 The reports at shall be made public at corresponding level e.g. School shall
display a copy of report on the notice board.
 The State and SAU shall upload various reports on their websites.
State wise consolidated reports shall be uploaded on portals/websites of DoSEL.
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Guidelines On PM POSHAN SCHEME 2022

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GOVERNMENT OF INDIA "HKd 'HY«t»IY

MINISTRY OF EDUCATION . f^TSTT Tf^llel'i|

DO No : l-3/2022-Desk(PM POSHAN) Dated, the 21st December, 2022

1. The Additional Chief Secretaries/Principal Secretaries/ Secretaries of Dept, of

Department of School Education & Literacy

2. Implementation Structure and Programme Management –

2.1 National level

3. Component wise Programmatic Norms and Financial Norms

3.1 Food grains

4.1 Release mechanism- Conditions of releases

5. Food grains Management

5.1 Allocation of Food grains

6. Quality and safety aspects

6.1 Lifting and transportation of food grains

7.1 Concept of School Nutrition (Kitchen) Gardens

8. Supplementary Nutrition in Aspirational districts and districts

8.1 Selection of district

9. Information, Education and Communication (IEC)

9.1 Display of entitlements of children at a prominent place

10. Vocal for Local & Atmanirbhar Bharat

10.1 Involvement of FPOs and SHGs

11. Grievance Redressal Mechanism

11.1 Grievance Redressal Mechanism

12. Tithi Bhojan

12.1 Concept of Tithi Bhojan

13. Capacity Building

13.1 Training of CCH

14. Social Audit

15. Monitoring of the scheme

15.1 Arrangements for local level monitoring

16. Management Information System & Automated Monitoring

17. Annual work Plan & Budget and Periodic Returns

17.1 Preparation of AWP&B

18. Cooking Competition

18.1 Cooking Competition as “Jan Andolan Movement”

With a view to enhance enrolment, attendance and retention and

“We direct the State Governments/ Union Territories to

Schedule II of the NFSA, 2013 mandates provision of hot cooked meal

a) Preventing classroom hunger: Many children belonging to disadvantaged

b) Promoting school participation: School meals have a significant effect on

c) Facilitating healthy growth of children: School meals can also act as a

d) Intrinsic educational value: A well-organized school meals can be used as

f) Enhancing gender equity: The gender gap in school participation tends to

g) Psychological Benefits: Physiological deprivation leads to low self-esteem,

1.5 Beneficiaries under scheme

a) Bal Vatika Children

b) All children enrolled in classes I-V

All children enrolled in classes I-V in Government and Government Aided

c) All children enrolled in classes VI-VIII

All children enrolled in classes VI-VIII in Government and Government Aided

d) All children enrolled in National Child Labour Project (NCLP) schools

1.6 Components of the scheme

1.7 Food and Nutrition norms

Nutrition and food norms - Per child per day

Micronutrients like IFA etc and de-worming medicines are provided in

i. State/UT will authorize district/block nodal agency for developing indicative

1.9 Convergence with other development programmes

In addition to the regular assistance available under the Pradhan Mantri

A programme of the scale and magnitude of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan