Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Objectives and Features (2024)

What’s in today’s article?

• Why in News?
• About Mid-Day Meal Scheme
• Objectives of Mid-Day Meal Scheme
• Features of Mid-Day Meal Scheme
• Calorie Intake for Mid-Day Meal Scheme
• Implementation and Funding for Mid-Day Meal Scheme
• PM POSHAN Scheme
• About NAFED
• News Summary

Why in News?

• The Union Ministry of Education has written to State governments to procure pulses (chana dal) for the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) from NAFED.

About Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was started in India on 15^th August 1995 as ‘National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE)’.
• It was renamed as ‘National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools’ in October 2007, also known as the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme.
• Under the scheme, hot cooked meal per day is provided to all children (studying in Class I to VIII) enrolled in government schools, local body schools, government-aided schools, special training centres (STC), maktabs and madrasas supported under the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

Objectives of Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• To increase the enrolment in the schools of the children who belong to disadvantaged sections of the society.
• To increase the attendance of the children in government and government-aided schools.
• To retain the children studying in class I to VIII.
• To give nutritional support to the children studying in the elementary stage, especially in the drought-affected areas.

· To address hunger and malnutrition and improve socialisation among castes.

Features of Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• Every school should have a hygienic cooking infrastructure for hygienically cooked mid-day meals.
• The mid-day meals are to be served only on the school premises on all working days of the school.
• The headmaster or headmistress is entitled to utilise the school funds on account of mid-day meal fund exhaustion.
• Quality items with AGMARK are procured for cooking the mid-day meals in the schools.
  • AGMARK is a certification mark employed on agricultural products in India, assuring that they conform to a set of standards approved by the Ministry of Agricultural & Farmers Welfare.
• Two or three adult members taste the cooked meals from the school management committee.
• The Food and Drugs Administration Department of the State can collect samples for ensuring the quality and nutritional value of the meals.
• Food allowance is provided to the children when the cooked meals cannot be provided because of unforeseen circ*mstances in the following manner:
  • Quantity of the food grains according to the entitlement of a child, and

o Cooking cost prevailing in the respective state.

Calorie Intake for Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• The calories intake prescribed per child per school day is as follows:

Image Caption: Calorie Intake

Implementation and Funding for Mid-Day Meal Scheme

• Each State/UT has to set up State Steering-cum Monitoring Committees (SSMCs) at the State, District and Block level to oversee the implementation of this scheme, including establishing a mechanism to maintain the quality and nutritional standards of the meals.
• This is a Centrally Sponsored Scheme.
  • Hence, the cost is shared between the Centre (60%) and States (40%).
• Nodal Ministry – Ministry of Education

PM POSHAN Scheme

• In September 2021, Mid-Day Meal Scheme was renamed as Pradhan Mantri POSHAN Scheme.
• Major Changes introduced to the scheme are –
  • The scheme is proposed to be extended to students studying in pre-primary or Bal Vatikas of Government and Government-aided primary schools in addition to all the 11.80 crore children from elementary classes covered under the Mid-Day Meal scheme.
  • The concept of ‘TithiBhojan’ will be encouraged extensively.
    • TithiBhojan is a community participation programme in which people provide special food to children on special occasions/festivals.
  • Government is promoting development of School Nutrition Gardens in schools to give children first-hand experience with nature and gardening.
    • The harvest of these gardens will be used in the scheme to provide additional micro nutrients.
  • Social Audit of the scheme is made mandatory in all the districts.
  • Special provision is made for providing supplementary nutrition items to children in aspirational districts and districts with high prevalence of Anemia.
  • Cooking competitions will be encouraged at all levels right from village level to national level to promote ethnic cuisine and innovative menus based on locally available ingredients and vegetables.
  • Involvement of Farmers Producer Organizations and Women Self Help Groups in implementation of the scheme will be encouraged.
  • Use of locally grown traditional food items for a fillip to local economic growth will be encouraged.
  • Field visits for progress monitoring and inspections will be facilitated for students of eminent Universities/Institutions.

About NAFED

• National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Ltd.(NAFED) was established on the auspicious day of Gandhi Jayanti on 2^nd October 1958.
• It is registered under the Multi State Co-operative Societies Act, 2002.
• NAFED is now one of the largest procurement as well as marketing agencies for agricultural products in India.
• Objectives –
  • To facilitate, coordinate and promote the marketing and trading activities of the cooperative institutions, partners and associates in agricultural, other commodities, articles and goods;
  • To undertake purchase, sale and supply of agricultural, marketing and processing requisites, such as manure, seeds, fertilizer, agricultural implements and machinery, etc.;
  • To act as warehouseman under the Warehousing Act and own and construct its own godowns and cold storages;
• Agricultural farmers are the main members of NAFED, who have the authority to say in the form of members of the General Body in the working of NAFED.

News Summary

• The Union Ministry of Education has written to State governments to procure pulses (chana dal) for the Prime Minister’s Overarching Scheme for Holistic Nutrition (POSHAN) from NAFED.
• However, major states like Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has rejected the Union Ministry’s recommendation.
• West Bengal government has argued that during the Covid-19 pandemic, the chana supplied by NAFED was of extremely inferior quality, mixed with dust and gravel.
• Uttar Pradesh government has argued that the state has plenty of local supply and hence in need to procure pulses from NAFED.

Q1) Which states are the biggest producer of Pulses in India?

Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka are the top-producing states of pulses in India.

Q2) What is Balvatika Programme?

The Balvatika programme is envisaged as a one-year programme before Grade 1 which is meant to prepare children with cognitive and linguistic Competencies that are prerequisites for learning to read, write and develop number sense through a play-based approach.

Source:Buy mid-day meal pulses from Nafed, Centre tells states; UP, Bengal say no|NAFED