Mid Day Meal

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a multi-faceted programme of the Government of India that, among other things, seeks to address issues of food security, lack of nutrition and access to education on a pan nation scale.The main objective of MDM Programme in the State is to boost universalisation of Primary Education. It involves provision for free lunch on working days for children in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in Government, Government Aided, Local Body, Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternate Innovative Education (AIE) Centres, Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan and National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Schools run by Ministry of Labour.  Mid Day Meal with enhanced calorific energy content and increased quantity of proteins in food, is also expected to improve the nutritional status of children. The primary objective of the scheme is to provide hot cooked meal to children of primary and upper primary classes.with other objectives of improving nutritional status of children, encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities, increasing the enrollment, retention and attendance rates. According to the government, it is the world’s largest school feeding programme, reaching out to about 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centres across the country.

Research Findings on Mid Day Meal

Some research findings on Mid Day Meal Scheme conducted by independent agencies reported that MDM programme is a visible programme and has helped in increase in attendance and enrolment of children particularly girls. They also reported that there is an increase in retention, learning ability and achievement as well as greater social equity among caste, creed, sex and gender groups in the schools. The main research findings are as under:

i) Research findings (2010) of Pratichi trust of Prof. Amartya Kumar Sen:...