Mid-Day Meal Scheme — Objectives, Coverage, Implementation and Impact

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme, officially renamed Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) in September 2021, is one of the world’s largest school feeding programs. Launched by the Ministry of Human Resource Development (now Ministry of Education) on August 15, 1995, as the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE), the scheme delivers free, hot cooked meals to children in primary and upper primary classes. It covers government, government-aided, Local Body, Special Training Centres, and recognized madrasas and maqtabs under the Samagra Shiksha framework. It operates as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme backed by the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013, seeking to address classroom hunger, boost school enrollment, and raise nutritional levels.

Historical Evolution and Governance Structure

Pre-Independence and Early State Initiatives

• 1920: Introduced by the Justice Party administration under A. Subbarayalu Reddiar in the Madras Corporation for a corporation school in Thousand Lights.
• 1930: Implemented in Puducherry under the French administration.
• 1962–63: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K. Kamaraj launched it statewide across government primary schools.
• 1982: Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran expanded the initiative into the Nutritious Meal Programme across Tamil Nadu.

National Rollout and Legal Institutionalization

• August 15, 1995: Launched nationally across 2,408 blocks to cover classes I to V.
• November 28, 2001: The Supreme Court of India issued a directive instructing all state governments to provide hot cooked meals with a minimum of 300 calories and 8–12 grams of protein instead of dry rations.
• 2007: Extended to cover upper primary classes (classes VI to VIII) in Educationally Backward Blocks (EBBs) and later across all areas.
• 2013: Received statutory backing under Section 5 of the National Food Security Act, 2013.
• September 2021: Renamed PM POSHAN and expanded to cover pre-primary students (Balvatikas) aged 3 to 5 years.

Core Objectives and Nutritional Norms

Key Objectives

• Eliminate classroom hunger and prevent short-term hunger among school children.
• Increase school enrollment, retention, and regular attendance, especially among girls and disadvantaged groups.
• Improve the health and nutritional status of children in primary and upper primary classes.
• Foster social equity by breaking caste and social barriers through shared dining experiences.
• Empower local women through employment as cook-cum-helpers and Self-Help Group (SHG) members.

Prescribed Daily Nutritional Norms

Implementation Mechanism and Financial Architecture

Financial Sharing Pattern and Costs

• Funding split between Centre and States stands at 60:40 for standard States and UTs with legislature.
• Funding ratio is 90:10 for North-Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, and Jammu & Kashmir.
• Central Government provides 100% funding for UTs without legislature.
• Central Government supplies 100% free food grains through the Food Corporation of India (FCI) along with 100% transportation cost subsidies.
• Cook-cum-helpers receive a monthly honorarium paid over 10 months per academic year, shared between Centre and States.

Core Components and Innovative Features

• School Nutrition Gardens (SNGs): Schools cultivate fresh, seasonal vegetables and greens to enrich meal quality and teach agricultural practices.
• Tithi Bhojan: A community participation model where local residents sponsor additional nutritious items such as fruits, sweets, or milk on special occasions like birthdays and festivals.
• Fortified Food Grains: Mandated supply of iron, folic acid, and vitamin B12 enriched rice to eliminate micro-nutrient deficiencies and childhood anemia.
• Drought and Disaster Support: Provision of hot cooked meals or food security allowances during summer vacations in government-notified drought or disaster-affected regions.

Socio-Economic and Educational Impact

Educational Attainment and Retention

• Drives enrollment increases, particularly among rural girls and children from marginalized communities.
• Reduces afternoon dropouts and improves classroom attention by mitigating short-term hunger.

Health and Nutritional Outcomes

• Directly targets protein-energy malnutrition, stunting, and wasting among school-going children.
• Serves as an effective delivery vector for Weekly Iron and Folic Acid Supplementation (WIFS) and biannual deworming tablets (Albendazole).

Social Inclusion and Community Convergence

• Inter-dining reduces traditional caste and community biases by bringing children of diverse backgrounds to sit and eat together.
• Employs over 2.5 million cook-cum-helpers, a large share of whom are women from Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes, and economically weaker sections.

Key Facts on Mid-Day Meal Scheme (PM POSHAN)

• Formally renamed Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) in September 2021.
• First introduced in India in 1920 by the Madras Corporation under the Justice Party administration.
• Tamil Nadu became the first state to launch a statewide primary school meal program under Chief Minister K. Kamaraj in the 1960s.
• Supreme Court order of November 28, 2001, mandated cooked meals over dry ration distribution.
• Scheme receives statutory backing under Section 5 of the National Food Security Act (NFSA), 2013.
• Encompasses students in Balvatika (pre-primary) through Class VIII in government and government-aided schools.
• Daily nutritional allocation for primary students provides 450 calories and 12 grams of protein.
• Daily nutritional allocation for upper primary students provides 700 calories and 20 grams of protein.
• Food grains are supplied at subsidized rates by the Food Corporation of India (FCI) with full central transportation funding.
• Tithi Bhojan encourages community participation by allowing citizens to provide supplementary food items to students on special events.
• School Nutrition Gardens are integrated into school premises to supply fresh organic produce for daily meals.
• Cook-cum-helpers receive honorariums for 10 months in an academic year, promoting rural women’s employment.