‘PM POSHAN’ to be continued in Schools

Union Cabinet has approved the continuation of PM POSHAN scheme in Schools, which is a Centrally Sponsored National Scheme.

Key facts

• PM POSHAN scheme would run for five more years. It will run from 2021-2022 to 2025-26.
• Scheme has been approved with a financial outlay of 54,062 crore rupees from the Central Government.
• State Government and Union Territories administrations have sanctioned an outlay of 31,733 crore rupees.
• In this phase, scheme will cover around 11.80 crore children studying across 11.20 lakh schools.
• Central Government will further bear an additional cost of 45,000 crore rupees to provide food grains to these children.
• Total budget of the scheme is 1,30,795 crore rupees.

Who will be covered under the scheme?

This Centrally-Sponsored Scheme will cover all school children who are studying in Classes 1st to 8th in government schools as well in government-Aided Schools.

PM-POSHAN scheme

PM POSHAN is a revamped version of “Mid-Day Meal Scheme”, which stands for “PM Poshan Shakti Nirman”. With the new nomenclature, Centre has initiated a major political push towards ‘child nutrition’. This scheme will cover around 24 lakh students, who are receiving pre-primary education at government schools and government-aided schools, from the year 2022.

Mid-day meal scheme

Under this scheme, hot cooked food is provided to students from Classes 1 to 8, benefitting about 11.80 crore children across all the government and government-aided schools. This scheme was launched by the Narasimha Rao government in the year 1995. It was launched to increase school enrolment and improve nutritional status undernourished children in India.

Month: Current Affairs - September, 2021