SCHOOL LUNCH PROGRAMME IN INDIA
 

Since 1925, supplementary school feeding programmes have been in operation in different parts of India. Midday meal programmes are now provided to poor children on a modest scale in several states. The coverage in 1978 was 13 million children in the country. This is likely to increase by 4 million by the end of 1983. The total cost of both the midday meals programme and the supplementary nutrition programme is estimated to be Rs. 174.5 crores during 1978-83.

There is no uniformly organised system of school meals programme in most of the states. Even in the states where school meals are served, they are restricted to certain districts.

The Government of Tamil Nadu was the first to give momentum to the scheme by coming forward with a substantial grant in 1957, after observing the good results of people's participation. and contributions to the midday meals programme in many centres. This scheme is in operation in all the 34,000 primary schools throughout Tamil Nadu. Over two million children are now being served by this programme, which is the largest in India.

The origin and development of school lunch programme in the different states of India are reviewed below:

Andhra Pradesh

The midday meal programme was initiated in Andhra Pradesh in August 1962 and included both rural and urban areas. In the urban areas, about 25,000 children attend over 300 primary schools. About 40 to 60 per cent of these children are included as beneficiaries of the school lunch programme. The selection of a school for feeding programme is based on the backwardness or the needs of the area. CARE is assisting the scheme from 1962 onwards with supplies of Corn-Soya- Meal (CSM), vegetable oil, beans and milk powder to cover 9,60,000 children throughout the state.

Bihar

Bihar, runs a midday meal scheme for its schools, in which two slices of bread or three biscuits and butter weighing 7 to 15

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grams and fruit are provided per child per day. CARE started assisting the midday meal programme in Bihar from the year 1968. The number of beneficiaries covered in 1969 was 6,10,000. The CARE supplements in 1969-70 consisted of 85 g of Balahar/ CSM and 14 g vegetable oil per child per day yielding 425 Kcals and 17.1 g protein.

Goa, Daman and Diu

The school lunch programme was launched in 1965-66. The Department of Education is in charge of implementing this programme. The feeding is being conducted for 200 days in the year. The number of pupils covered in 1979-80 was 21,674 through 317 schools. The food items provided are locally available foods such as biscuits, bread, cake and bananas. 'Thirty paise per child are sanctioned for the food supply.

Total outlay for school lunch programme for the year 197980 was 5.4 lakhs.

Gujarat

The midday meal programme in Gujarat is sponsored by the Department of Education. Children in the age group of 6 to 11 years are fed in the programme. The total number of midday meal centres in Gujarat State is 4,784 and 2,37,000 children are participating in this programme. The cost of a meal per child per day is 18 paise and the non-feeding cost comes to 5.5 ps/child per day. The prepared items such as Uppuma, Sheera, Sukhadi and Vada are served in the school lunch.

Haryana

The midday meal scheme is Haryana was started in 1961 with the help of CARE and the Department of Education. In 1979-80 the programme covered 4,23,000 children from 3,900 schools. The CARE food distributed consists of 80 grams of grains (soy fortified corn/corn soya meal) and seven grams of oil per beneficiary per day. Through this programme 320 calories and 12 grams of protein are supplemented to each child for a period of 180 days in a year. The total cost of the programme accounted to Rs. 34 lakhs in the year 1979-80.

Himachal Pradesh

In Himachal Pradesh, midday meal scheme has been run by its Directorate of Education. The scheme is in effect from the

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year 1974-75 with the objective of providing midday meals to the needy and poor school going children who are undernourished, As approved by the Government of India, this scheme is meant for the children belonging to backward classes and Scheduled Castes/Scheduled Tribes and studying in first and second primary classes.

The meal costs 20 paise per child per day. Children are fed for 200 working days in a year. It is run with the help from the District and Block level Education Officers and teachers of the schools. The purchases are made by the District Education Officer for the whole district under his control and then distributed amongst the Block Education Officers, who in turn, transport the material to the selected schools where midday meal is provided to the children through the teachers concerned. This is a hilly area. Due to non-availability of proper transport facilities it is very difficult to provide the materials, well in time.

In spite of the hurdles, the scheme is found to be beneficial to the children. During the period 1979-80, from tribal and other areas 22,500 children constituting 4 per cent of the total population of children going to the school benefited by this programme. The financial commitment for the year 1979-80 for this programme was Rs. 9,00,000.

Karnataka

A midday meal scheme was introduced in Bangalore city in 1946 to provide meals consisting of eight ounces of cooked rice and four ounces of curds. It was introduced in the rest of the state in 1957- 58 by the state government. The government contributes five paise per child for 24 days in a month, and the school authorities match an equal sum. Preference is given to children coming from distant places. The CARE started assisting the midday meal programme from the year 1964. The number of beneficiaries was 1,62,000 covered during the year 1969. The lunch is served for five days in a week. This programme in villages is supported and directed by the Village School Betterment Committee which included representatives of the village council (Gram Panchayat) as members.

Kerala

The school lunch programme in Kerala was started in 1941. During the year 1961-62, the state had midday meal programme operating in all the schools, departmental and aided, in the entire state. The meals ordinarily consist of rice or wheat kanji

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with a side dish of pulses or cooked tubers. There is an executive committee for every school or a group of schools to administer the scheme. The non-recurring expenditure was borne by the executive committee, while the recurring expenditure was shared by the community, the state and the central government in the ratio 1: 1: 1.

In 1962-63, this scheme was superseded by the CARE feeding programme which covered 1,70,000 children daily. The CARE feeding consisted of 240 ml of liquid milk prepared from 28 grams of full cream milk powder and 240 ml of water, and uppuma prepared out of 56 grams of cornmeal and 14 g of vegetable oil or alternatively 240 ml of milk made from 28 grams of milk powder and rice flakes with coconut and jaggery. The CARE organization supplies the state under an agreement, 22,000,000, pounds of milk, 43,000,000 pounds of cornmeal and 6,350,000 pounds of vegetable oil. The Education Department of the state has appointed a Special Officer to cooperate with the CARE Kerala Administrator based in Trivandrum. The CARE office is set up to coordinate with the education department. CARE field observers visit schools constantly to review the storage of foods supplied by CARE and to report on the preparation of the commodities entrusted to them by CARE.

The fuel and the condiments necessary must be obtained as local contribution by the Head Master of the school. The state department supplies all the necessary cooking utensils required for the school feeding programme. It also pays the cooking charge incurred at each school. The cooking is done under the supervision of the school. It has been found that the midday meals given to children with the materials supplied by CARE, are four times more nutritious than the gruel supplied by the government in earlier years.

A modified scheme is in operation in Alleppey and Kozhikode districts, in which only children who are in need, or suffer from lack of food are provided with the meals. The cost of the meal is 6 ps per child, 80 per cent of which is met by the state government. During the year 1970-71 the number of children covered was 20,84,000.

Lakshadweep

The midday meal scheme was launched in the year 1956 and has been run by the Department of Education of Union Territory of Lakshadweep. The main objective of this programme is mainly to feed all the children of the islands coming under this territory,

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studying from first to seventh standards. The target number of feeding days is 180 per year. No other agency helps this programme other than the U.T. Department. The children are fed 130 g of rice and curry in the midday meal programme. The meal usually costs around 35 to 50 paise per child per day.

Madhya Pradesh

In the State of Madhya Pradesh, the feeding programme which commenced during the drought period in 1965 continues in the schools in the tribal areas as an important nutritional and attendance stabilization programme. The main aim of the midday meal programme has been to supplement the home food of school children, particularly those belonging to the lower socio-economic classes.

The State Department of Tribal and Harijan Welfare is responsible for implementing the programme. CARE-India assists the State Government by providing the required food commodities free of cost. The state government has the necessary administrative and the fiscal control states over this programme.

Under the programme, a child receives a meal prepared from 80 grams of grains and 7 grams of oil providing 312 calories and 14 grams of protein per day for 180 days in a year. During 1977-78 the Tribal and Harijan Welfare Department (TWD) budgeted Rs. 36,35,000 for this programme. CARE's input was 4,140.64 metric tonnes of food valued at Rs. 13,453,290 to cover 264,322 children. The TWD also budgeted Rs. 14,400,000 for its own indigenous grain input and operational costs to cover an additional 310,857 school children. Thus over the years, the programme has expanded and it now covers 575,179 children in 10,463 schools in 21 districts. In fact, all the accessible Tribal welfare schools in these districts have been covered.

For the storage of the commodities in the state, 40 godowns have been constructed at 38 storage locations with a government grant and CARE assistance. The commodities from these godowns are despatched to 671 pay-centre godowns at the block level. The organiser, headmaster, or a senior teacher collects the allocated nation for his centre. Transport consists mainly of cycle rickshaw, head load, horse back and bullock-cart.

The educational and nutritional benefits of the midday meal programme which have accrued over the years in the Tribal Wel fare primary schools in the 21 districts have been evaluated by a study. Data were collected by interviewing school midday meal

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programme organisers, the programme participants, and their mothers by seven teams each consisting of a CARE field officer. two female home science or social science graduates and one male medical graduate.

The study has gathered sufficient evidence that the food actually reached the target group and having done so the supplementary feeding has had its desired effect. The meal provided in the school leads to an increase in the intake of food. The children have a better diet on the days they receive food in the school. Additionally, the major portion of the school meal supplements the home food. The home calorie intake of the children is well below the recommended allowance. The school meal given thus help to narrow the gap between the home meal, and the recommended standards.

Maharashtra

A free midday meals scheme was started in Bombay in the year 1942 to encourage the attendance of children. The distribution of UNICEF skim milk powder through organised centres had been one of the main items of ameliorative measures for undernourished children below 14 years, and expectant and nursing mothers. In the earlier period, there was prejudice against the use of skim milk powder. With the passage of time, more and more persons particularly, those in charge of charitable institutions and social workers began to accept the measure as practical and beneficial to supplement the inadequate diets usually consumed by the poor.

The Bombay-CARE school feeding programme was inaugurated in February 1963. It covered about 250,000 children in municipal schools daily, involving the distribution of 4,500,000 pounds of milk each year.

At present the school feeding programme in this state is sponsored by the Maharashtra State Rural Development Department and Maharashtra Small Scale Industrial Development Corporation. Through this programme, 2,38,000 children 6 to 11 years of age, are benefiting in the state. CARE supplies sukhadi, corn soya milk, corn soy blend, soy fortified bulgar and salad oil for the programme. Hundred grams of food is supplied per beneficiary per day for 300 days in a year. The feeding cost is 12 ps/child/day.

With the CARE Commodities, the midday meal consists, of a glass of milk and a plate of uppuma, from the daily rations of 2

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ounces of cornmeal, 1/2 ounce of oil and an ounce of milk powder per child. It is served for five days in a week. This programme is supported directly by a 'Village School Betterment Committee' which includes representatives of the village council (Gram Panchayat) as members.

Orissa

The school lunch is an integral part of the "Expanded Nutrition Programme" (ENP) in the state of Orissa. The ENP was sponsored in 1959, jointly by the FAO, the WHO, the UNICEF and the Government of India for a two-year period. It included 80 villages during the first year, and 240 villages during the succeeding year in selected National Extension Services (NES) Blocks. The overall objective of the Expanded Nutrition Programme (ENP) was to help the people develop local leadership for promoting activities which would result in the production of an adequate food supply, and a willingness to include the necessary variety of foods in family diets, specially for the vulnerable groups.

The specific objectives of the ENP were (1) increasing village, school and home production of nutritionally valuable foods such as, poultry, eggs, fish, fruits and vegetables; (2) nutrition education through schools, mothers' clubs, health services, Community Development and National Extension Service Blocks; (3) improvement of the nutritional status of needy, pregnant and nursing women and young children, and (4) training local personnel. For increasing food production, land, seeds, saplings, equipment and technical help were made available for the school gardens free of cost. Pupils were required to look after the gardens as a part of school activities, and the produce was used in the midday meals. Children were encouraged through class room activities to eat the available nutritious foods. During vacations, the gardens were tended by volunteers from the villagers.

School teachers, mukya sevikas, gram sevikas (Home science extension workers), doctors, nurses, social education organisers, and local leaders were trained to participate in the programme. Encouraging results of this programme prompted the sponsoring organisations to initiate similar programmes in the other states under the name, 'Applied Nutrition Programme'.

Pondicherry

The midday meal scheme was started in the year 1947 under the guidance of Directorate of Education, Pondicherry. The aims of this programme are to increase the enrolment and attendance

3-1 M of E&C/ND/83

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in the primary schools, to enhance the nutritional status of the children and to minimise the dropouts. All the school children aged 6 to 11 years who are willing to take midday meals are fed for 180 days in the year. In the year 1979-80 eighty per cent of the children that is 45,200 children in 244 schools were covered.

The CARE supplies 100 g bulgar wheat/Balahar, and 10 g salad oil per child per day for 108 days and the state department supplies rice to this feeding programme for 72 days in the year. The total annual expenditure incurred for CARE and the state Government are Rs. 3,78,000 and Rs. 10,08,000 respectively. The average cost of a meal with the assistance of CARE is 10 paise, and without the assistance of CARE, 40 paise.

There is one central godown for the storage of lunch food at Kurusukuppam, Pondicherry under the personal custody of the teacher-in-charge. The midday meals are cooked by the cooks and assistant cooks in thatched kitchens specially built for this purpose and served to children in the school premises itself. The midday meals scheme is governed by the Director of Education and the Deputy Director at state level, the Chief Educational Officer at district level, the Deputy Inspector of schools at Block level and the headmaster and, the teachers at the feeding centres.

Punjab

For a long time no school feeding programme was in operation in Punjab. But skim milk supplied by the UNICEF and other voluntary organisations such as the Red Cross, was distributed to school children. There is now a CARE school feeding programme which was started in the year 1962, through which approximately 13 million pounds of milk are being distributed to one million children in 81 Community Development Blocks. This scheme is only for milk which is served in liquid form during the midmorning break. The programme is administered by the Planning Department in coordination with the CARE office in Chandigarh. Hence the Block Development Officers and the village Panchayats, rather than the education department officials are in charge of the programme.

Rajasthan

Rajasthan began its school feeding programme for 5,00,000 children in the year 1962. The programme is being assisted by CARE from the year 1968 onwards. The village council helps to raise local funds to provide utensils, fuel and other accessories. At present, 3.37 lakhs of children in 7,016 centres benefit by this