Guidelines of revised National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 2004

[Mid-Day Meal Scheme]                             (new)

            “The State shall, in particular, direct its policy towards securing - … that children are given opportunities and facilities to develop in a healthy manner and in conditions of freedom and dignity and that childhood and youth are protected against exploitation and against moral and material abandonment.

Article 39 (f)

            The State shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people and the improvement of public health as among its primary duties …

Article 47

            Part IV [“Directive Principles of State Policy”] of the Constitution of India.”

1.       Background

1.1       Malnutrition and its effect on UEE

                        Malnutrition is widely prevalent in India among growing children. Some details in regard to major nutritional deficiencies, and their incidence among children of elementary school-going age group, are given in Annex-I.

Malnutrition not merely gives rise to morbidity and mortality, and prevents a child from developing into a fully functional adult, it adversely affects Universalisation of Elementary Education (UEE) in the following ways:-

•       A malnourished child is less likely to attend school regularly.

•       Even if such a child does attend school, she finds it difficult to concentrate on and participate in the teaching-learning activities well enough.  She therefore tends to drop out, inter alia, because of the inability to cope. 

•       Even if the child does not actually drop out, her attainment levels tend to be low.

A programme of providing Mid-Day Meal in Schools can be expected to help in UEE in the following ways:-

•     by improving enrolment and regularity of attendance,

•     reducing drop-outs, and

•     by improving children’s level of learning and self-esteem.

1.2             National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Mid-Day Meal Scheme), 1995

1.2.1    Introduction

National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education [commonly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme] was launched as a Centrally-sponsored Scheme on 15th August, 1995.  Its objective was to boost “universalisation of primary education by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously impacting on nutrition of students in primary classes”.  It was implemented in 2408 blocks in the first year, and covered the whole country in a phased manner by 1997-98.  The programme originally covered children of primary stage (Classes I to V) in government, local body & government-aided schools, and was extended in October, 2002, to cover children studying in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) Centres also.

1.2.2    Pattern of Central Assistance

Central assistance has been provided to States under the programme by way of:-

i)         Free supply of foodgrains from the nearest godown of Food Corporation of India (FCI) @ 100 gm. of wheat/rice per student per day  [cost of which is reimbursed to FCI by the Govt. of India], and 

ii)      Subsidy for transport of foodgrains from nearest FCI Depot to the Primary School – subject to a maximum of Rs.50 per Quintal [ceiling last fixed in June, 1997].

In addition, a Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) is also admissible to States which are predominantly hilly, economically backward, and lack rail facilities, such as, Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, J&K, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura.  In hilly States, FCI’s responsibility is to deliver foodgrains at the nearest designated Principal Distribution Centres (PDCs).  As per instructions of HTS, if FCI is unable to deliver foodgrains at the Principal Distribution Centres, it will issue foodgrains from the nearest designated Base Depots.  In such cases, the actual cost of transportation of foodgrains from the Base Depot to the PDC is reimbursed by FCI to the State/UT as Hill Transport Subsidy. 

Detailed instructions regarding HTS are contained in this Ministry’s Circular dated 10.6.99, a copy of which is enclosed at Annex-II.   This Circular was issued with the concurrence of the Ministry of Food & Consumer Affairs conveyed vide their O.M. dated 29.4.99, a copy of which is also enclosed at Annex II-A.

1.2.3    Cost of Cooking

“Cost of cooking” a mid-day meal with free foodgrains provided as above, includes mainly the following:-

i)          Cost of other ingredients e.g. pulses, vegetables, cooking oil and condiments,

ii)         Cost of fuel, and

iii)       wages/remuneration payable to personnel, or amount payable to agency (e.g. SHG, VEC/SMDC), responsible for cooking.

Scheme’s guidelines issued in August, 1995, had mentioned that cook’s remuneration would be met from the poverty alleviation scheme [Jawahar Rozgar Yojna] of the Ministry of Rural Development.  However, with the re-vamping of JRY w.e.f. 1.4.99 this became impermissible, and responsibility of meeting entire cost of cooking devolved on State Governments/Local Bodies. 

     A large number of States continued to face financial difficulties in meeting cooking cost and providing cooked meal to their students, and accordingly distributed only foodgrains @ 3kg. per student per month, as was envisaged in para 12 of the Guidelines, as an interim measure.  To ameliorate this situation, Planning Commission asked State Governments in December, 2003, to earmark a minimum 15% of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) from the financial year 2004-05, for meeting cooking cost under Mid-Day Meal Scheme. A copy of Planning Commission’s Circular dated 19.12.03 in this regard, and a statement showing state-wise allocations under PMGY for 2004-05 are enclosed at Annexes –III & IV respectively. 

1.2.4    Infrastructure for Mid-Day Meal Programme        

            A cooked Mid-Day Meal Programme needs the following physical infrastructure:-

• Kitchen-cum-Store

• Adequate Water Supply for –

• Drinking, and

• purposes

• Cooking Device [Stove, Chulha, etc.]

• Containers for storage of foodgrains & other ingredients

• Utensils for Cooking and Serving

[with Children bringing their own plates/eating utensils]

The above infrastructure was expected to be provided by States /Local Bodies by utilizing their own funds alongwith those available under various Centrally-sponsored schemes, details of which may be seen in Annex-V.

1.2.5    Status of serving of Cooked Meal (as in October, 2004)

As in October, 2004, State-wise position of supply of cooked meal was as follows:-

A statement showing State-wise number of children covered, and quantity of foodgrains allocated during 2004-05, is given in Annex-VI. 

2.       Need for Revision of the Scheme

As mentioned above, even nine years after the commencement of the NP-NSPE, 1995, serving of cooked meal could not be universalized in six States which included certain major States.  In many of the remaining States, quality of the meal served to children was not satisfactory.  Keeping these aspects in view, changes in the Scheme had become necessary.   Hon’ble Supreme Court has also been seized of the matter, and has been giving certain directions in this regard in its orders passed from time to time in WP(C) 196/2001 [PUCL V/s. Union of India & Others].

In June-July, 2004, certain policy pronouncements were made in regard to the Mid-Day Meal scheme in:

• President’s Address to Parliament delivered on 7.6.04, and

•  Finance Minister’s Budget Speech delivered on 8.7.04. 

Relevant extracts from the above policy pronouncements may be seen in Annex-VII. 

3.       The Revised Scheme

            Pursuant to the above, Central Government has approved a revised scheme, entitled “National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 2004 (NP-NSPE, 2004)” whose main elements are as follows:-

3.1             Objectives

                        Objectives of the revised Scheme are:- 

(i)        To boost universalisation of primary education (classes I-V) by improving enrolment, attendance, retention, and learning levels of children, especially those belonging to disadvantaged sections,

(ii)         improve nutritional status of students of primary stage,  and

(iii)       provide nutritional support to students of primary stage in drought-affected areas during summer vacation also.

3.2       Programme Intervention & Coverage

       To achieve the above objectives, a cooked mid-day meal with minimum 300 Calories and 8-12 grammes of protein content, will be provided to all children studying in Classes I-V in:-

(i)                  Govt., Local Body and Govt.-aided schools, and

(ii)             EGS & AIE centres.  

Explanation:-

1.   “Government-aided School” means a school in receipt of regular annual recurring aid from the Central or State Government,or a competent Local Body,  and recognized/categorized by it as an “aided school”.

2.   An “EGS/AIE Centre” means a Centre run by a State Government/UT Administration, Local Body or non-Government agency, and receiving Central assistance in accordance with the EGS/AIE Scheme* of the Ministry of HRD.  Children studying in Madarsas/Maqtabs which fall within the category of a Government-aided school or EGS/AIE Centre as defined above, would also be covered under the Mid-Day Meal Programme.

__________________________________________________________

*               See “Handbook for Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative & Innovative Education”, Government of India, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Department of Elementary Education & Literacy, 2001.

3.3       Over-all Responsibility for the Programme

Over-all responsibility for the programme will vest in the State Govt./UT Administration, which will, inter alia, include:

i)          providing necessary infrastructure in accordance with para 1.2.4, read with Annex-V,

ii)        making all logistic/administrative arrangements necessary  for regular serving of wholesome, cooked mid day meal of satisfactory quality, and nutritive value as mentioned in para 3.2, in every eligible school/EGS-AIE Centre, and

iii)        providing financial and other inputs, over and above those to be provided by way of Central assistance [vide para 3.4, below], to the extent necessary for the programme. 

3.4       Components & Norms of Central Assistance

Central Government will provide assistance under the revised Scheme to State Governments/UT Administrations to the following extent:-

1.         Supply of free foodgrains (wheat/rice) @100 grams per child per School Day from the nearest FCI godown,

2.         Reimbursement of actual cost incurred in transportation of foodgrains from nearest FCI godown to the Primary School subject to the following ceiling (effective from 1.10.04):-

a)        Rs.100 per Quintal for 11 special category States [viz. Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Manipur, Nagaland, Tripura, Sikkim, J&K, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal], and

b)         Rs.75 per quintal for other States and UTs.

3.        Assistance for meeting cooking cost  @Re.1.00 per child per school day w.e.f. 1.9.04 [over and above the minimum 15% of ACA under PMGY, to be earmarked for cooking cost vide para 1.2.3 above].

4.         Assistance for Management, Monitoring & Evaluation  (MME) @ not less than 0.9% of the total assistance on items 1-3 above for the year, 2004-05, and @ not less than 1.8% of such total assistance from 2005-06.  [Total provision in the Scheme on account of MME would be @2% of allocation on the remaining items.  Exact bifurcation of this 2% provision between Central and State Governments will be decided by the National-level Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee, subject to the above minimum share of State Governments.]

5.         Assistance for provision of cooked Mid-Day Meal during summer vacations to school children, as per prevailing parameters, in areas declared by State Governments as “drought-affected”.

[Assistance will also be given on reimbursement basis as per parameters of NP-NSPE, 1995, to States which implemented this component in summer vacation of 2004.]

            Average monetary value of Central assistance under items 1-4 above, in terms of per child per day, is shown below:-

(in Rs.)

            In addition to the above, Central assistance will continue to be available for infrastructural items under various Centrally-sponsored schemes as shown in the Annex-V. 

A statement showing nutritional values of 100 grammes of wheat, rice and chapatis is given in Annex-VIII.

3.5       Programme Management

3.5.1        Prescription of State/UT-specific Norms of Expenditure

Taking into account Central assistance available under NP-NSPE, 2004, as detailed in para 3.4 above, every State Government/UT Administration will be expected to prescribe and notify its own norms of expenditure on the Scheme, according to which it will allocate funds to the local implementing agency (e.g. VEC/PTA/NGO/Management of an aided school) for the implementation of the programme.  These are hereinafter referred to as “State norms”.

3.5.2    Nodal Department in the State Government/UT Administration   

Every State Government /UT Administration will designate one  of its Departments as the Nodal Department for the programme.  Nodal Department need not necessarily be the School Education Department but should be so chosen that it can most efficiently carry out nodal responsibility for effective implementation of the programme all over the State.  [Many States have designated Departments other than School Education – e.g. Rural Development, Women & Child Development, Social Welfare, etc. – as nodal Department for the programme.]

            If required, State may set up a small Implementation Cell attached to the State Nodal Department to oversee the implementation of the programme by using a part of the funds meant for MME.

3.5.3    Nodal Responsibility at the District Level

Every State Government/UT Administration will also be expected to designate one nodal officer or agency at the district level (e.g. the District Collector, District Panchayat, etc.) which shall be assigned over-all responsibility of effective implementation of the programme at the district level.

3.5.4    Management at the Local Level

At the local level, State Governments will be expected to assign responsibility for implementation and supervision of the programme to an appropriate body e.g. Gram Panchayat, Municipality, Village Education Committee, Parent Teacher Association or School Management-cum-Development Committee.  Responsibility for cooking would as far as possible be assigned to local women’s Self-Help Groups (SHGs), Youth Clubs affiliated to Nehru Yuvak Kendras (NYKs), VEC, SMDC, PTA/MTA, or good NGOs where available.    Where women’s SHG is not available and VEC/SMDC, PTA, Youth Club or an NGO has to implement the programme by appointing part-time staff as cook, helper, etc. Such staff should as far as possible be women, with due preference being given to women belonging to SCs and STs in accordance with guidelines to be laid down by the State Governments.  Such organizations would be provided foodgrains as per parameters of the Scheme, and other costs as per State norms (see para 3.5.1, above), so that they can implement the programme in the assigned school/area.

In urban areas where a centralized kitchen setup is possible for a cluster of schools, cooking may, wherever appropriate, be undertaken in a centralized kitchen and cooked hot meal may then be transported under hygienic conditions through a reliable transport system to various schools.  There may be one or more such nodal kitchen(s) in an urban area, depending on the number of clusters which they serve. Examples of this pattern are Naandi Foundation in Hyderabad – Secunderabad, and ISKCON in Bangalore, each of which operates a kitchen for a large cluster of schools.  However, clusters could be of smaller sizes, as convenient.

Detailed Guidelines for associating NGOs etc. in the Mid-Day Meal Programme are given in Annex-IX.