A study on the inter-generational benefits of the midday meal schemepublished in Nature Communications.
Finding of the Report:
By 2016, the prevalence of stunting was significantly lower in areas where the scheme was implemented in 2005.
The scheme was associated with 13-32% of the improvement in the height-for-age z-scores in India between 2006 and 2016.
Girls who had access to free lunches provided at government schools had children with a higher height-to-age ratio than those who did not.
The study noted that interventions to improve maternal height and education must be implemented years before those girls and young women become mothers.
The linkages between midday meals and lower stunting in the next generation were stronger in the lower socio-economic strata and likely work through women’s education, fertility, and the use of health services
Evolution of the Scheme
The concept of mid-day meal scheme is not new in India as its roots can be traced back to pre pre-independence era when British administration initiated a Mid Day Meal Programme for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation in 1925.
Like this many such programmes were initiated in different states.
In 1953, the Government of Uttar Pradesh started another such scheme.
Tamil Nadu became the first state in India to introduce a noon meal programme in primary schools.
In 1984 this scheme was introduced in Gujarat.
From time to time the meal scheme was taken up by different states and later on it was taken up as a national scheme.
The Government of India launched the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (Commonly known as Mid-Day Meal Scheme) in 1995 to provide mid-day meals to the children studying at primary stage.
In 2002, the Supreme Court directed the Government to provide cooked Mid-Day Meals in all Government and Government aided primary schools.
It was revised in 2004 and 2006 respectively.
It is the world’s largest school meal programme and reaches an estimated 11 crore children across 12 lakh schools in India.
Objectives of Mid-Day meal scheme
Improving the nutritional status of children in classes I – VIII in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools, and Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and
Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centers, National Child Labour Project (NCLP) Schools and Madarasa and Maqtabs supported under SarvaShikshaAbhiyan (SSA).
Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.
Providing nutritional support to children of the elementary stage in drought-a ected areas during summer vacation.
To enhance the enrollment of children in schools.
To develop the tendency to stay in schools in the children especially during interval and to reduce the drop-out rate.
To foster the feeling of brotherhood and to develop a positive outlook through co-eating and combined food preparation for the children belonging to different religions and castes.