Nithin chowdary pavuluri S.

id: 20100105

Mid-Day Meal in India

India has a population of over 1.2 billion1 and about a quarter of its total population are children aged between 6-14 years. This is growing big in the international stage with India having worlds largest young population. But what goes off stage is a majority of them share the socio-economic deprivation of their parents, and not having access to essential requirements of nutrition, health-care and learning opportunities. Children who suffer from hunger do not have the same potential for learning as healthy and well-nourished children. Poor nutrition among school aged children will diminish their cognitive development either through physical changes or by reducing their ability to participate in learning or both. Malnutrition and lack of education is not only a matter of social problem but also a problem of economic and political problem which needs to be addressed seriously. The Midday Meal Program, though in existence in Tamil Nadu since the 1960s, was introduced thought out the country under the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE), as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme, on 15th August 19952. This program would address the issue of malnutrition amongst schoolchildren in India by providing them hot cooked and nutritious meals every school day. The Mid Day Meal is the worlds largest school feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centers across the country. On 28 November, 2001 the highest judicial authority of the country, the Supreme Court also spoke about malnutrition in schools, and issued the following order: Implement the Mid-Day Meal Scheme by providing every child in every government and government assisted primary school with a prepared mid-day meal with a minimum content of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein each day of school for a minimum of 200 days This case properly came to be known as The Right to food case3 The main objectives of this program are: Improving the nutritional status of children in classs I-V in Government, Local Body and Government aided schools, and EGS and AIE centers. Encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities.

Census 2011:Total population of India is 1.21 billion,(www.indiandefence.com/forums/f31/census-2011-totalpopulation-india-1-21-billion-5442/;last visited 11/9/2011, 12:00pm) ; also see http://www.indiaonlinepages.com/population/india-current-population.html 2 The Department of food & Public Distribution, (http://fcamin.nic.in/dfpd_html/index.asp; /;last visited 11/9/2011, 12:00pm) 3 , Peoples Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India and Others, Writ Petition (Civil) No 196 of 2001.

Providing nutritional support to children of primary stage in drought affected areas during summer vacation.4 In short, the objectives can be broken simpler as: To improve the nutritional and health standard of the growing children. To reduce drop-out rate and to increase attendance and to attract poorer children to come to the school. To create supplementary employment opportunities at the village level. To achieve social and national integration. To supplement state efforts towards removal of poverty. To achieve the above objectives a cooked mid-day meal with the following nutritional content is provided to be all eligible children.

As per information available, all States/UTs are providing cooked mid-day meals to children of classes I-VIII studying in the above categories of schools, irrespective of the fact of whether these are run/managed by Panchayati Raj Institutions or not. The Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Human Resource Development has prescribed a comprehensive and elaborate mechanism for monitoring and supervision of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. The Monitoring Mechanism includes the following: Arrangements for local level monitoring Display of Information under Right to Information Act Inspections by State Government Officers Responsibility of Food Corporation of India (FCI) Periodic Returns Monitoring by Institutions of Social Science Research Grievance Redressal

Interestingly the Allocation for Mid-Day Meal (MDM) in FY 2010-11 (in crore) was Rs. 9,4405. Apart from the central sanctions even the State government allocations for MDM components vary. Uttar Pradesh allocates Rs. 3.63 per child per school day for cooking costs, while Bihar allocates Rs.2.58 and Tamil Nadu allocates Rs. 4.

4 5

Objectives, india.gov.in,( http://india.gov.in/sectors/education/mid_day_meal.php, last visited last visited 11/9/2011,

12:00pm)
Accountability Initiative,;http://www.accountabilityindia.in/sites/default/files/budget-mid-day-meal/midday_meal_scheme_goi_2010-112.pdf

Many NGOs have been actively taking part to make this program a good success some such case studies are: AkshayPatra, Bangalore The program, which started on a small scale in June 2000 in Bangalore, feeding 1,500 children in five schools, has progressively scaled up to serve around 2,01,000 children in 486 schools in and around the city as of September 2007, covering government, corporation and government-aided schools. The aim now is to cover 250,000 hungry children in the district and make Bangalore and its rural districts, hunger-free. NaandiFoundation, Hyderabad Children attending government schools come from poorest of the poor families. With incomes below the poverty line, for most of these children having one square meal a day is sometimes not possible. For a majority of them the midday meal is the only meal they have in a day. Naandi on behalf of the Government of Andhra Pradesh runs what is probably the worlds largest Midday meal kitchen in Hyderabad to feed the children of the 1023 government schools including NCLP (National Child Labour Project schools), NRBC (Non Resident Bridge Course) and RBC (Residential Bridge Course) in the twin cities of Hyderabad and Secundrabad. Unlike the serving quantities stipulated by the Supreme Court, Children get unlimited supply of rice and curry from the kitchen. Notwithstanding the good work done by many other NGO, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has been marred by various controversies and scams that have been unearthed since it was started. In January 2006, the Delhi Police unearthed a scam in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. In December 2005, the police had seized eight truckloads (2,760 sacks) of rice meant for primary schoolchildren

being carried from Food Corporation of India (FCI) godowns in Bulandshahr District of UP to North Delhi. In December 2006, The Times of India reported a scam involving government schools that siphon off food grains under the mid-day meal scheme by faking attendance. The modus operandi of the schools was simplethe attendance register would exaggerate the number of students enrolled in the class. The additional students would not existthey were "enrolled" to get additional food grains which were pocketed by the school staff. Despite long-established early childhood care and nutrition provision under the auspices of The Integrated Child Development Services Programme (ICDS), India still faces a Malnutrition crisis: 45% of children under the Age of 5 in India is stunted (low height-forage), Higher than for all of subSaharan Africa (UNICEF 2009). After analyzing the whole project, one can see that despite all the above scams and disability, the following achievements have been seen: Enrolment, retention and attendance Nutritional impact Socialization and Educational benefits Social benefits (esp. for women) Form of Income support

Apart from the above mentioned, the most important is the community participation, where, the parents contributed towards improving menus, or purchase of utensils and Self-help groups coming forward to help.

Anganwadi
Anganwadi is a government sponsored child-care and mother-care center in India. It caters to children in the 0-6 age group. It was started by the Indian government in 1975 as a part of the Integrated Child Development Services program to combat child hunger and malnutrition. The main objective of this programme is to cater to the needs of the development of children in the age group of 3-6 years. The beneficiaries are mainly children up to six years of age. 6Pre-school education aims at ensuring holistic development of the children and to provide learning environment to children, which is conducive for promotion of social, emotional, cognitive and aesthetic development of the child.7Anganwadi attempts to bridge the caloric gap between the national recommended and average intake of children and women in low income and disadvantaged communities. The objectives of the ICDS are to improve the nutritional and health status of pre-school children in the age group of birth to six years; to lay the foundation for the proper psychological development of the child; to reduce the incidence of mortality, morbidity, malnutrition, and school drop-out; to achieve effective coordination of policy and implementation among the various departments to promote child development; and to enhance the capability of the mother to look after the normal health of the child through proper nutrition and health education.8 The Anganwadi system is mainly managed by the Anganwadi worker. She is a health worker chosen from the community and given 4 months training in health, nutrition and child-care. She is in charge of an Anganwadi which covers a population of 1000. 20 to 25 Anganwadi workers are supervised by a Supervisor called Mukhyasevika. 4 Mukhyasevika are headed by a Child Development Projects Officer (CDPO). There are an estimated 1.053 million Anganwadi centers employing 1.8 million mostly-female workers and helpers across the country. They provide outreach services to poor families in need of immunization, healthy food, clean water, clean toilets and a learning environment for infants, toddlers and pre-schoolers. They also provide similar services for expectant and nursing mothers. According to government figures, anganwadis reach about 58.1 million children and 10.23 million pregnant or lactating women. Anganwadis are India's primary tool against the scourges of child malnourishment, infant mortality and curbing preventable diseases such as polio. While infant mortality has declined in recent years, India has the world's largest population of malnourished or under-nourished children. It is estimated that about 47% of children aged 03 are under-nourished per international standards.

6 7

Ajay Pandeys article, MARYLAND JOURNAL OF INTERNATIONAL LAW, VOL. 26, page117. Family Welfare: ASHA & Anganwadi Centers, Health.( http://india.gov.in/citizen/health/asha.php;last visited 13/9/2011,4pm)
8

Ibid,1

Children from poor (Below Poverty Line) families, especially those from Scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, are considered most at-risk. Anganwadi means courtyard. Under the Integrated Child Development Scheme, one Anganwadi worker is allotted to a population of 1000. An Anganwadi worker is trained in various aspects of health, nutrition and child development. The duties of Anganwadi worker are broadly - Regular health check-up. Immunization. Health education. Non-formal pre-school education.

The Role and responsibilities of Anganwadi workers To elicit community support and participation in running the programme. To carry out a quick survey of all the families, especially mothers and children in those families in their respective area of work once in a year. To organise non-formal pre-school activities in the Anganwadi of children in the age group 3-6 years of age and to help in designing and making of toys and play equipment of indigenous origin for use in Anganwadi. To organise supplementary nutrition feeding for children (0-6 years) and expectant and nursing mothers by planning the menu based on locally available food and local recipes. To provide health and nutrition education and counseling on breastfeeding/ Infant & young feeding practices to mothers. Anganwadi Workers, being close to the local community, can motivate married women to adopt family planning/birth control measures To make home visits for educating parents to enable mothers to plan an effective role in the child's growth and development with special emphasis on new born child. To assist the PHC staff in the implementation of health component of the programme viz. immunization, health check-up, ante natal and post natal check etc. To maintain liaison with other institutions (Mahila Mandals) and involve lady school teachers and girls of the primary/middle schools in the village which have relevance to her functions. To guide Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHA) engaged under National Rural Health Mission in the delivery of health care services and maintenance of records under the ICDS Scheme. AWW would also assist in implementation of Nutrition Programme for Adolescent Girls (NPAG) as per the guidelines of the Scheme and maintain such record as prescribed under the NPAG. To identify the disability among children during her home visits and refer the case immediately to the nearest PHC or District Disability Rehabilitation Centre. Apart from the above even they are entitled to these activities every day: To cook and serve the food to children and marchers To clean the Anganwadi premises daily and fetching water. Cleanliness of small children. To bring small children collecting from the village to the Anganwadi.9

For more details about the roles of Anganwadi workers , http://wcd.nic.in/icdsimg/RoleresponseAWWs.pdf