Chapter Two Mid Day Meal Scheme in India: Origin and Implementation

82 Chapter Two Mid Day Meal Scheme in India: Origin and Implementation In the previous chapter, the issue of right to food and the responsibility of the state are discussed. An emphasis is given on the Indian State in protecting children s rights and the rise of the Civil Society Organisations thereafter. In this chapter Mid-Day Meals Scheme (MDMS) has been discussed thoroughly with various empirical evidences. After the famous Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS), the State in India, realizing the various issues related to children, yet another famous MDMS has been initiated for the age group of children under fourteen as major food intervention programme. Since, nearly half of all Indian children are undernourished, the Scheme is intended to protect the right to food of the children while emphasizing the other aspects like right to education, right to growth and development, etc. Simultaneously, it has been argued that the hunger and malnutrition are major hindrance for children to develop and therefore the relationship between educational development and nutritional status of the children are highlighted while introducing the scheme. The MDMS was introduced primarily to protect the nutritional as well as the educational rights of the children. 1 This is due to the fact that children are not able to concentrate in their studies with empty stomach and there is a need to focus upon the MDMS, to overcome child s short term hunger. Thus, initiating this kind of meal programme, Government of India aimed at helping the children especially belong to the poor socio-economic background to attend school and to have at least MDM through which their education as well as food related issues could be tackled. Significantly, the scheme was intended for the tribal areas of various states in the country where, the level of food insecurity and starvation is much higher and children are sold due to acute poverty of the parents. Therefore, MDMS is perceived as a major means to impart positive habits among the children and also in educating them on the importance of health, sanitation, and socialization. It is also seen as a factor for economic support to poor parents and 1 National Guidelines for NP-NSPE, Ministry of Human Resource Development, Government of India, New Delhi, 1995.

83 educating them about the value of education instead of sending their children for meager daily earnings. More importantly, it was aimed to facilitate and increase the school participation among the underprivileged children which would lead to their educational as well as economic upliftment. 2 Further, the MDMS promises to provide each child one third of the daily nutrient requirement in the form of cooked meal to combat his/her food and nutritional deficiencies. The MDMS is the India s second largest food security programme. For the children and, it is perhaps the largest food security programme. in the world. In this context, the main aim of this chapter is to trace the origin and growth of this important scheme. However, there are many school meal or feeding programmes introduced in different countries according to their indispensability. The Great Britain introduced in 1945, whereas, United States America and Switzerland introduced in the year 1946. Other countries, like Japan and Australia were initiated in 1947 and 1950 respectively, whereas India introduced in 1995. Table 2.1: School Meal Programme in Different Countries Name of the Country Year of Introduction United kingdom 1945 United States of America 1946 Switzerland 1946 Japan 1947 Australia 1950 China 1964 Indonesia 1967 Thailand 1970 Korea 1973 Singapore 1975 India 1995 Source: Kalpana Parikh & Summiya Yasmeen, 2004. 2 Jean Dreze, and Aparajita Goyal, Future of Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol-XXXVIII, No-44, November 1, 2003, Pp-4673-83.

84 2.1 MDMS and its Origin in India In India, however, the history of MDMS goes back to the much before the initiation that has come from the United Kingdom in 1945. In fact this kind of programme was introduced, in India, way back in 1925 in the erstwhile Madras Presidency, presently Tamil Nadu where the meal was provided to poor children. Interestingly, the food was distributed in the form of snacks to the children who attended the schools in rural areas so that they will not go with hungry. It has been stated, in Tamil Nadu, the scheme worked efficiently in rural areas in the age group of seven to nine-year old. The food was distributed without any gender discrimination and it was well targeted among the needy households. In Eastern India, the Keshav Academy of Calcutta introduced compulsory tiffin (a kind of snacks) item for the boys on payment basis in 1928. Though the scheme excluded the girl children still it could able to cover a major segment of boys. Consequently, in the state of Kerala similar kind of programme was started in 1941 providing meals to the school-going children. This was followed by Bombay in 1942, Bangalore in 1943, Utter Pradesh in 1953, and Orissa in 1962. 3 Since 1950, food in some form or the other was distributed to the children in few states. In the year 1950 many Indian states started MDMS with the assistance from different international donor agencies like: the UNICEF, FAO, CARE, WHO, etc. The CARE has supported in particular the MDMS in many states in India from 1950 to early 1980. 4 With the assistance from international co-operation, the Indian government introduced the MDMS for the age group of 6-11 in 1962-63 where food was provided to the children for 200 days in an academic year with an input of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein per child per day. 5 It was on the Madras state which was distributing cooked meal to the children in the schools since 1957. In 1956, K. Kamaraj, the then Chief Minister of Madras, set up a feeding programme to distribute food to the poor children from the rural 3 Kalpana Parikh & Summiya Yasmeen, Groundswell for mid-day meal scheme, available online at http://www.indiatogether.org/cgi-bin/tools/pfriend.cgi 4 The Planning Commission, Government of India, 1956. 5 Op Cit, No-1, 2004.

85 areas. In 1982, M. G. Ramachandran, the then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, set up a state wide scheme called the Nutritious Meal Programme even before the introduction of MDM programme at national level in 1995. 6 This was a major attempt taken by the government of India to protect the child from gross hunger. Later on the MDMS was included in the Minimum Needs Programme (MNP) of the Government of India under the Congress government. 7 Even in the policy framework through Five Year Plans the children s rights were included and the MDM received greater priority. However, the MDMS received full attention only in the year 1995 and it was initiated widely and in full fledged manner all over the country with maximizing enrolments and reducing drop outs in the age group 6-11 years of children with paramount importance on the nutrition aspect of the programme. Table 2.2: School Meal Programme in Indian States State Food Supplement Year of Starting Tamil Nadu Cooked Meal 1957 Kerala Corn Soya Meal 1961 Utter Pradesh Corn Soya meal/wheat 1962 Andhra Pradesh Corn Soya meal 1962 Karnataka Corn Soya meal 1964 Bihar Balahar/corn Soya meal 1965 Orissa Balahar/ Biscuit/ Milk 1962 Source: www.indiatogether.org and Vijayaraghavan (2002) 8. Thus the idea of MDMS has been the serious interest of the Government of India since early 1980 s. But the scheme got attention in nation wide only in 1995 with the aim of the universalization of primary education by increasing enrolment, retention and attendance and simultaneously impacting on nutrition of students in primary classes. 9 With these objectives, many Indian states started implementing the scheme in their respective states. But later it is found that until 2001 the MDMS was 6 http://www.developments.org.uk/data/issue28/indian-lunch.htm 7 Fifth Five Year Plan, the Planning Commission, Government of India, 1974. 8 K. Vijayaraghavan, Beginning of School Meals Programmes in Different States, National Institute of Nutrition, Hyderabad, 2002. 9 The Planning Commission, Government of India, New Delhi, 1999.

86 implemented neither in letter nor in spirit and was limited to providing dry rations. 10 After November 28, 2001, in its historic judgment the Supreme Court of India in the right to food case directed all states to provide cooked meals to all primary school children. 11 Thus, the MDMS have become a part of the daily routine across the country providing 120 million school children in their respective schools. 2.2 Major Objectives of MDMS The MDMS was started with two major objectives: firstly to enhance the child s nutrition level secondly to provide the basic education. Thus the MDMS was introduced basically to improve the overall development of the primary school children s education. Therefore, it has varied objectives like: To increase the nutritional level of the school going children To enhance the educational attainment of the children To retain the children in the school for a long period of time To develop the process of socialization, etc. Apart from the education, the nutritional aspects of MDMS have several dimensions including elimination of classroom hunger, the growth of school children s health. It is argued that if the children come everyday to school they can eat nutritious meal regularly and therefore child starvation could be checked. This makes it possible not only to realize their intake of calories and proteins but also to provide nutritional supplements such as Iron and Iodine, which are required in many hilly regions. In this context, higher attendance in school provides opportunity to implement MDMS which enable children to have meals and to be physically and mentally fit. Thus, larger attendance in school is required to implement MDMS successfully because, if the children come to school, only then they are entitled for the meal. That s how higher percentage of attendance is vital for the successful implementation of MDMS. 12 10 Dry rations refer to the practice of giving uncooked wheat or rice on a monthly basis, often based on the attendance of a pupil. Children received three kg of food grain per month if they had 80 per cent attendance in school. 11 Right to food case refers to a public interest litigation officially known as People s Union for Civil Liberties vs. Union of India and Others, Writ Petition (Civil) No 196 of 2001. The order on MDM applies to government and government-aided schools. www.righttofoodindia.org. 12 Shantha Sinha, (2004), Mid-day Meal Scheme and Schools A Need for Universal Coverage, http://www.righttofoodindia.org.

87 Further, the respective governments at center and state level tried to improve the condition of children as a part of their developmental goals, through targeted policies with better institutional interventions. Under MDMS, it was decided to provide cooked meal within two years of judicial intervention and during intervening period, state governments were allowed to distribute dry rations to school children, instead of cooked meals. 13 But even after six years of the beginning of the scheme, many state governments could not even start implementing the scheme which led to the intervention of the Supreme Court in 2001. 14 The Supreme Court not only intervened but involved itself in monitoring the transition of these programmes that existed on paper merely as orders, into programmes that exist in schools. Thus the apex court s intervention was instrumental in implementing the MDMS and protecting the child rights from hunger. The Supreme Court directed all the state governments to implement MDMS and to provide every child a cooked meal with a minimum content of 300 calorie and 8-12 grams protein every day of school for a minimum of 200 days in every government and government aided primary schools. The respective states which were providing dry rations were directed to start providing cooked meals within three months to extend the provision of cooked meals to the remaining parts of the state. 15 Thus the judicial intervention not only hasten the process of implementation but it also responsible for bringing the required pressure on the central government to brought many reforms in MDMS in 2004 which includes: The cost of cooking at Rs. 1 per child per day, Transport subsidy raised from Rs. 50 to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states, and Rs 75 per quintal for other states, Provision of MDM during summer vacation in drought affected areas. These reforms were enthusiastically undertaken and policy changes were made so as to strengthen the MDMS and to make it available to each and every school 13 Op cit, No-2, P-4676. 14 The supreme court of India gave all the non implementing states a wake up call in its order of November 28, 2001 in the case of PUCL vs. Union of India and all the state governments to start implementing cooked meal in all government and government aided primary schools. Supreme Court s Order on Mid-Day Meal Scheme (No. 196 of 2001), www.righttofoodindia.org.in. 15 Supreme Court s Order on MDMS, dated 28 th February and 28 th May, 2002.

88 going child. The main intention was to feed more children through schools and making the state accountable and responsible for the children. Emphasis was given more on hilly regions of the country where the hunger and starvation rate is much higher. Hence, the perspective towards the MDMS changed with the judicial intervention and is being perceived as an entitlement of the children leading to various campaigns against the state government s inaction towards its implementation. The parents, teachers, and community members were mobilized to pressurize the respective governments to implement the scheme as a matter of children entitlement. To this effect there was a major campaign started on April 9, 2002 in 100 districts of nine states to express people s dissatisfaction with the respective state s inaction towards the MDMS. 16 In response to the pressure from the Supreme Court as well as from the civil society organizations, with repeated campaigns, petitions and protests forced the government to consider child rights seriously. As a result, the Government of India revised the guidelines for the MDMS in 2004 and later on in 2006. Therefore, the MDMS is being fully implemented in 20 states and 7 Union Territories and partially in eight states. 17 On the other hand, some states went beyond the national guidelines. For example the Tamil Nadu and Kerala implemented the scheme from primary classes to secondary classes and the destitute and aged were included in MDM beneficiaries. In Gujarat, the scheme covered children from classes I to VII and the Orissa government started providing MDM up to the VIII class. 18 The states like Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Karnataka followed the new guidelines in line with the Supreme Court order dated April 20, 2004, and started providing cooked meals during summer vacations in their drought-affected and hilly areas. In order to provide nutritious food, even the state governments received wide moral and material support from the international agencies. When many states could not start the scheme, few states on the other hand were providing daily nutritious 16 In Bangalore, children came out on streets with empty plates; in different places copies of the Court s order were distributed with a vision to make the government responsible in providing MDM. 17 Assam, Bihar, Goa, Jammu & Kashmir, Jharkhand, Punjab, Utter Pradesh and West Bengal. 18 http://www.righttofoodindia.org/comrs/comrs_reports.html.

89 meals to its children with varied vegetables. For example, Tamil Nadu until 1961 the meals were largely consisted of rice and sambar, which is one of the national dishes of Tamil Nadu. 19 Below (Table:3.3) is given the detailed menu of Tamil Nadu government s MDMS during late fifties even when at the national level MDM was not initiated in full fledge. To this extent, in 1961, many states received assistance from CARE in the form of food assistance for the programme and these were accepted and integrated into the MDMS menus. The food assistance included milk powder, vegetable oil, corn meal and bulgur wheat. 20 After the CARE commodities were introduced, the menu of the MDM were given alternatively. If one day was served with the menu of CARE material the next day would be a local menu with rice. Thus the CARE commodities in fact enabled the scheme to extend up to 16 lakhs children in 30,000 schools. Table 2.3: Menu for the Meals in Tamil Nadu in the Late 1950s Monday Cooked rice, 12 ounces and Sambar, eight ounces. Tuesday Curds rice 16 ounces and Kootu two ounces. Wednesday Tamarind rice 15 ounces and Sambar eight ounces. Thursday Kaambam rice 12 ounces and Sambar eight ounces. Friday Cooked rice, 12 ounces and Sambar, eight ounces. Source: Department of Rural Development, Government of Tamil Nadu. Initially, at the school level the programme was taken up by the school teachers in terms of procurement as well as distribution of food materials. However, their involvement resulted in a significant loss of teaching time. But in 1967 the system was modified and private body involvement were encouragement for which central kitchens were created and food was delivered to the respective schools after its preparation. In 1980s, further efforts were made to streamline the system and expand coverage as much as possible. Attempts were taken to bring reforms in the scheme making it one of the most efficiently organized school lunch programmes in the world. 21 However, long before the introduction MDMS at the national level, some of the Indian states like Tamil Nadu became proactive regarding the protection of child 19 http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/r/2v/f4/2vf40a01.htm 20 Origin and Growth of School Lunch Programme in Tamil Nadu http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/r/2v/f4/2vf40a01.htm 21 Op cit, No-2.

90 right to food. Providing MDM to children is one of the major initiatives that Tamil Nadu has undertaken on its road to be a welfare state. 22 2.3 Implementing Agencies of MDMS There are well defined implementing agencies at the national, state, district and village levels with properly defined procedures to implement the programme. The revised NP-NSPE scheme, 2006 mentioned a four tier institutional mechanism for programme management, through the constitution of Steering-cum- Monitoring Committee at the national, state, district and block levels which is discussed later. Power has been distributed among the different branches of the government to overcome the confusion and overlapping. It is due to the priority needed for the protection of the children. However, to fulfill the main objectives and desired goals of MDMS, various agencies of the government both at the Centre as well as at the states are involved. In general, the concerned implementing agencies, i.e. governments at the state level and local bodies, play significant role as the duty bearers for the MDMS. There are many agencies like Food Corporation of India (FCI), the Department of Food and Civil Supplies, Department of Education, Department of Women and Child Welfare, Department of Health and Family Welfare, Department of Social Welfare at the state level and Ministry of Food and Public Distribution and Department of Human Resource Development at the national level, etc. are involved for the smooth implementation of the MDMS. In Indian federal system, when the central government formulates development policies at the central level, it is the state governments or the local bodies implement as being the units of local administration. The state governments are expected to adopt certain development policies that are aimed at ensuring equality of opportunity for all regarding access to the basic necessities, education, health 22 The Indian State failed to protect its children from various underdevelopments like hunger, starvation, illiteracy, etc. which led to the judicial intervention. In its order, the Supreme Court of India directed all the State governments to introduce cooked mid day meals in primary schools within six months. Instead of protecting the child rights through legislation, which is the major responsibility of the government, could not happen, led to the intervention of the State s organ of judiciary that is the Supreme Court of India.

91 services, food, housing, employment, fair distribution of income and so on. On the other hand, they are also expected to create conditions, for realizing the fulfillment of right to food by undertaking appropriate economic and social policies to correct the social injustices. In this context, the public sector and private sectors organizations coordinate, not only among themselves but also with other national and international institutions as well as with the civil society to implement the scheme. As far as the MDMS is concerned, the state governments are entrusted with the responsibility of implementing it. If the central government provides dry ration and financial assistance, the state governments distribute the food grain and they monitor the MDMS programme. The state governments maintain the detail record of MDMS in their respective states. Further, the state government co-ordinates between the centre and the local governments for the implementation of the scheme. The state government s maintaining of data on the MDMS include: the name of the RPDS/EAS/LFL 23 blocks, local bodies/authorities and notified urban slums which covered by the scheme and category wise number of primary schools in those areas. They maintain the enrollment data, the number of school days month-wise in the academic year and the quantity of food grain they require per month and simultaneously lift and distribute food grains. Availability of facilities for preparation and distribution of cooked food is the main responsibility of the state governments. It also maintains the attendance figure of the students of classes I to V both school wise as well as district wise. It maintains monthly statement certifying the quantity of food grains lifted from FCI godowns, for payment to FCI and the quantity transported to schools/villages for reimbursement of transportation cost to DRDAs (District Rural Development Agencies)/Nagarpalikas. Simultaneously, the respective state governments also accountable for the details of expenditure like remuneration for cooks/ helpers, expenditure for construction of kitchen shed, etc. 23 Revamped Public Distribution System, Employment Assurance Scheme, Low Female Literacy.

92 2.4 Institutional Mechanism for Managing the MDMS The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP- NSPE) or MDMS has been managed by a four-tire institutional mechanism at the national, state, and district levels. Thus these management structures were followed for the NP-NSPE (2006) at the national, state, district and local levels. They are as follows: Table 2.4: Institutional Mechanism for MDMS Level of Agencies responsible Responsibility National Level National Level Steering Cum Monitoring Committee (NSMC), and Programme Approval Board (PAB) State Level State Level Steering cum Monitoring Committee and Nodal Agency District Level District Collector/District Nodal Agency Village Level Gram Panchayat/Municipality School Level VEC, SMDC, PTA, MTA Source: NP-NSPE, 2006. 2.4.1 The NP-NSPE at the National Level At the national level, a National Level Steering Cum Monitoring Committee (NSMC) 24 to look after the implementation of the programme. Its responsibilities are to guide various implementing agencies, monitor programme implementation and assess the impact of the scheme. Along with the NSMC, there is also a Programme Approval Board (PAB) under the chairpersonship of Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, to consider and sanction the Annual Work Plan (AWP) and the budget submitted by the state governments and Union Territories. And there is National Mission for Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) constituted to review the MDMS from time to time. It bears the cost of infrastructural development for the scheme. National Level Steering Cum Monitoring Committee is constituted to guide the various implementation agencies and monitor the programme implementation, assess its impact and take corrective measures for the success of the scheme. It also takes actions on reports of independent monitoring agencies on MDMS. It co-ordinates and 24 NSMC is set up by the Department of School Education and Literacy, the Government of India.

93 converges among the various departments and schemes while mobilizing the support of the community and promoting public-private partnership for the programme. Under the revised guidelines of NP-NSPE-2006, the NSMC is also asked to perform two new major functions including providing policy advice to Central and state governments and to identify voluntary agencies and other institutions to undertake training, capacity building, monitoring, and evaluation and research connected with the programme at the national level. 25 2.4.2 The NP-NSPE at the State / UTs Level Like at the National level, there is also a Steering and Monitoring Committee at the states and Union Territories level to monitor the implementation of MDMS. The state level committee s functions are similar to the function of the National Level committee. Each state government designates one of its departments as the Nodal Department which is overall responsible for the implementation of the MDMS. Beyond this, every state government has its own norms of expenditure, taking into account the central assistance available under NP-NSPE. Based on which the state allocates funds for the implementation of the programme. Simultaneously, state governments are directed to make adequate provision for the programme in their annual budget if there is any delay in Central Government s assistance. This arrangement is for prohibiting the interruption of cooked MDM to the children and secondly children should not go hungry because of government s delay in getting funds. Because of this all the state governments ensure a minimum of one month buffer stock of food grains and the cost of cooking for each school to tackle the crisis. 26 However, though the implementation of the scheme is rested upon the state government, its primary responsibility is to see the smooth functioning of the MDMS and its distribution. In this regard, state governments are entrusted for the functioning of the implementing agencies at the state level to the local level. This indicates failure of the local implementation agency to adequately procure and stock up cooking ingredients and secondly, absence of cook for any reason, etc. These provisions are made to avoid common obstacles which may come in the way of regular supply of cooked MDM. 25 National Guidelines of NP-NSPE, Government of India, 2006, P-12. 26 Ibid, P-14.

94 As there is a Nodal Department in every state to implement the scheme, it mediates between the Central and the state governments and conveys the district wise allocations of food grains and the finance. The nodal departments convey the district wise allocation for food grains, cooking costs, construction of cooking cum kitchen devices to the district nodal departments. 27 It co-ordinates among the districts nodal agencies and maintains records for attendance, drop out and retention of children in primary schools and decides menus for the MDMS at the state level. 2.4.3 The NP-NSPE at the District Level The responsibility of implementation and supervision of the programme in the district is assigned to the gram panchayat in rural areas and municipality in the urban areas. There is also a District Nodal Agency in each district. The state nodal agency conveys district-wise allocation for the next financial year to all District Nodal Agencies. The state nodal agency ensures that the district nodal agencies have suballocated the monthly district allocation to the sub-district level, which in turn would further allocate to each school. At the district and block level, the District Collector, District Social Welfare Officer (DSWO), Block Development Officer (BDO) or members of gram panchayat and municipalities are involved for the implementation of the scheme. The district nodal agency ensures that each school is informed of its monthly allocation of food grains and financial sanctions for construction of kitchen-cumstore, cooking costs, cooking devices, etc. It identifies the transportation agency to transport food grains from the nearest FCI godowns to schools. It takes responsibility for developing indicative menus using locally available and culturally accepted food items. Even though the district collector is over all responsible for the district, but many states have a District Social Welfare Office (DSWO) who is solely responsible for programme implementation. 27 In states where the function of Primary Education has devolved to Panchayat Raj Institutions, the State Nodal Department will convey the district wise allocation to the District Panchayats.

95 2.4.4 The NP-NSPE at the Village Level At the village level, the implementation of MDMS lies with the gram panchayat in rural areas and Urban Local Bodies/Municipality in urban areas. The central guidelines allow state governments to manage schools through a designated nodal department, such as School Education, Rural Development, Women and Child Development and Social Welfare. In MDMS revised guidelines the central government gave stress more on participation of voluntary organisations, decentralization, and involvement of NGOs in the provision of MDMS. Involvement and decentralization of the private bodies have specified in the sphere of supplying cooked MDM and providing resource support to the programme, like training and capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and research in the field of MDM. At the village level, a number of committees are created for the implementation of the scheme. Committees like Village Education Committee (VEC), Parent Teacher Association (PTA), Mother Teacher Association (MTA) plays important role than any other committees. But among these committees, VEC has a major say as it is almost a political body comprise of the members of gram panchayat and municipalities and these members have major say regarding the scheme. 2.4.5 The NP-NSPE at the School Level Village Education Committee (VEC), School Management and Development Committee (SMDC), Parent Teacher Association (PTA) and Mother Teacher Association (MTA) are assigned responsibility for the day to day management of the MDMS at the school level. These committees are responsible to the gram panchayat/municipality. In urban areas, a common approach has been accepted, i.e. to prepare a meal in centralized kitchen and transport them to different schools. For example, NAANDI Foundation in Andhra Pradesh and Akshra Dasoha of Karnataka are managing MDM independently. The NAANDI Foundation has created the world s largest central kitchen at Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), through which the cooked meal is supplied to 880 schools in Hyderabad and Secunderabad providing nearly 1, 30,000 children. The scheme is also extended to Visakhapatnam, providing 42,000 children. The NAANDI had extended its branches in other parts of the country including Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, etc. It is providing MDM in Madhya Pradesh at Bhopal, Jabalpur, Indore, and in Rajasthan at Udaipur and Bhilwara while serving a

96 total of 2, 68,000 children. The Foundation is providing about all total 4, 40,000 children. Like wise in Karnataka and Orissa, Akshayapatra scheme has extended their support for the management of MDMS. 28 Significantly, the point here is to note that regarding the implementation of the MDMS at the school level, teachers are given all most all responsibilities starting from procurement of food grain to cooking and distribution of the food. However, some states like Tamil Nadu and Gujarat have separate staff for MDMS. The National Guidelines for MDMS, 2006 specified the role and the function of the various agencies and the involvement of voluntary organizations as well as Self Help Groups, women groups in MDMS implementations. The major activities for which voluntary organizations involved are 29 : Supply of cooked MDM, and Provision of resource support to the programme, like training, capacity building, monitoring and evaluation and research. The responsibility for cooking or supply of cooked MDM except voluntary organizations, according to 2006 national guidelines rested upon the Local women s/ mother s Self Help Group, Local Youth Club Personnel directly by the VEC/SMDC/PTA/Gram Panchayat/Municipality. 2.5 MDMS under the Right to Information Act 30 In order to ensure that there is transparency and accountability in MDMS, all schools centres where the programme is being implemented are to display information suo-moto. This provision is due to avoid growing corruption in MDMS. This includes information on: Quality of food grains received, date of receipt. Quantity of food grains utilized. Other ingredients purchased, utilized Number of children given MDM 28 Source: http://www.naandi.org/education/middaymeals.asp 29 National Guidelines of NP-NSPE, Government of India, 2006. 30 http://right2information.wordpress.com/2006/10/24/mid-day-meal-scheme-under-rti-scanner/

97 Daily Menu Roster of community members involved in the programme. Under RTI, schools have to display information regarding the quantity, quality and utilization of food served under MDMS. They also have to furnish the number of children given meals, daily menu, and the roster of community members involved in the programme. This is one of the steps the MHRD has initiated to monitor the implementation of the MDMS. State governments have been advised to fix monthly targets for inspection of MDM. As per the directives, on an average, 25 per cent of primary schools should be visited every quarter and the remaining at least once every year. 31 According to the MHRD directives, the inspections need to be simple and to capture vital parameters required for the effective implementation of programmes at the ground level. Field visits should be made frequently but unannounced and it should be used for critical observation and interviewing broad range of individuals involved in the programme. Inspection reports are to be documented and they should be analysed in depth and linked with previous reports on the same centres. The findings of the report should be documented and reported in steering-cum-monitoring committee meetings at all levels and suitable remedial/corrective measures should be initiated without any delay. Most importantly the social science institutions are entrusted with the task of monitoring the MDMS. In addition to the above, it is expected from the states to develop a mechanism for public grievance redressal, which could be widely publicized and made easily accessible. 2.6 The Coverage of the MDMS (1995-2005) As per the data provided by the Government of India, Department of Statistics regarding the coverage of the MDMS, in the year 1995-96, it covered 378 districts subsequently which increased up to 583 districts during 2004-2005. This signifies that the physical coverage of the scheme and the number of children included has increased significantly. During 1995-96 the number of children covered under the scheme was 3.34 crores; however the number became triple and increased to 10.76 31 http://www.newindpress.com/newsitems.asp?id=ieh20061023134549&title=top+stories&rlink

98 Table 2.5: Coverage of the Scheme (1995-2005) crore in 2004-2005. From the above data the physical coverage increased since 1995-1996 to 2004-2005 which is a positive sign for the success of the scheme. The table (3.5) suggests that the number of children covered has gone up and it implies that the school drop outs are checked out significantly. 1995-1996 1996-1997 1997-1998 1998-1999 1999-2000 2000-2001 2001-2002 2002-2003 2003-2004 2004-2005 Number of Districts 378 474 506 544 544 575 582 586 596 583 Number of Blocks 2495 4417 5565 5764 5764 5912 6844 6809 6765 6798 Number of children cov ered (in 3.34 5.57 9.10 9.79 9.90 10.54 10.35 10.36 10.57 10.76 crore) Number of schools covered (in 3.22 4.74 6.41 6.88 7.17 7.42 7.69 8.04 8.80 8.67 lakhs) Source: www.indiastat.com 2.7 Financial Arrangement of MDMS Regarding the budgetary investment in MDMS, it is seen from the table (3.6) that there is significant increase in budget allocation from 441.21 crore during 1995-96 to 1375 crores in 2003-2004. This indicates that with the initiation of various policies and changes, the central government increased budget allocation to bring qualitative changes in the scheme. On the other hand, the real challenge of the programme lay in working out modalities for reaching out to every child who is already attending the school. This is to ensure that all other children who do not go to schools must attend it. So that along with increase in budgetary investment, the physical coverage of the programme could increase.

99 Table 2.6: Year-Wise Outlay/Expenditure of MDMS (Rs. in Crore) Year Budget Expenditure Revenue Expenditure Expenditure 1995-96 - 611.79 441.21 1996-97 1400.00 800.00 800.00 1997-98 960.00 1070.38 1070.38 1998-99 1092.15 1400.15 1600.15 1999-00 1031.10 1500.00 1500.00 2000-01 1090.00 1300.00 1300.00 2001-02 930.00 1031.24 1030.27 2002-03 1175.00 1057.50(Gen.), 117.50 1101.50 1099.03 (NE) 2003-04 1175.00 1375.00 1375.00 2004-05 301.00 1675.00 (as on 15.6.04) Source: www.indiastat.com Though the MDMS is a centrally sponsored scheme, Central Government and the state government have a 25:75 shares. Central government provides wheat and rice at the rate of 100 grams per student per day. Besides, the Central government also provides subsidy for transportation of food grains upto a maximum of Rs. 75 per quintal from the nearest FCI depot to the primary schools. But the cost of cooking and provision of essential infrastructures are the responsibility of the state government. It includes vegetables, pulses, oil, kitchen-cum store, water supply for cooking, cooking devices, and containers for storage of food grains and other ingredients and utensils for cooking and serving. 32 Most of literature on MDMS stated that the cost of infrastructure is a contentious issue in MDMS implementation and for which the state government shows lack of will in providing cooked food so that it could save the additional cooking expenses and thereby distributed dry rations. Initially, the wage costs of various staff of the MDMS were met from the Jawahar Rojgar Yojana (JRY). However, in 1999, the JRY was revamped and these 32 NP-NSPE, 1995.

100 additional costs were borne by the state governments and the scheme faced financial problem due to budgetary constraints in the respective states and Union Territories. But later on the Central Government started providing additional assistance following the Supreme Court s order in 2001. In December 2003, the Planning Commission asked the state governments to use a minimum 15 per cent of additional central assistance under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) to meet the cooking costs of MDMS. The revised guidelines for NP-NSPE (2004) made it compulsory to provide cooked MDM with 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein to all children upto primary classes (I-V classes) in government, government aided and Employment Guaranteed Scheme centers. 33 In addition, with free supply of food grains, the Central Government started providing Rs. 1 per child per day towards cooking cost. The Central government s contribution was raised to Rs1.50 per child per day, with the understanding that the state government makes a matching contribution of at least 50 paise per child per day making the total cost Rs.2 per child per day. Transport subsidy was also raised from Rs. 50 to Rs.75 by the Central government. 2.8 Physical Infrastructure for MDMS To provide physical infrastructure, according to MDM guidelines of 2006, lies with the state governments. The cost of physical infrastructures like kitchen cum storage, water supply for drinking and washing, cooking devices, utensils for cooking and serving are decided to be borne by the state governments through convergence with other development programmes. These includes like Sampoorna Gramin Rogjar Yojana (SGRY), Basics Services for Urban Poor (BSUP), Urban Wage Employment Programme (UWEP) for the construction of kitchen cum stores. Accelerated Rural Water Supply Programme (ARWSP) and Swajaldhara schemes are to meet water supply requirements, etc. Finally, the costs of utensils are to be bought from the annual Sarva Siksha Abhiyan school grants of Rs. 2000. 33 Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) is an effort to provide community cantered and right-based primary education to all the children in a quick and time bound manner. Under EGS, the government gives a guarantee to provide a primary schooling facility to the children in a habitation, where there is no such facility within a kilometre, within a period of 90 days of receiving a demand for such facility by the local community. It operates on a decentralised basis through collaboration of state government, local body/panchayat and community.

101 2.9 Implementation of the MDMS by State and UTs Though most of the Indian states are unable to provide food to the school going children, on the other hand few states have gone ahead in fulfilling it through the schemes. These states have realized the positive aspect of the scheme and therefore implemented. Further, these states have realized the fact that the MDMS is having a diverse personal, positive and social role and found that the MDMS in schools is important on certain counts and they are as follows: If school children are healthy, well fed and not hungry they can learn better. Feeding programme in the school may increase the enrollment and reduce drop outs. Today s children are the future citizens and hence they need well nutritious food. Hence, in this way school feeding programme could be a better investment. Here, the focus has given on to understand the functioning of MDMS in the country. MDM, although included in national law since 1995, gained attention as a major food related programme following the 2001 Supreme Court s right to food decision. The study included the Court s decision and its aftermath. In addition, emphasis has also given on the state government s perception regarding the scheme and what are the strategies these governments adopted to implement the scheme. While Tamil Nadu continued to provide cooked meals, Karnataka which previously covered primary school children with hot meals dropped the idea after 1995, and started distributing dry rations. 34 The Karnataka government s justification for this was based on teacher s involvement in meals preparation which became a major hindrance for classroom process. With continuous pressure from the parents and local people, an effort to reinstitute MDM began after October 2001. 35 Presently, the government of Karnataka initiated special schemes to over come child mortality and child undernourishment. In this state, private bodies like Infosys and ISKON were involved in extending their Akshaya Patra (free MDMS) and to provide healthy and 34 Meal Schemes for School Children, The Times of India, February 1, 2001. 35 Mid-Day Meal Scheme in 7 Districts From Oct 8, The Times of India, October 2, 2001.

102 hygienic food for the children. Apart from this, the government has initiated different measures including free lunch, maintenance of the health standard of the children, immunization, health inspection in the school premises, providing iodine tablets, vitamin tablets. After the introduction of its own policy, Akshara Dasoha, Karnataka state enacted this scheme which has universally effected improvement of primary health as well as primary education. The government s Akshara Dasoha scheme has become a success because the local level population comprising of parents and panchayat are involved in overall monitoring of the scheme. Each school in the state is well developed in its infrastructure including cooking shed and a paid staff of three: a cook, a helper, and an organizer who look after logistics and accounts. All of them are women and appointed according to their competence. The government gives more emphasis on nutritious meals with added vegetables and sometimes special food during festivals. 36 The government of Gujarat in addition to MDMS is also supplementing different types of vitamins at a cost of Rs. 16 per child per year. The main aim behind the government s action is to improve the nutritional standard of the children through continuous effort to change food habits and to create general awareness among the people regarding the children s right to food. With the broader objectives of improving nutritional standard among the vulnerable sections, state decided to bring substantial qualitative changes in the scheme. On the other hand, the government of West Bengal has shown less interest from the beginning regarding the implementation of the scheme which brought attention of the Supreme Court as well as of the beneficiaries. And simultaneously, NGOs like the Right to Food and Work Network, West Bengal Educational Network and the Calcutta NGO Forum of Street and Working Children organized number of demonstration against the state government regarding its unwillingness or inability to provide MDM to its primary school students. The West Bengal government, in response to the Supreme Court s ruling, that the state should not compromise with 36 The nutritive value of MDMS has taken place in all the three National Guidelines of 1995, 2004 and 2006.

103 children s right to food, had petitioned that it was unable to implement the central government funded MDMS due to severe financial problems. The appeal of the state government was rejected by the Supreme Court and cautioned that central aid to the states would be diverted for the meals project if cooked meals were not duly provided in schools. 37 Meanwhile, states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand violated the order of the Supreme Court and could not implement the scheme highlighting their poverty, vulnerability to food shortages and the ill functioning of public institutions. Various studies 38 found out that the non-implementation of MDMS in above states is due to the vested interest of the policy makers. The government failure and ineffectiveness in the implementation of the scheme is due to the general economic stagnation, underdevelopment most importantly the problem of illiteracy and lack of awareness among the people. 39 Thus, the lack of awareness among the people led to lack of knowledge regarding adequate food and balanced diet, leading to nutritional and health problems of the children. And it also led to their incapability to demand from the government as matter of their entitlements. Therefore, the government s intervention in the matter related to right food is significantly very low. Moreover, MDMS is being perceived as a means of enhancing enrollment rather than as a means to feed the hungry children. Going further towards the North-Eastern region, there is evidences of gross violation of the Supreme Court s order regarding the implementation of the cooked MDMS. The states argued that MDM is not part of the eating habit of the people and children do not like to eat in the middle of the day. 40 37 Prasenjit Maiti, Food Right over Hunger, Center for Development Studies, Calcutta, March, 2003. 38 Studies like Jos Mooij examines what Public Distribution System does, and describes that many people do benefit from the present set up but maximum of them are dissatisfied with the large scale misappropriation of food grains coming from the center. Instead of going near to the real beneficiaries, food grains are misappropriated by Public Distribution System dealer, civil servants and others who are involved in monitoring the system. Source: Jos Mooij, Dilemmas of Food Policy: About Institutional Contradictions and Vested Interest, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol-XXXIV, No-52, December 25, 1999. 39 Ibid. 40 www.asia- pacific/human Rights Network.htm

104 Regarding the state of Maharashtra, the situation of the child is quite worst and the mortality rate is a regular phenomenon even though it is the most industrially developed state in India. But the state while impressed by positive cost-benefit reports of MDMS from the southern states, have initiated and implemented the scheme mostly in tribal and deprived regions. Though it did not show much interest for the scheme in the beginning, but with the continuous intervention of the Mumbai High Court as well as the civil society, it started implementing. The High Court intervened along with the Supreme Court s order to start MDMS as early as possible to protect children from hunger deaths, child labour, illiteracy, etc. Of the state s 64,000 primary schools, only 31,483 schools are provided with cooked meals since the end of July 2004. The government of Maharashtra stated that a continuous effort has been made it to extend the MDMS to all government and government assisted primary schools in state. 41 Implementation of MDMS in Andhra Pradesh is different from the other states. Andhra Pradesh is considered as a food grain surplus state and food secure at the macro level. Even though, the food grain production in the state is far ahead, there is prevalent food insecurity at the household level and around one fourth of the state s population suffers from chronic food insecurity and around 40 per cent of the children suffer from malnutrition. 42 However, the government has been able to implement the MDMS, with the co-operation of the local NGOs working and fighting for the better cause of children. 43 Presently Andhra Pradesh is also performing better while implementing MDMS. Most significantly NAANDI Foundation s co-operation with the state government has made the scheme a better. In Kerala, which is a food deficit state comparative to Andhra Pradesh, has implemented the MDMS successfully. The state assisted food security system in Kerala shows that it has contributed to the improvement of a wide- range of human 41 A study by Kalpanna Parikh highlighted that even though Maharashtra is a highly industrialized State, the growth of population, lack of political will, prevalent illiteracy among the parents and community and corruption led to the non- implementation of the Central Government scheme. Kalpana Parikh, Starvation Deaths in Maharashtra, India Together, January 2004. 42 S Mahendra Dev, K.P.Kannan and Nira Ramachandran, Towards a Food Secure India: Issues and Policies, Institute for Human Development, New Delhi and CESS, Hyderabad, 2003. 43 NAANDI Foundation and M V Foundation are working on food security and educational security of children in the state respectively.

105 development indicators that are closely related to access to food, rate of mortality and the alleviation of poverty. There are three major components of food security system in Kerala: PDS, Supplementary Nutrition Programme for pre-schools and school going children, and old age and other disability pensions for the poor. The successful implementation of MDMS in Kerala is possible due to various causes. The problem of availability of food compelled Kerala to concentrate more on the proper distribution of food; secondly, the institutionalization of Public Distribution System and making it as an integral part of public policy. Thirdly, an increasing emphasis on specialization in agriculture and more on commercial crops to grow more food to avoid food deficit in the State. Last but not the least; Kerala is the most literate state in India. Larger consciousness among the population and their participation in government decision making process, proper decentralization of the political, administrative and financial power from top to bottom made the government responsible and accountable in implementing MDMS. 44 The level of literacy has brought awareness among the masses regarding their rights which made people more demanding from the state. A recent study on MDMS in other two states like, Chhattisgarh and Rajasthan by Jean Dreze and Aparajita Goyal on food security issues in Rajasthan highlighted on the state s political will regarding the success of the scheme even though the later falls into the category of BIMARU 45. This study clearly indicates the nexus between improved student enrollment and retention and the free MDMS. 46 Rajasthan fares best in terms of food logistics and monitoring of MDMS. All schools in Rajasthan reported timely delivery of food grain. Teachers also described the quality of grains as fair or above average and they are satisfied with the food grain as well as the supply process. 44 www.pmindia.nic.in/nac/communication/meal 45 BIMARU States refers to the infamous group of states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Utter Pradesh. It is because of their level of backwardness, poverty and corruption and so on. 46 This is the outcome of a survey report on MDMS in three states of the Indian Union- Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka - conducted by the Centre for Equity Studies of the Delhi School of Economics. The study of 81 schools in which free MDM were introduced in July 2001, indicates class I enrollment rose by 15 percent within the year. Particularly impressive jumps were made in female enrollment in Chhattisgarh (17 percent) and Rajasthan (29 percent).

106 Rajasthan was the first state to implement the order of the Supreme Court. The most important factor Dreze 47 found out that there is an adequate political will to implement MDMS. But as the state belongs to the infamous BIMARU, it lag behind while implementing any development schemes because of financial restraints. A powerful monitoring committee supervised the programme from the beginning, and the progress of MDMS was also closely watched by the right to food campaign. The timely delivery of good- quality grain, even in remote schools, seems to be a reflection of strong commitment to MDMS. But, the main problem in Rajasthan about the implementation of MDMS despite its satisfactory efforts is the finance and its overall underdevelopment. Rajasthan government spends only 50 paisa per child per day on recurrent costs, compared with Rs.1 per child per day in Karnataka, Kerala, Orissa, etc. As a result, the basic facilities are lacking and it is one of the main reasons why most of the schools continue to serve one item every day. As a result, even though government is able to provide noon meals to its children, it has failed to enhance children s nutrition by not providing a more substantial diet. Rajasthan is the first state which initiated the right based approach to food security programmes including MDMS. Regarding Chhattisgarh, number of studies reported that the provision of MDMS has been half hearted, both financially as well as politically. The state has neither enthusiasm to implement the scheme nor to protect the rights of the children. Dreze studied that the government has not a clear guideline for the management of the programme at the village level. Partial implementation of the scheme has failed to attract the children to schools. He highlighted that most of the teachers that MDM disrupt classroom processes, as there is no separate kitchen, inadequate utensils and so on. Dreze also found out that MDM has increased the enrollment, most importantly of the girls. Many parents reported that due to MDM, it is much easier for them to persuade their children to go to school in the morning. On the other hand, the scheme has become an instrument of social change in the state of Orissa. The government of Orissa has implemented MDM completely 47 Op Cit, No-2.

107 throughout the state even with its socio-economic deprivation. The state government has taken different steps to follow up the Supreme Court order which has been discussed thoroughly in the chapter-iv. Through the scheme, the government gives preference to women in employment as cooks and helpers and the selection is based on their economically disadvantageness. Food security of the children in the state of Orissa has not been implemented successfully throughout the state, as it is expected even though more than half of the population of the state lives below the poverty line. And there is no serious effort on the part of the state/ government to realize the effective access to food and to protect children from hunger, starvation, malnutrition, etc. 48 On the other hand it involves huge costs and leakages, resulting in inefficiency, corruption and away from better targeting. 49 Lack of awareness among the beneficiaries, corruption and lack of political will among the decision makers as well as bureaucrats, led to the improper implementation/ malfunctioning of the MDMS. In line with this positive track record, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, Gujarat has made comparatively good progress in building a sound infrastructure for the MDMS. As a part of this infrastructure other supporting staffs like the cooks, the assistants, helpers as well as organizers have had the conducive facilities. And the substantial proportions of schools have a pucca kitchen, sufficient utensils and proper drinking water facilities. Even in the case of children, they escaped the unnecessary involvement in MDM process and used their precious time for the studies and this kind of environment is lacked in other states. 50 The most important thing that has come up in the given three states is that, it is not the government which wants to implement the scheme, rather it is the demand from the children, parents, village community and teachers to provide MDMS in school and positive support from the local leaders, VEC, PTA, MTA, etc. Therefore, the above positive track record of these states indicates that the success of the MDMS in these states is due to the 48 Tim Dyson and A. Hanchate, India s Demography and Food Prospects: State Level Analysis, Economic and Political Weekly, 11 th November, 2000. 49 Deba Ranjan Sarangi, Orissa: Surviving Against Odds; A Case of Kashipur, Economic and Political Weekly, Vol-XXXVII, No-52, August 3, 2002, P-3239. 50 Time and again it has been reported both via-print and electronic media that, due to lack of funds for buying fuels for cooking, generally the school children are sent out in search of fire wood or bring from home.

108 people s awareness as well as the pressure which led to an accountable government in implementing the scheme. However, the states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, the case is just opposite as the infrastructure for the scheme is highly inadequate. Most cooks have to manage on their own in the most challenging circumstances, without minimum facilities such as a helper, separate kitchen and adequate utensils, sufficient provision for fuel, water supply, etc. Interestingly, the parents care for children s education than the health or nutrition. This was entirely due to lack of awareness regarding the food rights of their children. But the case of MDMS is slightly different in Rajasthan which is good at supply of food grain as well as in monitoring. In this state all schools timely get their grains and interruptions in the delivery of MDM are extremely rare. The case in Rajasthan is different because even though the state has political will but lag behind due to its financial crisis. It could be possible due to the presence of different associations who fight for people s rights and Rajasthan government has introduced cooked MDM in second track schools. 51 The shortage of financial resources is not only a problem for the state of Rajasthan but also for other states like Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, where the problem of implementation is a biggest problem. The problem of implementation of MDMS is thus involved in two things. In some cases due to lack of political will and low level of bargaining by the civil society, money could not be utilized properly. In some other states even though there is political will, due to lack of fund, people s participation, lack of decentralization of power has become a major hindrance. 2.9.1 The NP-NSPE in North Eastern states On the other had the North Eastern India gives a negative picture regarding the implementation of MDMS as many states of the region till now are lagging behind. Major states like Assam, Nagaland, Mizoram have not shown much interest for the 51 Second Track Schools include Shikshakarmi schools and Rajiv Gandhi Pathasalas and at the same time as in formal primary schools soon after the Supreme Court order. A high level monitoring committee closely supervised the programme from the beginning. But the main problem the state has been facing is that there is financial shortage to implement the scheme.

109 implementation of the programme as a result it is been reported by many news paper that fund come from the central government but could not be utilised. 52 In Assam, the scheme was launched 15th August 1995 and cooked MDMS has started in the state with effect from January 2005 with continuous intervention of SC. The scheme was launched basically to increase enrolment and regularity of attendance, reduce dropouts and sustaining retention and to improve children s level of learning and self-esteem impacting on nutrition of students. 53 The programme originally covered children of government and Provincialised primary schools in Assam and has been extended to cover government aided schools, EGS and AIE centers. The state government provides 10 per cent of total fund as state share for implementation of the scheme along with the central government assistance. The government of Assam failed to utilize the Central funds available for implementation of the scheme. At the end of March, 2008 there was an accumulated balance of Rs 99.73 crore with the state government, Rs 79.44 crore with the State Nodal Officer (SNO) and Rs 12.27 crore with the District Nodal Officers (DNO). The state s education department did not even offer proper and reliable enrolment figures of beneficiary children, resulting in submission of conflicting figures from different sources. On the other hand, Himachal Pradesh introduced MDMS in 1995 with the instruction from the Central government to increase attendance ad to reduce drop out rate. But the scheme could not have much impact upon the education as even after introduction of MDMS, inadequate admission of girls, drop outs, irregular attendance wastage of food items, and poor nutrition of children in the region continued. 54 2.9.2 The NP-NSPE at the Union Territory Level The Union Territory has received special attention from the central government even in the implementation of the MDMS. The scheme has covered the school children at the primary level under the age group of 6 to 11 years of age. Citing 52 www.economist.com, and www.newkerala.com 53 http://deeassam.gov.in/mdm.htm 54 Anita Pathania and Kulwant Pathania, Primary Education and Mid-Day Meal Scheme: Results, Challenges and Recommendations, Deep and Deep Publications, New Delhi, 2006, P-XX.

110 the example of Pondicherry, it is found that the government provides pre-processed food (viz. Bread) at 75 gms per head a day. Along with it the children are provided with cooked food consisting of bulgar wheat and green salad. Food is distributed to the children in school. 55 The MDMS has been in existence in the Union Territory of Pondicherry since French regime. At the initial stage, meals were served upto V standard in all the government primary and middle schools covering the feeding strength of 62,000 students. Consequent the scheme was extended from standard VI to VIII from November 14, 1990 and the total feeding strength has been raised to 1, 03,007. 56 Meals are prepared and served through DWCRA Units/Mahila Mandals and meals consist of rice, sambar and poriyal that are prepared and served for a period of five school working day on regular basic in a week in all the regions but in Mahe regions, meals are served on Saturday also to all the schools. Meals are provided to the children from class I to VIII. The government fixed the maximum rate per meal per student at Rs. 1.80 from January, 1992 for school canteens in Pondicherry, Karaikal and Mahe regions. The DWCRA units in Yanam region supplies the meal, per student at Rs. 1.75 with effect from 10.8.94 which is also approved by the government. The break up of expenditure per meal is as follows: Table 2.7: The Break up of Expenditure per Meal in Pondicherry Items Meals Supplied by School Canteen Meals Supplied by DWCRA Rice 0.90 paise 1.05 paise Vegetables 0.25 paise 0.25 paise Groceries 0.10 paise 0.10 paise Chilly Power 0.05 paise 0.05 paise Groundnut 0.10 paise 0.05 paise Oil Fire hood 0.15 paise 0.10 paise Dhall 0.10 paise 0.10 paise Transport and 0.15 paise 0.05 paise Miscellaneous items Total Rs. 1. 80 Rs. 1.75 Source: http://www.education.nic.in/ 55 http://www.education.nic.in/cd50years/r/2v/7b/2v7b0c03.htm 56 Ibid.

111 Regarding purchase of utensils, it is stated that based on the consolidated proposals received from various inspecting officers this Directorate used to make purchase by calling for tenders and also by observing the usual purchase procedure. Purchase of utensils is being made whenever required with the powers vested with the Chief Educational Officer and Deputy Director (Women's Education) for the schools coming under their jurisdiction, on quotation basis. Periodical inspections are being carried out by the Inspecting Officers like Deputy Inspectors of Schools, Chief Educational Officers and Deputy Director (Women's Education). Apart from this, Deputy Director (Adult Education), Joint Director (Secondary Education), Joint Director (Elementary Education) and Director of Education used to go for inspection of schools and canteens etc. wherever needed. 57 The administration is also supplying milk and biscuits under the Rajiv Gandhi Free Breakfast scheme in schools covering children up to standard XII. 58 The Government of Delhi provides qualitative as well as nutritious food under its School Nutrition Programme which includes vegetable biriyani, rajma (kidney beans), chhole (peas), paratha and puri (special bread) to bring changes in the lunch. The scheme covers nearly 4 lakh children and it is proposed to provide MDM to nearly 21 lakh children from the year 2007. The scheme covers all children attending Delhi Municipal Corporation, NDMC and government schools upto Class V. the government provides eight varied food to its children under School Nutrition Programme. That includes, fruity bread, Milk Bread (Sweet), Bun without using any colour, R.T.E. Food (Salted), High Protein Biscuits, Glucose Biscuits ISI, Roasted & Salted Ground Nuts (without skin), and Roasted Black Gram (without chhilka), etc. Most of the items are, except bakery item, supplied at various central points and from where schools collect the items. The schools meet the cost of transport etc. from their own student s funds. Bakery items are supplied directly by the Suppliers at schools. However, all the implementing agencies feel that there has to be provision for transportation of items from the central points to schools and to meet salary 57 Ibid 58 http://www.hindu.com/2005/08/27/stories/2005082705970300.htm

112 component of staff employed for MDMS; at present the staff of other branches and divisions are given additional work of the scheme. 59 2.10 The Controversy between the Center vs. the States Even though the MDMS is a central sponsored scheme, the states are bearing the major cost of its implementation that resulted in stiff resistance from the states. 60 The MDMS happens to be one of the most states resisted central schemes in India. The state governments budget bears testimony to the fact that plan expenditure at the onset of every Five Year Plans adds new schemes in large number. While the intention of the states is to rapidly and simultaneously develop all sectors of productive capacity, the presence of number of central government schemes in a limited plan budget led to an overlapping of duties and responsibilities, unnecessary confusion and importantly financial burdens. Many new schemes become nonstarters due to inadequate funding which further led to non implementation problem. As a result, states choose to resort to borrowing with higher interest rate in order to meet the resources crunch to put the money for development works. Following the principle prevention is better than cure; most of the states try their best not to implement the central sponsored schemes than lagging behind. Another reason for the non implementation of the central schemes, it is concluded from different empirical studies throughout the country, is because of regional variations in the country. This indicates that all the states are not equal in terms of geography, financial matters, level of development and kind of policy formulations and level of its people s literacy, awareness and participation. 61 The strained relation between the Central Government and the state governments is also significant as because most of the food related policies are shaped at the central level, by central policy makers. The policy makers at centre, are less concerned with the local conditions and less aware of the practical and political difficulties at the local level which emanates from such policies. 62 59 Ibid. 60 The Tribune, Chandigarh, an English daily, 29 th September, 2002. 61 Op Cit, No-47. 62 OP Cit, No-1.

113 It is also highlighted that the central and state politicians sometime try to protect the interest of their constituency, but when it comes to general policy matters, they are faced with the necessity to bring down budget deficits, to ensure economic growth and so on. The implementation of such policies at the state and local level by the local leaders and officials are faced with a very complex and peculiar problem. They find it much more difficult to implement policies as they are directly answerable to the people or to the beneficiaries. This signifies that, conflicts, confusion and overlapping responsibilities lead to malfunctioning or non-implementation of the scheme. This wide gap between policy formulation and execution allows for the possibility of new policies which threaten vested interests at the local level. 63 2.11 Government s Assistance and Allocation of Food Grains The local bodies like Panchayats and Nagarpalikas where the MDMS actual implementation takes place is assisted by the Central government by providing wheat and rice at the rate of 100 grams per student per day. Further, the Central government also provides subsidy for transport of food grains from nearest FCI Depot to the primary schools at the rate of Rs 50 per Quintal and Rs 75 for hilly regions. Thus in overall the Central government provides wheat and rice at the free of cost to the respective schools from the nearest FCI godowns of that area. In addition, the special provision of a Hill Transport Subsidy (HTS) is provided to those states which are hilly, economically backward, and lack rain facilities. 64 In hilly states, the Food Corporation of India (FCI) which is a central agency is responsible to deliver food grains at the nearest designated Principal Distribution Centers (PDCs). As per instruction of HTS, if the FCI was unable to deliver food grains at the PDCs under some difficult conditions, it will issue food grains from the nearest designated base depots. In such cases, the actual cost of transportation of food grains from the base depots to the PDCs is reimbursed by FCI to the states/uts as Hill Transport Subsidy. 65 However, the reasons behind all these are only to provide food grains in time so that food grains will reach in time to the respective school so 63 Ibid. 64 Arunachal Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir, Manipur, Meghalaya, Nagaland, Mizoram, Sikkim and Tripura. 65 Report on National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 2004.

114 that the children will not be deprived off a day s meal. The following are the broad principles of allocation of food grains: District is the unit of allocation, Allocation of food grains is made on a quarterly basis through FCI, Allocation of food grains is totally based on the enrollment data collected by the Department of Education, Further allocations are based on three factors: figures received from the FCI, district wise utilization certificate and enrollment data received from the state Education Department, The food grain allotted by FCI godowns is valid for which allotment is made and can not be carried forwards to the subsequent quarters, Based on the allocation made for each district by the government of India, the district collector further allocates the entitlement of each school. 66 Regarding the distribution of food grains or food allotment, the Central government follows total decentralization method. It is due to better availability as well as better functioning of the scheme, the Central government distributes food grains to the districts through the state governments. It indicates that for the implementation of the MDMS, the respective governments and their agencies at different stage are involved. 2.12 Cost of Cooking for MDMS Cost of cooking, which is a major provision of MDM, includes mainly the following: Cost of other ingredients e.g. pulses, vegetables, cooking oil and condiments Cost of fuels, and Wages and remunerations payable to personnel, or amount payable to agency (e.g. SHG, VEC, etc), responsible for cooking. As a result, a number of states continued to face financial difficulties in meeting cooking cost and providing cooked meals to their children and accordingly 66 Op Cit, No-1.

115 distributed only food grains @ 3 kg per student per month. To overcome this situation, Planning Commission asked state governments in December, 2003 to earmark a minimum 15 per cent of Additional Central Assistance (ACA) under the Pradhan Mantri Gramodaya Yojana (PMGY) from the financial year 2004-05. 67 But the cost of cooking, as reported by many states, is more problematic. Simultaneously, states like Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, and Orissa reported for the delay in supply of cooking cost. As they do not get cooking cost regularly, either they have to sell food grains or have to distribute dry rations while violating Supreme Court s Order. On the other hand, most of the teachers have expressed that irregularities in cost of cooking, and low salary of the cooks and helpers, the scheme is facing a major set back. 2.13 Movement of Food Grains for MDMS Movement of food grains for MDMS in local level is the responsibility of the district collector. The distribution to the local bodies/ schools based on the entitlement of individual schools is also taken care on behalf of the collector. Linkages are developed between FCI and the schools in each district to ensure smooth flowing of food grains. The transportation charges are reimbursed to the Nagarpalikas in towns and to the District Rural Development Agencies (DRDAs) from rural areas by the Government of India. Transportation cost for moving the food grains from the FCI godowns to the schools/villages at the rate of Rs 25/- per quintal as applicable under the RPDS. The food grains and transportation charges under this scheme would be made available to the districts directly based on district wise enrollment details and attendance furnished by the state government. 2.13.1 Supply of food grains from FCI It is the responsibility of the FCI to ensure continuous availability of adequate food grains in its depots (and in principle Distribution centers in the case of North East Region). It allows lifting of food grains for any month/quarter up to one month in advance so that supply chain of food grains remains uninterrupted. For the MDM programme, FCI issues food grains of best available quality. 67 Report of the Planning Commission, Government of India, 19 th December, 2003.

116 Table 2.8: Monitoring Agency for MDMS Sl No Type of Parameters Who May Monitor Frequency of Monitoring I. Programme Parameters 1 Regularity and i) members of wholesomeness of MDM VEC/PTA/SMDC Daily served to children ii) Teachers 2 No discrimination against children of weaker sections -Do- -Do- 3 Cleanliness in cooking, serving and consumption of -Do- -Do- MDM 4 Timely procurement of ingredients, fuel, etc of good VEC/PTA/SMDC Weekly quality 5 Implementation of varied Gram Panchayat/ Fortnightly/ Menu Municipality/ Monthly Representatives of Block- level SMC Source: National Guidelines for NP-NSPE, Government of India, 2006. Regarding the monitoring of the scheme at the grass root level, it is varied from the state to state. But according to the national guidelines, the over all supervision of the scheme is vested upon the gram panchayat or on the municipality. But the major supervision is mostly done by the Education Department, District Social Welfare Office, Village Education Committee, and Parent Teacher Association. In case of Orissa when it is the Village Education Committee supervises the scheme at the school level, the Parent Teacher Association plays dominant role in Tamil Nadu. Current position of state/ut-wise implementation of the programme (as on 31.3.2004) is as follows 68 : 68 National Guidelines for National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education, 2006.

117 14 states (Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, and Tripura & Uttaranchal) and all seven UTs are providing cooked meal to all primary school children. Nine states, (Bihar, Goa, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Punjab and West Bengal) are implementing cooked meal programme partially. Four states, (Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur and Uttar Pradesh) are distributing food grains. Jammu & Kashmir had not implemented the programme. 2.14 Impact of MDMS on Child Education During 1995-96, 378 districts, 225,000 schools and 33.5 million children have been covered with an expenditure of Rs. 4,412 million. In 1996-97, the scheme was extended to cover 55.4 million children with an expenditure of Rs. 8,110 million. The scheme has become fully operational in 1997-98 covering nearly 110 million children in primary classes. A positive impact on school enrolment and retention has been reported. Given below is the gross enrollment ratio of primary school children in India since 1950. Table 2.9: Gross Enrollment Ratio in India Year Primary Education (I-Vth) Boys Girls Total 1950-51 60.6 24.8 42.6 1960-61 82.6 41.4 62.4 1970-71 95.5 60.5 78.6 1980-81 95.5 64.1 80.5 1990-91 114.0 85.5 100.1 1991-92 112.8 86.9 100.2 1992-93 95.0 73.5 84.6 1993-94 90.00 73.1 81.9 1994-95 96.6 78.2 87.7 1995-96 97.1 79.4 88.6

118 1996-97 98.7 81.9 90.6 1997-98 97.7 81.2 89.7 1998-99 100.9 82.9 92.1 1999-2000 104.1 85.2 94.9 2000-2001 104.9 85.9 95.7 Source: Educational Statistics, 2001. From the table (2.9) it is seen that enrollment has gone up after the introduction of MDMS in national level. During 1950 s it is seen that girl s enrollment was quite low comparing to boys. By the end of 2000-2001, the enrollment of girls increased significantly upto 85.9 where as enrollment for boys was 104.9. The total enrollment for the primary school children rose from 42.6 per cent in 1950-1951 to 95.7 in 2001. This indicates that the scheme could able to fulfill its one of the objective, i.e., increase in enrollment. The official statistics also revealed that near total universalisation of school enrollment at the primary level in almost all the states of India. 2.14.1 Improvement of Girl s Access to Education There has been a significant improvement in girl s access to education as well as their enrollment over the years as brought out in the two NFHS surveys. And the report found that girl s enrollment has increased due to the implementation of the MDMS. Most recently, in states like Rajasthan, North Karnataka and Chhattisgarh, improvement in girl s enrollment has been account of the cooked meals being provided in schools. 69 Table 2.10: Improvement in School Attendance (6-14 Years Age Girls) States 6-14 Age Girls 6-14 Age Girls Variations Attending Schools 1992-93 (NFHS-I) Attending Schools 1998-99 (NFHS-II) Andhra Pradesh 54.8% 70.5% 15.7 69 Amarjeet Sinha, Primary Schooling in India, Vikas Publication House, New Delhi, 1998 and Basic Education for All, the Elusive Quest for Social Justice in a Dynamic Democracy : the case of India, 2003.

119 Assam 66.0% 75.0% 9.0 Bihar 38.3% 54.1% 15.8 Gujarat 68.4% 72.8% 4.4 Haryana 74.7% 85.5% 10.8 Karnataka 64.4% 77.6% 13.2 Kerala 94.8% 97.4% 2.6 Madhya Pradesh 54.8% 70.8% 16.0 Maharashtra 76.6% 86.9% 10.3 Orissa 62.0% 75.1% 13.1 Punjab 77.8% 90.0% 12.2 Rajasthan 40.6% 63.2% 22.6 Tamil Nadu 78.7% 88.5% 9.8 Uttar Pradesh 48.2% 69.4% 21.2 West Bengal 62.9% 76.7% 13.8 Source: Sinha, 2003. There has been a decline, in number of out of school children over the years, which has been brought out in the first and second National Family Health Survey (NFHS). The NHFS-I (1992-1993) showed 67.5 per cent of the 6-14 age children as attending school, while the NFHS-II (1998-99) revealed 79 per cent of the same category as attending schools. However, rates of successful completion of primary schooling still far away behind the desired level. Table 2.11: The Dropping Enrollment Scenario (In million) Class Boys Girls Total Class-I 17.1 13.4 30.5 Class-II 13.4 10.4 23.8 Class-III 12.2 9.6 21.8 Class-IV 11.0 8.6 19.6 Class-V 10.2 7.8 18.0 Class-VI 9.4 6.6 16.0 Class-VII 8.3 5.9 14.2 Class-VIII 7.6 5.0 12.6

120 Class-IX 6.2 4.0 10.2 Class-X 5.4 3.4 8.8 Class-XI 2.4 1.6 4.0 Class-XII 2.1 1.4 3.5 Source: Educational Statistics, 2001. The table (2.11) indicates that the level of drop outs is higher in primary classes upto class Vth. And drop out rate of the boys are seem to be higher than the girls. The dropping enrollment scenario is a pointer to the low learning, as most children are not completing the grades for which they are enrolled. The children can not able to complete the primary stage of learning due to various problems. As refered by many research majority of the parents prefer to send their children to job market to sustain their family. Table 2.12: Drop Out Rates at Primary Stage (I-Vth Classes) Category 1960-61 1970-71 1980-81 1990-91 1992-93 1999-00 2000-01 Boys 61.7 64.5 56.2 40.1 43.8 38.7 39.7 Girls 70.9 70.9 62.5 46.0 46.7 42.3 41.9 Total 64.9 67.0 58.7 42.6 45.0 40.3 40.7 Source: Educational Statistics, 2001. It is acknowledged that even though there is significant development in enrollment ratio among the primary classes but the dropout rates is also significant. A large proportion of primary school children, mostly girls, are either denied access or are failing to complete even five years of basic education. Census 2001 shows that while Gross Enrollment Ratios were 95.17 per cent for children, the Gross Drop Outs Rates were 40.7 per cent as mentioned in the above table. Table 2.13: School Attendance by States % of the household population age 6-14 years attending school by sex, residence, age, and state, India, 1998-99 Male Female Total State Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total Urban Rural Total

121 India/Age 6-10 yrs 91.7 83.2 85.2 89.1 75.1 78.3 90.4 79.3 81.9 11-14yrs 85.1 78.5 80.2 82.8 61.6 67.0 84.0 70.4 73.9 North India Delhi 86.0 89.2 86.2 87.6 83.2 87.2 86.7 86.2 86.7 Haryana 87.1 85.4 85.9 86.1 74.7 77.8 86.7 80.5 82.2 HP 96.4 95.4 95.5 96.3 92.8 93.0 96.3 94.1 94.3 J&K 83.0 85.8 85.3 85.2 67.6 70.4 84.0 76.6 77.8 Punjab 93.0 84.1 86.7 92.7 78.1 82.7 92.8 81.5 84.9 Rajasthan 83.9 80.4 81.3 73.5 49.9 55.6 79.0 66.0 69.1 Central India MP 84.0 73.1 75.9 77.9 58.0 62.8 81.2 65.7 69.6 UP 77.7 77.3 77.3 77.0 57.3 61.4 77.3 68.0 69.9 East India Bihar 79.1 66.8 68.2 72.1 47.5 50.5 75.5 57.4 59.6 Orissa 78.2 77.1 77.2 75.4 65.8 66.8 76.9 71.5 72.1 West Bengal 78.5 72.5 73.7 76.1 65.9 68.0 77.3 69.3 70.9 North East Aru. Pradesh 96.7 82.3 84.2 87.3 74.3 75.9 92.2 78.3 80.1 Assam 86.8 73.3 74.2 81.1 69.0 69.9 83.8 71.2 72.1 Manipur 91.8 87.8 89.1 89.3 82.0 84.4 90.5 84.7 86.6 Meghalaya 91.4 75.3 78.5 91.3 76.8 79.9 91.3 76.0 79.2 Mizoram 92.6 78.6 85.5 89.8 79.8 85.3 91.0 79.2 85.4 Nagaland 87.3 84.5 85.1 84.8 78.0 79.4 86.0 81.1 82.2 Sikkim 88.0 82.7 83.2 73.4 83.6 82.6 80.6 83.2 82.9 West India Goa 91.2 88.5 89.6 87.2 86.5 86.8 89.2 87.5 88.1 Gujarat 82.8 69.6 74.8 73.4 56.7 63.1 78.3 63.2 69.1 Maharashtra 86.3 82.6 84.1 84.6 75.7 79.1 85.5 79.3 81.8 South India AP 80.1 71.3 73.5 78.5 56.0 61.5 79.4 63.9 67.7 Karnataka 81.9 71.4 74.9 79.7 62.4 68.0 80.8 66.9 71.4 Kerala 95.6 89.7 91.0 94.5 89.8 90.8 95.0 89.8 90.9

122 Tamil Nadu 84.4 81.6 82.6 84.7 73.3 76.9 84.5 77.4 79.7 Source: NFHS-II, 1998-99. However form the above, it is found that MDM have definitely contributed for the growth of children. Though the scheme has many difficulties, but is directly or indirectly leaded to the nutrition as well as the education of school going children. The MDMS has played a major role in boosting school attendance, eliminating classroom hunger. So, if MDM are to achieve their full potential first the basic objectives of the scheme have to be highlighted and government must formulate different policies to fulfill these goals. More emphasis are to be given on nutritional content of the scheme and more specifically there is need to give nutritional education to children, such as washing their hands before and after eating. Taking a larger view, there is much need of linking MDM with related nutritional inputs like micronutrient supplementations, health services and nutrition education. That means MDM are to be supplemented with the distribution of other medical ingredients like Iron, Iodine, and de-worming tablets with regular health check ups, free treatment of illness, etc. The scheme has more than fulfilled its main objectives of combating malnutrition among children, increasing literacy, serving as an incentive for enhancing enrollment and retention of students in primary and middle schools. As a consequence enrollment in primary schools has risen by 35 percent from 4.8 million in 1984-85 to 6.5 million in 2002-03. Simultaneously the dropout rate in middle school has reduced from 24 percent in 1984-85 to 13.85 percent in 2002-03. Thus, the MDMS is a major tool which has effectively enabled hundreds of millions of poor children in India to attend school. In addition to enabling education, it has positive direct and indirect benefits relating to a number of other development goals namely for gender equity, poverty and hunger reduction, etc. The above chapter could able to give a detailed picture of the MDMS in India. But next two chapters tried to bring out the actual functioning of the scheme in Tamil Nadu and Orissa. These two chapters are more field oriented so that practical observation regarding the implementation of the MDMS could be possible. Though the chapter-iii deals with MDMS in Tamil Nadu, an extensive study has been carried out to understand the real picture of the scheme at the ground level. Tamil Nadu being the successful state

123 regarding the matter of MDMS, it was necessary to study the implementation of the scheme and also to find out what are the causes led the scheme successful. During the collection of data, emphasis was given upon the perception of people of Tamil Nadu regarding MDMS as a means to fulfill children s right to food.