Centralized Mid Day Meal Scheme of Chhattisgarh

The Mid-day Meal Scheme is the popular name for school meal programme in India which started in the 1960s.It involves provision of lunch free of cost to school-children on all working days. The key objectives of the programme are: protecting children from classroom hunger, increasing school enrolment and attendance, improved socialization among children belonging to all castes, addressing malnutrition, and social empowerment through provision of employment to women.

This ambitious scheme of government has been facing several issues like corruption in the education department (both at ground level and at higher levels), hygiene, regularity, kitchen facilities, variety of items in the meal, quality and quantity. Cases of siphoning of funds by officials and grains by in-charge at school level are common. Often cases of food poisoning can be read in the newspaper. There were no variety in the meal and also the nutrition value of the food was ignored. Availability of meal depended on series of factors right from stocking of grains to presence or absence of the cook.

Chhattisgarh government in order to check the issues has started a unique Centralized Mid Day Meal Programme for its urban region. Under this programme, the meals for the schools of urban area are prepared at a central location and the cooked meal is sent to different schools on small trucks. Since the schools run in two shifts, the meal is cooked twice. The centers have modern kitchen which can cook food for over thousand in one go. The facilities include solar heating facility, water heaters which run on LPG as well as on wood logs & coal, water filters which are in series to ensure proper filtered water and godowns for stocking the grains and vegetables. The meal is cooked by steam (as is done in making idlies) which ensures energy conservation and smokeless environment. The menu has items like rice, dal, vegetables, curd, kheer, sprouted gram, etc.

The Centralized Mid Day Meal scheme runs on a contract basis done by tenders. Presently, it is being done in the urban areas of different districts of Chhattisgarh due nearness of schools and ease of transportation. Chhattisgarh State Civil Supplies Corporation Limited provides rice and sugar, while the milk and other items are procured locally. The contractors have their own transporting facility to deliver the cooked food which is still warm at the time of delivery. The kitchen runs on all working days.

The scheme is very popular in the corridors of government agencies and schools, however there are limitations and scope of extension. The scheme is limited for urban region only and transportation of cooked meal incurs additional cost.

The unique initiative by Chhattisgarh government has helped reduce corruption in the Mid Day Meal Scheme. The operation management has become easier on government’s part. The school enrolment has increased and a healthy and warm food prepared in hygienic environment is ensured.