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The Hindu
04-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
PM-POSHAN vs reality: How India's midday meal programme struggles on the ground
A hundred years after the Madras Municipal Corporation first introduced the midday meal scheme, every Indian State and Union Territory today runs the programme—some, like Kerala, serving modern additions such as egg fried rice and micro greens. Yet, inefficiencies persist across the country, with funding remaining a major concern for a scheme that has consistently improved students enrolment and retention in schools. In early 2025, the Maharashtra government mulled scrapping eggs from the mid-day meal citing funding constraints. But following widespread criticism, it reversed the move—reinstating eggs and bananas weekly and doubling the scheme's budget, though critics raised concerns over the dilution of the programme's nutritional value. The Hindu takes a deep dive into various meal programmes in the country, tracing the origins and examining the effectiveness of the implementation. A century-old journey Midday mealsin schools have a long history in India. In 1925, India's first-ever midday meal scheme was introduced for disadvantaged children in the Madras Municipal Corporation. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and the UT of Pondicherry had universalised a cooked midday meal programme with their resources for primary students by the 1980s. The Union government launched the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, a nationwide mid-day meal scheme, on August 15, 1995, to ensure enrollment, retention, and attendance, as well as improve nutritional levels among children across India. 'In Tamil Nadu, M Singaravelar, a member of the erstwhile Madras Municipal Corporation in the 1920s, took the initiative to introduce the first ever Midday Meal Scheme for marginalised children under the Corporation limits. Later, it was transformed into a fully-funded government scheme along with the inclusion of vegetables, fruits and pulses into the menu,' said P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN). The Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN), which was introduced for an initial five-year period (2021–22 to 2025–26), aimed to provide one cooked meal to students up to Class 8 in Government and Government-aided schools. It replaced the earlier midday meal scheme, launched in 1995, which focused on universalising primary education. PM-POSHAN's cost is shared by the Centre and States on a 60:40 basis, with the Centre supplying foodgrains. Taking the vision to the next level, Tamil Nadu launched the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme on September 15, 2022. Initially rolled out in 1,545 government schools, the programme covered over 1.14 lakh primary school students from Classes 1 to 5. The scheme, designed to eradicate hunger, malnutrition, anaemia, vitamin B12 deficiency and underweight conditions, has already shown measurable impact. According to the State Planning Commission, attendance rose in 1,319 participating schools so far. Building on this momentum, the State government has announced that from July 15, 2025, the scheme will be expanded to include all government-aided schools in urban areas, thereby bringing all government and aided schools under its ambit. As of now, more than 17.53 lakh students across 34,987 government and aided schools are receiving breakfast under the scheme. Undeniable results A 2024 systematic review of 31 studies on the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme in India found that regular access to MDM consistently improved enrolment, attendance, retention, and even learning outcomes, though nutritional improvements varied. Educationalist Ms. Aruna Ratnam, who previously worked with the UNICEF, said primary school attendance improved after the introduction of the midday meal scheme. 'A study by economist Jean Dreze found that primary school attendance improved in the 1990s following the universalisation of the midday meal scheme. It was achieved way before the introduction of schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, introduced in 2001,' she said. Dipa Sinha, an independent development economist and researcher associated with the Right to Food Campaign—an informal network of organisations and individuals working to ensure food is recognised as a fundamental right—said midday meals have helped bring children to schools and retain them there, particularly those from backward communities. 'It also addresses the issue of classroom hunger as many children, who come to school without having breakfast, can have a meal. That, in turn, improves their learning,' she said. 'We take loans to fund the meals' Vasudha (name changed), a headteacher at a government-aided school of Kerala's Kozhikode district, gets barely enough time to juggle between academic duties and regular administrative responsibilities as the new decision by the State's education department to introduce new dishes like Egg Fried Rice has caused immense pressure on her to find sponsors for each day. 'My school has nearly 650 students and all of them take meals from the school. I have to spend more than half a day to ensure that all are being fed on time. It severely affects my academic duties,' said Vasudha. She claimed that the delay in disbursing funds has forced teachers to spend more than ₹ 50,000 from their pockets to manage their weekly requirements. The Kerala government currently allocates ₹ 6.78 and ₹ 10.17 for midday meals per child a day in lower primary and upper primary classes respectively, less than half of what schools actually spend. 'We have been struggling to get funds from the government for midday meal schemes for the last 4-5 years. Some teachers had to take loans to meet these expenses last year,' she said. Vasudha pointed out that even when payments are cleared, they often arrive after a delay of three to four months, and usually in instalments. 'We won't receive the amount of vegetables, eggs, and milk together, and we have to visit the offices multiple times to complete the process. But we have to settle the expenses with shopkeepers and milkmen every week. With this new menu, we will have to find at least ₹ 40 per child. Besides, we will have to spend ₹ 7 for an egg, ₹ 60 for milk twice a week, ₹ 12,000 for LPG for a month, and transportation charges for foodgrains. Be it the regular rice and grain or the new dishes, we are permitted to appoint only one cook to prepare for 500 students. We could only use LPG for cooking as the government has mandated it to promote a sense of environmental protection among the students. We are clueless about how to manage these skyrocketing expenses,' she said. Other Indian States are no exception. Schools across India are grappling with the lack of support through the PM-POSHAN scheme despite statistics revealing that the midday meal scheme has shown significant progress in student retention rates. 'We receive only ₹ 4 and ₹ 6.19 per child for lower and upper primary classes. ₹ 4 is allocated to provide fruits for each child every Monday. Apart from this, the government provides wheat and rice of 100 grams for each child from the government ration shop, but we have to bear the transportation cost of bringing grains from the outlet to the school. Besides, we aren't receiving any separate funds for grinding the wheat,' said a headmaster from Azamgarh of Uttar Pradesh. He pointed out that, of late, funds are being disbursed late. 'With the current inflation, these funds were never sufficient. We are providing 100 grams of milk every Wednesday by spending from our pockets. We are not receiving the funds for the mid-day meal scheme every month. The grant is often given after 3 months or 6 months without any specific timelines. With the current grant, we won't be able to feed everyone. The government believes that only 80% of the children require food and the remaining 20% of children bring tiffin from home. But in reality, the majority of the children aren't able to afford such luxuries and all of them eat their lunch from the school,' he added. Educationist Anil Sadgopal claims that universalised midday meals are still a distant dream in States like Bihar. Sadgopal, who was part of Bihar's Common School System Commission in 2007, recommended universalising school education until Class 10 to provide equitable quality for all students through initiatives like the midday meal scheme. 'There is a complete mismanagement in midday meal schemes in Bihar. Back in 2007, our Commission submitted a set of recommendations calling for universalised nutritious mid-day meals cooked by trained staff. But the proposals were shelved. Six years later, in 2013, 23 children lost their lives and over 100 were hospitalised after consuming contaminated food in a school meal. More than a decade on, nothing has changed and there are various areas in the State where the scheme is blatantly absent,' said Sadgopal. Caste-based discrimination Caste-based discrimination has been reported in serving and consuming mid-day meals. Discriminatory practices, such as separate seating arrangements or denial of meals based on caste, have been reported in both Northern and Southern States, breaching the principles of equality and inclusion. Students from marginalised communities often face social exclusion in accessing mid-day meals. Madhu Prasad, a former philosophy professor at Delhi University and a veteran activist working for equitable access to quality education for all children, claimed that caste-based discrimination is very prevalent across public schools in the Delhi NCR region. 'Dalit children are still made to sit separately in dining areas and teachers are putting down food into their bowls without bending down. There are instances of parents avoiding school meals if the cook was a Dalit. Following complaints from parents, many schools in the NCR region had removed these cooks as well,' she said. South India is also facing a similar challenge and experts feel that the midday meal scheme brings in an aspect of social dining amidst the issues of caste-based discrimination. 'Caste is indeed a major issue in this scheme in Tamil Nadu. There are places where dominant caste groups won't consume lunch prepared by female cooks from non-dominant or marginalised castes. However, teachers are making an effort to ensure that children do eat their midday meals. With the introduction of breakfast in schools, the situation has improved a lot these days,' said Ms. Ratnam. Is PM-POSHAN effective on the ground? The PM-POSHAN scheme, on the other hand, introduced as a solution for classroom hunger, has its own lapses. The scheme covers about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools across the country. In 2020–21, the Centre spent more than ₹24,400 crore on the scheme, with nearly ₹11,500 crore earmarked for food grains. The total approved outlay stands at ₹54,061.73 crore from the Central Government and ₹31,733.17 crore from States and Union Territories. However, activists point out that the scheme has a 'one size fits all' approach that is unsuitable for several states with unique challenges. 'The PM-POSHAN scheme, in its current form, falls far short of its intended goals. Proposals like setting up nutrition gardens in schools or implementing IT-based monitoring systems are largely tokenistic and disconnected from on-ground realities, especially in rural or under-resourced areas. Other than the cosmetic rebranding of the old Midday Meal Scheme, the initiative offers nothing in terms of meaningful nutritional innovation. What's urgently needed is a serious overhaul incorporating a scientifically designed meal plan and the inclusion of breakfast and nutritional snacks to address classroom hunger and malnutrition,' said Ms. Prasad. Echoing a similar view, Ms. Sinha opined that the PM-POSHAN scheme has always had a disparity in terms of fund allocation. 'Many States in the South are receiving only the basic minimum required resources as per norms while several North Indian states are getting more than what the norm requires them to provide. Financial assistance to procure items like eggs are not provided to all the States. The scheme isn't bridging the gap of state-level disparities, but providing only basic minimum resources across all States,' she said. Tamil Nadu appears to be at the forefront of bridging critical nutritional and implementation gaps in the midday meal scheme with its proactive initiatives, outperforming many other States. Ms. Ratnam attributes this to the Dravidian model of investment in education and health. This approach is said to have ensured that all schools are seamlessly implementing these schemes. 'Awareness among the general public and elected officials plays a crucial role in the wide reach and success of these schemes. Around 97% of Tamil Nadu has definitely been covered in the scheme and is showing huge results on the ground. Although teachers are burdened with statistical duties connected with the midday meal scheme, they do see the reasoning behind it. In Tamil Nadu, schools have started assessing the BMIs of students. Meanwhile, Anganwadis have turned into a crucial feeding centre for kids along with duties like immunisation. All these initiatives help ensure that the effect of malnutrition at such a young age is eliminated,' said Ms Ratnam. 'The school dropout rate, particularly for girls, has drastically reduced up to Class 12 and more girls are showing interest in education,' she said. Way forward Experts point out that States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha offer successful models that can be replicated across the country by adapting to the local requirements. 'Even States like Tamil Nadu aren't able to handle exceptional cases as issues that come outside the purview of department-driven programmes become a problem. They won't be able to deal psychosocial areas related to these schemes. This is where NGOs can play a crucial role as they have funding and expertise to address them without involvement of the State,' Ms Ratnam said. Ms. Sinha has called for better financial assistance from the Centre for the scheme. 'The resource-generating capacity of the State governments has become limited and the funding must come from the Centre as the majority of taxes are collected by the Union government and some of these initiatives are centrally-sponsored schemes. It is the children who ultimately suffer due to these shortages in the end. While States continue to manage these schemes amidst the shortage in resources, the fiscal space to bring innovative measures has also become limited. The norms and structures of the scheme were created with the expectation that these funds and resources would be provided. There are numerous cases of funds being withheld with claims that some norms are not followed,' said Ms. Sinha. Experts pointed out that customising midday meals for a specific population has been a weakness in almost all States. 'The more local these schemes are, the better it is for the general population. Kerala has a good model with grassroots level participation to provide nutrition, childcare and child rights. It ensures a community-level approach,' said Ms Ratnam.
Russia Today
17-04-2025
- General
- Russia Today
Burning stoves, empty pockets: The hidden cost of feeding India's children
In the sweltering kitchen of a primary school in Sitapur, approximately 80km from Lucknow, Sunita Devi, 45, carefully stirs an enormous pot of dal as she has done for over a decade. The steam rises, fogging her glasses, but her hands move with precision. Sunita represents just one among nearly 2.5 million women across India who serve as the backbone of the country's Midday Meal Scheme, now officially known as Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) – a program that feeds 120 million children in 1.1 million schools nationwide. The program dates back to 1925 when it was first introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation, in modern-day Chennai in the south. The initiative gained momentum in the mid-1980s, when states including Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu universalized cooked meal programs using their own resources. The watershed moment came on August 15, 1995, when the government launched the National Program of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, which operated nationwide by 1997-98. On November 28, 2001, the Supreme Court directed all state governments and union territories to implement the Midday Meal Scheme, in which every child in every government and government-aided school was to be served a cooked meal with at least 300 kilocalories and 8-12 grams of protein per day for a minimum of 200 days per year. The program's scope was significantly broadened in 2002 to include children studying in education centers in areas where government and government-aided schools are not available. Children at a government school in Srinagar, Kashmir, October 15, 2022. © Faisal Khan/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images The majority of the Indian states began providing cooked and warm meals by 2003, and eventually, around 120 million students were covered under the program by 2006, which is now regarded as the world's largest school food program. According to Indian NGO Child Rights and You (CRY), the Midday Meal Scheme has had a significant impact on various aspects of children's education and health, including 'a noticeable decline in malnutrition among children benefiting from the program.' Multiple studies also noted improved academic performance among beneficiaries of the scheme. The program has also contributed in reducing gender disparities in education, with girls showing higher enrollment rates in schools offering the meals. Fragile support However, for millions of midday meal workers, the reality on the ground is brutal. Since 2012, Sunita has prepared meals that feed hundreds of hungry school children daily, yet her compensation amounts to mere pennies for her labor. 'I started about 10 years ago at 500 rupees (0.5$) per month. Now I get 2,000 rupees ($23) monthly. It's difficult to manage with such high inflation, but whenever we ask about increasing our payment, we're just told it will happen someday. Nobody tells us when,' Sunita explains, wiping sweat from her brow. The woman says the school she is working at is located in her village, making it difficult to seek work elsewhere. Working in the village is safer than venturing outside for employment. Despite the low pay, she acknowledges that the money she earns helps support her household. Not only that, the program helps Sunita's children get proper meals, she adds. Students waiting for their midday meal in Tehatta, India, December 28, 2019. © Soumyabrata Roy/NurPhoto via Getty Images 'I am not financially well off and this is the reason that I am working here. The great help I am getting by working here is that my children who study in the same primary school also get and it relieves me a lot to see my seven-year-old eat properly because at home I cannot guarantee him a three square meal along with milk and eggs,' she told RT. Many cooks like Sunita in different parts of the country receive an average salary of 2,000 rupees a month – around 67 rupees a day ($0.80). This is the pay for working in school kitchens in the scorching heat for 6-7 hours a day. Jyoti Singh from Madhya Pradesh's Bhopal and Meera Jatav from Uttarakhand's Udham Singh Nagar district share similar stories to Sunita's. Jyoti explains that she receives work for only 9-10 months a year with a monthly payment of 2,000 rupees, while Meera receives even less at 1,650 rupees monthly, or just 55 rupees ($0.6) per day. 'How can anyone survive on 1,650 rupees alone for a month? Supporting a family is out of the question,' says Meera, who has worked as a cook for 12 years. 'Any vegetable costs at least 40-50 rupees per kilo. We can't even think about fruits. Dal and oil prices increase every month. We don't even have farming land to grow our own food.' She adds with visible frustration, 'We get just 55 rupees for a full day's work. And the worst part is that even this meager amount isn't paid on time. Sometimes we wait 6-7 months for our wages.' In most states, cooks working as assistants in the program are still paid according to the rate established in 2009 – 1,000 rupees ($11) per month. This means wages have remained unchanged for 15 years. A midday meal ready to serve to children in Indore, India, November 18, 2016. © Shankar Mourya/Hindustan Times via Getty Images Doing the math While state governments can increase this amount according to their discretion, the central government provides 60% of the designated amount, with state governments covering the remaining 40%. In mountainous states, this sharing ratio is 90:10. Cooks typically receive their honorarium for ten months, excluding the two-month summer vacation in May-June. The central government revealed in response to a parliamentary question that Kerala pays the highest at 12,000 rupees ($140) monthly, while Delhi, Goa, and several northeastern states among others remain at the minimum 1,000 rupees. The national minimum wage is 5,340 rupees ($62) per month or around 178 rupees ($2) per day. However, since cook-cum-helpers (CCHs) aren't recognized as laborers, the government isn't obligated to provide them minimum wages. In parliamentary responses, the government has repeatedly stated that 'CCHs are honorary workers who have come forward to provide social services.' Midday Meal cooks protest in Patna, India, March 7, 2025. © Santosh Kumar/Hindustan Times via Getty Images The stagnation in Midday Meal workers' wages stands in stark contrast to other government compensation. Over the past 12 years, parliamentary salaries have tripled, now reaching 100,000 rupees ($1,160) monthly. Entry-level government employees saw their starting salary increase from 2,550 rupees ($30) to 7,000 rupees ($81) under the Sixth Pay Commission in 2008, then to 18,000 rupees ($209) following the Seventh Pay Commission in 2015. Meanwhile, Midday Meal workers remain frozen in time, economically speaking. While school cooks' wages have barely increased, India's retail inflation rate has doubled over the past ten years. Though retail inflation has been brought under control in recent months – according to the Ministry of Statistics, it was 3.69% in February 2025, compared to 5.09% a year ago, peaking at nearly 7% in November 2020 – vulnerable sections of society have faced difficulties with the rising costs of food. Meeting the demands On December 3, 2024, hundreds of Midday Meal workers from 14 states gathered at Jantar-Mantar in New Delhi under the banner of the Midday Meal Workers Federation of India. Their demands included job regularization, a minimum wage of 26,000 rupees ($301) monthly for all 12 months of the year, social security benefits, and pension provisions. These types of rallies have become common across the country over the years, but the core demands of the workers are yet to be met. 'It's very sad that the central government, which claims to empower women, hasn't increased Midday Meal workers' honorarium by even one rupee in the past 11 years,' says Malini Mesta, the general-secretary of the Midday Meal Workers Federation of India. She adds that Midday Meal workers should receive wages for 12 months like teachers and other staff, and it shouldn't be less than 26,000 rupees (around $300). 'More budgetary provisions should be made for the scheme. This program has been running for about 30 years, but workers who have worked in it for years receive nothing upon retirement. Workers get injured while cooking meals during school duty, some even die, but there's no provision for financial assistance,' Malini says. Association of Midday Meal Assistant Workers at a rally in Kolkata, India, May 30, 2023. © Samir Jana/Hindustan Times via Getty Images Pankaj Kumar of the Bihar State School Cooks Association echoes her concerns. His union has long demanded a 21,000 rupee ($243) honorarium for cooks, state employee status, and the cancelation of centralized kitchens, he said. 'Cooks only receive wages for 10 months. Besides cooking, they're made to do other work in schools. They're even made to wash dishes. In return, they're paid just 1,650 rupees monthly in the state, meaning 55 rupees per day. Can anyone support a family with such a meager amount?' Officials acknowledge that they receive regular requests for wage increases, but say wages can't be increased until there is a budget allocation. 'We're already paying more than many states and trying to ensure workers get as much work as possible,' N. Kumar, the deputy director of the Uttar Pradesh Midday Meal Authority, told RT. As Sunita returns to her kitchen the following day, the reality remains unchanged. She will continue feeding the nation's children for less than the cost of the vegetables she cooks. Like millions of her colleagues across India, she persists – an essential yet often overlooked supporter of the world's largest school meal program, awaiting recognition that always seems just out of reach.
