5 government ministries team up to improve mid-day meal scheme

New Delhi: Five central government ministries will join hands to improve India’s school meal programme that feeds nearly 110 million children at an annual cost of 13,215 crore. The decision was arrived at after the first meeting of an empowered committee on mid-day meal on Tuesday. The committee was constituted after 23 children died in Bihar after eating contaminated mid-day meal in a rural school in July 2013.

“There is a need for consolidation of the scheme in collaboration with the other ministries and departments,” said human resource development (HRD) minister M.M. Pallam Raju who presided over the meeting attended by representatives from various departments and ministries, including rural development, Panchayati Raj (local governance), health, women and child development, and drinking water.

Launched both to address nutritional issues as well as ensure more enrolment and attendance in schools, the welfare programme is largely funded by a 2% education cess on income-tax.

In the 2013-14 budget, the central government allocated ₹ 13,215 crore for the flagship scheme run by the HRD ministry in collaboration with states.

To improve the scheme, the HRD ministry will now tap the rural development ministry to build cooking sheds and allied infrastructure under the latter’s Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme.

The health ministry will chip in to extend benefits under the national rural health mission; these will include regular health check-ups and the provision of micro nutrients. Drinking water can be provided by the concerned department, Panchayati Raj executives can help monitor the scheme, and hygiene and sanitation can be improved in collaboration with departments like sanitation, and women and child development, a spokesperson of the ministry explained after the meeting.

“The committee felt that appropriate steps need to be taken to enhance drinking water and sanitation facilities in all the schools in convergence with ministry of drinking water and sanitation. The scheme of ministry of drinking water and sanitation for water supply to all the schools should be circulated to all the states,” the HRD ministry said in a statement. According to another document, the ministry hopes to engage accredited laboratories to test the food.