Extend mid-day meal scheme to high school: States

Demands are mounting to extend the Mid-Day Meals Scheme (MDMS) to the secondary and senior secondary sections (high school), testifying to the popularity of a scheme that was envisaged as a way of discouraging children from discontinuing education.

All that the Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD) had thought was that it would extend MDMS to all upper primary sections in the country from next year.

But, in a letter written to Minister for Human Resource Development Arjun Singh recently, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy has requested the ministry to extend the programme to the high schools.

This, state government says, would improve the students' performance. A few days back, Tripura too sent a similar proposal to the ministry.

The MDMS is an ambitious programme of the government which provides free mid-day meals to all children in primary sections (till fifth class).

From this year (2007-08), it was extended to upper primary sections in 3,479 educationally backward blocks of the country. The ministry wants to extend the programme to all the upper primary sections in the country from the next academic year, 2008-09.

The scheme is run mainly with the money collected through the 2 per cent education cess.

In the Union Budget 2007-08, a sum of Rs 7,324 crore was provided for the scheme, representing 37 per cent increase over the 2006-07 allocation of Rs 5,348 crore.

The increase was to fund the extension to upper primary sections. Funds are released to the states on the basis of their proposals approved by the Mid Day Meal Programme Approval Board (MDM-PAB) every year.