Mid-day meal scheme gets mother figure

Every mother is to supervise the mid-day meal in her ward's school, according to the new guidelines of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry on the mid-day meal scheme.

Often mothers get to supervise twice or thrice a year depending on the number of children in the school. The Centre wants to go one step further. It actually wants to put the finances for the scheme in the hands of mothers. This would mean empowerment of mothers as well as a fool-proof mechanism to check misuse of funds, say ministry officials.

But while financial empowerment of mothers will have to wait for a few more months, states are warming up to involving mothers in a supervisory role. Many states have kept a roster for mothers. Children inform mothers in advance the dates on which they are to be present at the school to supervise the meals, say ministry officials.

Rosters have been introduced in Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, while in Uttaranchal mothers have been appointed as 'bhojan mata' and 'sahayika' in all primary schools.

Some states are going beyond Central directives to involve mothers and are also seeking community participation. Gujarat, for instance, offers all citizens a chance to feed school children at any school of choice in a programme called Tithi Bhojan.

The enthusiasm of the states is also reflected in the voluntary contribution they are making towards each child's meal per day. Small states with fewer children to feed are making the highest contribution.