School meals get more bite

MID-DAY WONDERS PART-I

Spurred by a Supreme Court ruling, hot mid-day meals are being served daily to 12 crore children in 9.5 lakh schools all over the country.

The meals are no longer punishing plates of rice gruel and beans that students in Kerala used to force down or the dreaded Ghughri (a wheat gruel) that children in Gujarat endured daily.

Schools are offering anything from milk and eggs to even fish, to ensure fulfillment of nutritional needs of the child.

The vast spread of the scheme has convinced the HRD ministry to decide on doubling financial assistance to mid-day meals.

The present contribution of the ministry to the students' food bill is Re 1 per child, besides free grain. The Centre is ready to make this Rs 1.50, provided states contribute another 50 paise per child. The annual central outlay, which was Rs 3,345 crore last year, is Rs 5,348 crore for 2006-2007.

But want of funds has not stopped states from going beyond the central guidelines for a varied and appealing menu. West Bengal, which was the last to offer mid-day meals, is today serving fish and meat once a fortnight.

Its menu? Rice with a choice of dal, vegetable curry, egg curry, potato with soya chunks, and fish and meat curry rotationally through the week.

Eggs are offered with mid-day meals once a week in Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Jammu and Kashmir and Madhya Pradesh.

Karnataka schools serve sweet pongal, chapati and sabji and bisibele on different days of the week.

Rajasthan's spread includes dal-roti, vegetables-roti, dal-bati, rice-sweet and namkeen and fruits. Kerala, which has been the slowest to change, sticking to rice and payar (beans) for decades, sent its new food chart to the ministry this week promising, a variety of curries with rice. Children get 300 calories and 8 to 12 grams of protein from mid-day meals.

States are under pressure to increase this to 450 calories and 15 grams of protein.

Nutritionist and activist of Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, Vandana Prasad, agrees. "Things are moving. The Centre and the states are taking the scheme seriously. Some states are more serious than others. The ultimate goal will be to have wholesome meals with cereals, vegetables and fruits so that every child is assured one good meal a day," she says.