The tragic episode in a school in Bihar, where 23 children died because of contaminated food, is unacceptable. But it is also a fact that the midday meal scheme, under which cooked food is compulsorily provided to children in government schools across India, is too important and critical to be given up. The only questions that matter are: why doesn't the scheme work as well as it should and what can be done to fix it?
The answers are complicated. Providing nutritious food to children in schools helps address two key problems: hunger and education. In 2001, the Supreme Court directed all governments to provide cooked food to all children in primary schools; the scheme has evolved since. The central government agreed to provide free grain (rice and wheat) and funding for transport, cooking cost and recently even an honorarium for the cook. The state government is required to top up this funding; pay for vegetables and pulses; provide infrastructure in schools; and manage affairs.
This is, no doubt, a big and complex affair. It is estimated that 117 million children studying up to Class VIII are fed cooked meals every day in 1.26 million schools and other such centres. The scheme, according to government figures, provides employment to 2.6 million cooks and helpers. The operations are complicated. Money comes from the Centre in four instalments to states. Next, it reaches districts and individual schools based on enrollment, off-take and spending. Grain is procured from the storehouses of the Food Corporation of India and is transported to districts and then to schools. There are detailed guidelines on how this will work, as well as on who will oversee it and even taste the food before it's served. Given the scale and deployment under this scheme, it would be difficult to find parallels in the world.
But the question remains. Children died in Bihar. There is evidence from many other parts that food is neither hygienic nor nutritious. What's more serious is that persistent malnutrition continues to shame the country. So what is wrong?
Let me point out the directions in which we should not look for answers. One, we should not look for new schemes to replace the old programme. Two, we should not stop cooking food and replace it with what is considered more feasible to supply - for example, biscuits and packaged food from big and small companies. There is a big push for this, which is not surprising since many eye the Rs 10,000-crore annual budget for meals under the midday meal scheme.
The answer is to get down to fixing what is broken. First, let's focus on what is now called old-fashioned governance, which prioritised the deliverables and then obsessed about how it was being done. It is clear from the states where the programme is working successfully that it requires attention to detail. It needs involvement of those placed the highest in the land - surprise visits, inspections and reports. This will send the signal to the system - however dilapidated - that food for children is top priority.
This also means that state governments - ministers and chief ministers - must have greater reputational advantage of getting the delivery right. In the current system, nobody gets kudos for doing it well, but everybody is running away from the blame.
Second, focus on the paraphernalia of delivery. We put every conceivable scheme in the hands of the hapless (and now increasingly corrupt) local panchayats - each sarpanch manages some 80 different accounts and some 150 different schemes. But there is absolutely no effort to invest in the management support functions of these bodies. If we believe - and we must - that the best institutions for governance are communities, then it is time to fix their offices. Stop thinking that it is low-cost and voluntary. Management requires money and people. So invest there.
Third, focus on money itself so that we can achieve the change we desire. The central government pays close to Rs 3 for each primary school child and a little more than Rs 4 for older children. This is in addition to transport costs (at 2006 rates) and Rs 1,000 per month for cooks and helpers. In Tamil Nadu, the midday meal organiser gets Rs 7,000 per month and the cook and helper are paid Rs 5,000 each. Clearly, this is what it takes.
Instead, we short-change our programmes. As a result of inefficient delivery, we have to spread what is available so thinly that it does not make a difference.
Two decades after Rajiv Gandhi made the famous and oft-quoted statement that out of every Rs 1 spent on development only 15 paise reach the poor, we know nothing more about where it goes and why. Instead, all we have done is to create new schemes. Every new minister, and not just every new government, now wants his or her own programme - all driven from the top, while the bottom is hollowed out.
sunita@cseindia.org
https://twitter.com/sunitanar
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