'Tithi Bhojan', a community participatory model followed by the Gujarat government in the midday meal programme, would now be replicated across the country.
Under this initiative, food is voluntarily served among school children by villagers in several forms like sweet and namkeen with the regular midday meal and supplementary nutritive items like sprouted beans.
The objective is to inculcate the feeling of equity and brotherhood among the children of all communities and reduction of the gap between the school administration and the community.
The proposal was cleared by an empowered committee of the Mid Day meal scheme at a meeting here today chaired by HRD Minister Smriti Irani.
This is also reflected in the form of enhancement of the enrolment and regular attendance of the children at the school, HRD Ministry officials said.
"It was decided to introduce the practice of Tithi Bhojan across the country, based on its success in Gujarat where community members contribute to improve quality of the school mid day meals on a happy occasion/event in the family be it a birthday, festival etc," the Ministry said in a statement.
The committee also decided to introduce a protocol for standards in food safety and testing to ensure quality of the meals and appropriate nutrition standards under the midday meal scheme. It would be rolled out in the New Year, the statement said.
