State introduces 15 new dishes for Midday meals

Mumbai state govt. introduces 'three-course menu' for nutritious midday meals in schools from 2024-25, including 15 dishes like soya pulao, egg pulao.

Mumbai: The state government on Tuesday released an order introducing a ‘three-course menu’ to provide nutritious and delicious food to the students from Class 1 to 8 to the schools covered under the ‘Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman scheme’ also known as Midday meals. From the academic year 2024-25, the state has added 15 dishes, including soya pulao, egg pulao, moong dal khichadi, sprouts and sweets like Raagi malt and rice kheer.

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The Central government-sponsored midday meal scheme covers the schools run by the central-state government through rural and urban local bodies, private aided schools, schools under Mahatma Phule education guarantee schemes etc. Above 60 lakh students benefit from the midday meal scheme in the state.

After the Center directed the state governments to include millet and local food items in the student’s meals, the government appointed a committee to recommend a new menu with nutritious values.

As per the recommendation from the committee, the state prepared a ‘three-course menu’. “The Government has decided to provide the ‘Three-course Meal’ consisting of rice dishes prepared using the lentils-pulses, sprouts and sweet dishes like rice kheer and Raagi malt. Accordingly, a menu of 15 dishes has been approved and will be given to students starting from the 2024-25 academic year. Each day, 12 dishes will be provided to students, along with one dish, one sprout daily, and a sweet dish, four days a week. Additionally, Raagi malt will be given once a week,” read the order.

The current menu for midday meals consists of a total of four dishes — moong dal and rice, moong dal khichdi, chickpeas curry and rice, and moth beans curry and rice — served twice a week.

In November, the state passed an order to include eggs for students who eat non-veg food in their meals. However, after receiving backlash from parents for this move, the state scraped the order and said no eggs would be served in mid-day meals if 40% of the students did not consume them.

Now, the state government again introduced Egg Pulao on the menu with the condition of serving veg pulao to students who do not eat eggs. There will be no sweet dish on the day of Egg pulao.

Along with the order, the state also issued details of all the dishes in the ‘three-course menu’, including the quantity, spices and the process of making that dish properly. With this manual, the wastage of rice and pulses will be controlled.

Mahendra Ganpule, spokesperson of the state school principals’ association, said that besides designing a new menu for students, the state government should provide enough remuneration for the people who cook the food. “In urban areas, midday meals are provided by the central kitchen system. But, in rural areas implementation is a big problem due to the low remuneration for cooking food,” said Ganpule. “In many villages, the number of students in classes 1 to 8 is only 30 to 40 students. For cooking food, the cook gets around 3 rupees per student. So, for 30 students, the cook will get around ₹90, which is too low compared to the hard work he/she does. It also affects the quality of food. The government needs to revise it so that people will come forward to cook the food in rural areas.”