Among the few policy initiatives birthed and scaled by India, the mid-day meal scheme must rank towards the top. Pioneered in Tamil Nadu and then implemented nationwide, the scheme to feed children in schools has been remarkably successful in curbing dropout rates, give a counter-incentive for parents looking to pull their wards out of school and put them to work, and counteracting socioeconomic biases in the classroom, ensuring education for all. The gains made by the scheme in reversing malnutrition
Among the few policy initiatives birthed and scaled by India, the mid-day meal scheme must rank towards the top. Pioneered in Tamil Nadu and then implemented nationwide, the scheme to feed children in schools has been remarkably successful in curbing dropout rates, give a counter-incentive for parents looking to pull their wards out of school and put them to work, and counteracting socioeconomic biases in the classroom, ensuring education for all. The gains made by the scheme in reversing malnutrition among young people in the countryside should be safeguarded and built upon, not frittered away on ideological grounds.
The controversy over contracts over mid-day meals being handed over to the International Society for Krishna Consciousness by the new government in West Bengal is one that has played out in various provinces over the past decade – always over the inclusion of egg, a great source of protein, for religious reasons. It is a silly row. The egg is incontrovertibly a good and cheap source of protein and its abundance and ubiquity in the Indian diet make it suitable for mid-day meals, especially in states with overwhelmingly non-vegetarian populations such as Bengal. The state government can also opt for the Odisha model where the administration pays for the egg over and above the Iskon-catered meal.
But there is also a larger point. India will never exploit the demographic advantage if its young people are malnourished and under-educated, both of which can happen if mid-day meals are not robust. Moreover, schemes such as free and nutritious food for school children represent the best of India’s welfare architecture and are much better investments in the country’s future than cynical cash doles distributed weeks before elections. To let the gains of the scheme get mired in religious or ideological dogma would be a travesty.
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