Kerala to get Central assistance for Mid-day Meal Scheme

Union Government of India on 7 July 2013 announced a grant of 97 crore rupees to Kerala for implementation of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the schools of the state. The Union Government has also made a decision to hike the allowances for cooks, who prepare mid-day meal in schools by fifty rupees.

About Mid-Day Meal
The Mid Day Meal is the world’s largest school feeding programme that reaches out to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centres across the country.

Mid Day Meal in schools has had a long history in India. In 1925, a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid 1980s three States viz. Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a cooked Mid-Day Meal Programme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage By 1990-91 the number of States implementing the mid day meal programme with their own resources on a universal or a large scale had increased to twelve states.

Aim of the Scheme
To enhance enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improve the nutritional levels among children, under the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) that was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995, initially in 2408 blocks in the country.