PM-POSHAN Scheme – All you need to know about rebranded Mid-Day Meal Scheme

The Central Government announced on September 29, 2021, that the National Mid-Day Meal Scheme in the government and aided schools will now be known as PM-POSHAN Scheme. It will also cover the students of balvatikas or pre-primary classes.

The roll-out of the ‘PM-POSHAN in schools Scheme’ was given approval by the Union Cabinet. Under the scheme, the hot-cooked meals will be given to the students of the elementary classes in the government and government-aided schools across the country.

The decision of approving the scheme was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs which was chaired by Prime Minister Modi. As per the statement by the Government, PM-POSHAN (POshan SHakti Nirman) scheme to provide one hot cooked meal in the government and government-aided schools from 2021-22 to 2025-26 has been cleared. Earlier, the scheme was known as Mid-day Meal Scheme.

To improve nutritional status, encourage education and learning, increase enrolments in schools and promote overall growth of children, PM Shri @narendramodi ji has approved the PM POshan SHAkti Nirman scheme for the next 5 years with a collective outlay of ₹ 1,31,000 crore. pic.twitter.com/S1S8HEMgi0

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) September 29, 2021

PM-POSHAN Scheme: Key details

• The Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan informed that the PM-POSHAN is a centrally-sponsored scheme that will cover all the school children studying in classes 1 to 8 in government and government-aided schools.

• Under the scheme, mid-day meals have been extended to the students who are studying in balvatikas or pre-primary in addition to the children who have been studying in Class 1 to 8 in government schools across India.

• PM-POSHAN Scheme will benefit around 11.80 crore children who have been studying in 11.20 lakh schools.

Under the #PMPOSHAN, mid-day meals have been extended to children of Balvatika in addition to children studying in class I to VIII in govt. and govt-aided schools across India. This will benefit about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools. https://t.co/Nh1LO0C9ZD

— Dharmendra Pradhan (@dpradhanbjp) September 29, 2021

• The scheme has been approved by the government for the period of five years 2021-22 to 2025-26 with a financial outlay of Rs. 54,061 crores from the Central Government and Rs. 31,733.17 crores from the State and UT governments.

• The Education Minister also informed that the Central Government will also bear the additional cost of about Rs. 45,000 crores on food grains, therefore, the total budget of the scheme will amount to Rs. 1,30,794.90 crores.

• While the social audit of the scheme will be made mandatory in all the districts, special provisions will also be made for providing supplementary nutrition items to the children in aspirational districts and the districts with a high prevalence of Anemia.

• Field visits for progress monitoring and inspections will also be facilitated for the students of the eminent universities and the institutions and the trainee teachers of the District Institutes of Education and Training (DIET) and Regional Institute of Educations (RIE).

What was Mid-day Meal Scheme?

It was a school meal programme in India that was designed to better the nutritional standing of school-age children all over the country. Midday Meal Scheme in India was launched in 1995.

Under the nationwide programme, free lunches are supplied on working days for the children studying in primary and the upper primary classes in government, local body, other forms of government-supported schools and educations institutions.

Midday Meal Scheme serves 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and the Education Guarantee Scheme Centres, which makes it the largest of its kind in the world.

In September 2021, Midday Meal Scheme has been changed to the PM-POSHAN Scheme by the Ministry of Education, which is also a nodal ministry for the scheme. The programme has also undergone many changed since its launch in 1995.