Midday Meal Scheme

Midday Meal Scheme
Students receiving mid-day meal at a school in Wokha district of Nagaland state
Type of projectGovernment of India
CountryIndia
Launched1995
StatusActive
Websitehttps://pmposhan.education.gov.in/

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is a school meal programme in India designed to better the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide.[1] The scheme has been renamed as PM-POSHAN Scheme.[2] The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in government primary and upper primary schools, government aided Anganwadis, Madarsa and Maqtabs.[3] Serving 120 million children in over 1.27 million schools and Education Guarantee Scheme centres, the Midday Meal Scheme is the largest of its kind in the world.[4]

The Midday Meal Scheme has been implemented in the Union Territory of Puducherry under the French Administration since 1930.[5] In post-independent India, the Midday Meal Scheme was first launched in Tamil Nadu, pioneered by the former Chief minister K. Kamaraj in the early 1960s. By 2002, the scheme was implemented in all of the states under the orders of the Supreme Court of India.[6]

Ajay Kumar Director of Poshan Abhiyaan shared 'The name of the scheme has been changed to PM-POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) Scheme, in September 2021, by MoE (Ministry of Education), which is the ministry responsible for the scheme'.[7] The Central Government also announced that an additional 24 lakh students receiving pre-primary education at government & government-aided schools would also be included under the scheme by 2022.[8]

Under article 24, paragraph 2c[9] of the Convention on the Rights of the Child, to which India is a party,[10] India has committed to yielding "adequate nutritious food" for children. The programme has undergone many changes since its launch in 1995. The Midday Meal Scheme is covered by the National Food Security Act, 2013. The legal backing to the Indian school meal programme is akin to the legal backing provided in the US through the National School Lunch Act.

  1. ^ Chettiparambil-Rajan, Angelique (July 2007). "India: A Desk Review of the Mid-Day Meals Programme" (PDF). World Food Programme. Archived from the original (PDF) on 20 October 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  2. ^ "Poshan Abhiyaan - Jan Andolan". poshanabhiyaan.gov.in. Retrieved 24 March 2023.
  3. ^ "Frequently Asked Questions on Mid Day Meal Scheme" (PDF). mdm.nic.in (Mid Day Meal Scheme, Ministry of Education, Government of India). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 October 2013. Retrieved 24 June 2014.
  4. ^ "About the Mid Day Meal Scheme". mdm.nic.in (Mid Day Meal Scheme, Ministry of Education, Government of India). Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  5. ^ "Mid Day Meal Puducherry". mdm.py.gov.in. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  6. ^ "School Mid-day Meals - Right to Food Campaign". www.righttofoodcampaign.in. Archived from the original on 16 October 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  7. ^ "Mid-Day Meal scheme to be now called PM POSHAN, to cover students of pre-primary classes also - Times of India". The Times of India. 29 September 2021. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  8. ^ "Centre extends mid-day meal scheme to 24 lakh pre-primary students". The Hindu. 29 September 2021. ISSN 0971-751X. Retrieved 13 October 2021.
  9. ^ "Convention on the Rights of the Child". ohchr.org (Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights. UN Human Rights.). United Nations. 20 November 1989. Retrieved 28 July 2013.
  10. ^ "India and United Nations – Human Rights". www.un.int (United Nations Permanent Missions). Archived from the original on 2 May 2010. Retrieved 28 July 2013.