Saturday, 9 May 2020

MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

 Meaning,Definition, Needs, Importance, Aims and Objectives, Advantage, and History of  Mid day meal scheme

             MEANING OF MID DAY MEAL

" A meal eaten in the middle of the day"

             DEFINITION OF MID DAY MEAL   


" Mid -day meal is actually refered to the lunch which is provided to students who are studying in the government or government sponsored secondary level school, in free of cost."

                MID DAY MEAL SCHEME


The Midday Meal Scheme is a school meal programme of the government of India designed to improve the nutritional status of school-age children nationwide. The programme supplies free lunches on working days for children in primary and upper primary classes in government. 

         Midday meal project is a famous school meal scheme in the country of India. The scheme was begun in the year of 1960. The main objective of the scheme is to provide day lunch to students during working school days. Some other important aims of this scheme are including protecting students from study-room hunger, improved socialization especially among the students, increasing enrollment as well as attendance, social empowerment; addressing malnutrition etc

        NEED OF MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

Most of Indians neither understand importance of balanced diet nor they are in position to manage that. According to the BOARD OF NUTRITION COUNSELOR OF HEALTH MINISTRY, in India near about 12- 14 thousand children every  year become blind due to lack of vitamin "A". To prevent such blindness they are given a strong dose of vitamin "A" at the interval of every 6 month by health centers for providing nutritious food to school  going children.             
      School mid day meal scheme was proposed in 1961.Along with ,in various  school  steps were taken to open school canteens in which stress was given to supply nutritious items to children. Through these  various  provisions, the students were given necessary calories through various  food commodities. For "mid day meal " arrangement in school  economic help should be given by government religious organisation and voluntary  organisation etc. so that this arangement may be possible in all school.

IMPORTANCE OF MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

The programme mid day meal India is the potential steps taken by the government of India to promote  education. It works as an incentive for parents to  send their children to school with the hope for at least one nutritious meals for the day. The children of  government school mostly come from economically backward families.

*The poor students get a nutritious  food in their  lunch.

*The poor  students are  attracted to the school.

*The malnutrition problem among the children is partially resolved due to this initiative.

AIMS AND OBJECTIVES OF MID DAY MEAL                                   SCHEME             

*Eliminating classroom hunger

*Increasing school enrollment.

*Increasing school attendance.

*Improving socialisation among castes.

*Addressing malnutrition.

*Women empowerment.

ADVANTAGE OF MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

Some advantages of mid day meals:-

* Satisfies the hunger of many children.

* Supplies nutritious food to poor children which helps them to concentrate on studies better.

* Students come to government schools daily.

*Decreasing child labour.

*Children improves Unity and understanding between various religious groups

*Mostly people are being employed as cook and assistant all over the country in this program.

     HISTORY OF MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

     Mid day meal programme was introduced in  1925 in Madras corporation by the British administration. A mid day meal programme was introduced in the Union Territory of Puducherry by the French administration in 1930. 
        State governments to children began with their launch of a mid day meal programme in primary schools in the 1962–63 school year. Tamil Nadu is a pioneer in introducing mid day meal programmes in India to increase the number of kids coming to school; then Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, introduced it first in Chennai and later extended it to all districts of Tamil Nadu.
During 1982, July 1 onwards, the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, upgraded the existing Mid-day meal scheme in the state to 'Nutritious food scheme' keeping in the mind that 68 lakh children suffer malnutrition.
    Gujarat was the second state to introduce an MDM scheme in 1984, but it was later discontinued.
       A midday meal scheme was introduced in Kerala in 1984, and was gradually expanded to include more schools and grades. By 1990–91, twelve states were funding the scheme to all or most of the students in their area: Goa, Gujarat, Kerala, Madhya pradesh, Maharashtra,  Meghalaya,  Nagaland, Sikkim, Tamil nadu,Tripura, Uttar Pradesh, karnataka,  Urisa and West Bengal received international aid to help with implementation of the programme, and in Andhra Pradesh and Rajasthan the programme was funded entirely using foreign aid.
     In Karnataka,Children's Love Castle Trust started to provide mid-day meals in 1997. A total of eight schools were adopted and a food bank programme and an Angganwasi milk Programme were started. The food-bank programme was replaced by the State Government midday meal scheme.






                 

1 comment:

  1. The Mid Day Meal Scheme is one of the most impactful initiatives for improving school attendance and child nutrition in India. This post explains its social and educational importance very clearly, especially how it supports students from economically weaker backgrounds. Effective planning, budgeting, and resource allocation are crucial for the success of such large-scale programs. From an academic perspective, students studying financial planning and public policy can relate these concepts to real-world cases. For deeper understanding, resources like corporate finance assignment support can be useful.

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