Karnataka decides to provide eggs and bananas to kids in mid day meals from December 2021

After a lot of discussion and debate whether to provide eggs in mid day meals or not, the Karnataka government has finally announced that they will provide eggs for students between the age group of 6 and 15 years. In case the students don't eat eggs for personal reasons, they will be given bananas with their meals

As per an official notification from the Primary and Secondary Education Department, the eggs will be given only in schools in selected districts where it has been noticed that children are hit by malnutrition or have nutritional deficiencies. 

From this December all the way through March 2022, as many as 14,44,322 children from seven districts will get an egg every day in their midday meals for 46 school days. The central government will bear the entire cost of the programme under its flexifund component. The cost is estimated to be Rs 3,953.14 lakh this year, as per officials from the education department.

The department is hoping to start the scheme in two districts, but the Centre asked for a rollout in seven districts. Currently the cost of providing one egg or banana per student is Rs 6. As per calculations by the department, the total number of working days for school in these four months is 101 but the department will be providing the meal only for 46 days. 

These seven districts include Yadgir, Raichur, Bidar, Ballari, Kalaburagi, Koppal and Vijayapura will be covered under the scheme. Recently,  In a department meeting with Anita Karwal, Secretary, Department of School Education and Literacy, the state was told to provide supplementary nutrition items in aspirational districts and those with high prevalence of malnutrition - districts where prevalence of anaemia is higher as per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS).

As eggs are a contentious item to be introduced in the diet, education officials in Dharwad and Kalaburagi districts visited Tamil Nadu to study the implementation of the scheme there.  The department has given the responsibility of distributing eggs to respective school heads and the SDMC members will decide the day for the same. At the same time, schools have to take parents concern to provide eggs or banana to the beneficiary students. A separate register must be maintained for the same that will have the names of beneficiaries and who will consume what.