Amid skyrocketing prices of vegetables, providing one nutritional cooked meal to 44.2 lakh students in 51,000 primary and upper primary schools (Class I to VIII) of the state has become an 'impractical' proposition for school headmasters, responsible for implementing the midday meal (MDM) scheme, stated a report in The New Indian Express.
The midday meal expenditure is Rs 5.90 for a primary student (Class 1 to V) and Rs 8.82 for an upper primary student, as per the state project monitoring unit of midday meal. While the last revision of midday meal cost was done in October 2022, almost every vegetable is selling beyond Rs 60 per kg at present.
As per PM-POSHAN norms, a primary child's per day calorie and protein intake should be 450 calories and 12 gram respectively while it is 700 and 20 gram for a student in the upper primary grade. While a primary grader should be served 25 gram pulses, 60 gram vegetables, 12 gram soybean and two eggs, it is 30 gram pulses, 100 gram vegetables, 25 gram soybean and two eggs for an upper primary student.
What are students served?
Under the midday meal menu, children are served rice with 'dalma' on Mondays and Thursdays, soybean curry on Tuesdays and Fridays and egg curry on Wednesdays and Saturdays. Although schools are somehow procuring eggs and soybeans, vegetables have gone out of their reach.
"There is nothing wholesome or nutritional about the dalma being served in mid-day meals now. It just has potatoes and pumpkin (the cheapest options available in the market now) in it. We cannot even afford brinjal which is selling at Rs 60 per kg now," said a headmaster from Sonepur district, unwilling to be quoted. Even the tuber is now selling at Rs 25 a kg.
The midday meal expenditure is shared in a 60:40 ratio between the Centre and the state and while the former provides rice free of cost, the latter has engaged SHGs to procure vegetables, pulses, oil and condiments and cook the meals.
Price check
Headmasters, who supervise the midday meal, admitted the only way they are able to serve midday meal is by compromising with the quality and manipulating attendance sheets. Some are even selling excess rice to meet the expenses. The state still does not have a system to check the quality of ingredients used and cooked food being served at schools.
"The midday meal price per student is fixed and within that, we have to pay for vegetables, eggs and dal. We are forced to opt for vegetables which are of minimum cost value in the market. Even for eggs, if we buy it at wholesale rate, we have to pay Rs 5 per piece. And if Rs 5 is spent on an egg, where is the money left even for the staple potatoes in the curry or fuel and oil," asked Sanjulata Mallik of Bankeswari SHG that manages midday meal in the school at Lanjia village in Kukudahada block of Ganjam.
Education and child rights activists said the whole objective of midday meal to provide minimum nutrition and calories to the students stands defeated unless the government decides to substantially hike the midday meal cost.
"Addressing nutrition concerns in children is the primary aim behind the midday meal scheme but that cannot be done with a meal expense of Rs 5.90 for primary and Rs 8.82 for upper primary students," said Naba Kishore Pujari, a child rights activist.
Stating that it is the Centre which can affect hike in midday meal cost, State Nodal Officer of Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) Raghuram R Iyer said so far there has been no notification in this regard from the Central government.
"The per unit cost and nutritional intake per child per day is fixed by the Centre under the PM-POSHAN scheme of the Ministry of Education. We are waiting for the Centre's directive on increasing the expenditure in the wake of the price rise of vegetables," he added.
Meagre resources
Midday meal expenditure for a primary student is Rs 5.90
It is Rs 8.82 for an upper primary student
Procuring vegetables other than potato and pumpkin has become an uphill task for headmasters
