National Nutritional Support Policy for Primary Education

Centered on the philosophy that a hungry child is unable to focus and work on his / her studies, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) was implemented. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme was introduced specifically with a view to ensuring the nutritional needs of increasing children and the right to education of children provided by the Indian Constitution. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is the Government of India's main initiative aimed at securing the child's right to health, the right to education , the right to life, and other facets of growth and development. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme is introduced by the Ministry of Human Resource Growth, Government of India, Department of School Education and Literacy. The method tackles the underlying and essential determinants of malnutrition in infants. On 15 August 1995, the Mid-Day Meal System was introduced as a nationally funded program. The National Nutritional Support System for Primary Education (NP-NSPE), widely referred to as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, seeks to improve the Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE) by the student registration, participation, retention, and concurrently enhancing student nutritional status. The Mid-Day Meal System is the general term for India's school lunch program. It requires the availability of lunch free of charge on all working days on school children. The scheme aims to tackle infant malnutrition in India, which is widespread among school-going girls. Malnutrition hampers children's proper growth and development, thereby contributing to morbidity and mortality that prohibits a child from being a fully healthy adult. This adversely affects the purpose of Universalization of Elementary Education in the following ways: the child leaves the school unable to deal with the teaching-learning phase of the classroom, they are sporadic, and even though the child achieves their focus and involvement in the activity of the classroom appears to be minimal. A decision was passed by the Supreme Court of India that the 'freedom to education' would be held in accordance with the 'right to life.' As mentioned in Article 21 and 'Right to Food,' the right to life of all people is inherent in it. A seminal interim order was passed on 28 November 2001 in a petition, popularly recognized as the "Access to Food Case," in Peasants Union for Civil Liberties verses Union of India & Ors a [Written Petition (Civil) No. 196 of 2001] on MDMS that ordered the State Governments and UT's to enforce the MDMS by providing a pre-primary school for every child in every government and government supported primary school. The Supreme Court further ordered all Governments offering dry ration rather than cooked meals to begin offering cooked meals in all Government and Government-assisted primary schools in half of the three months, i.e. 28 May 2002. However, the order of the Supreme Court dated 28 November 2001 was not completely enforced by most States and Union Territories, even after three and a half years. Furthermore, in April 2004, the Supreme Court released a set of follow-up directions to facilitate the enforcement of prior directives. The orders directed the State Governments and Union Territories to apply enforcement on time, no charge for school mid-day meals, preference for ST / SC cooks and assistants, extension of summer holidays in affected areas of drought, make provision for kitchen-shed construction and contribute of cooking costs, overall enhancement of the scheme, i.e. irrigation, enhanced services, healthy drinks

The Mid-Day Meal System was first launched in 1923 for children belonging to deprived families; one of the proponents of the system that began offering cooked food to impoverished children in the city of Madras (now Chennai) is the Madras Municipal Corporation. The Keshav Academy in Calcutta (Kolkata) launched tiffin in 1928, a kind of snack for boys on food charge, at around the same period as the demand for free school meal was launched in Madras. A similar form of meal program for school-going children was initiated by the state of Kerala in 1941, and a similar type of school meal program was launched in Bombay (Mumbai) in 1942. Bangalore City in 1943, Uttar Pradesh in 1953, Tamil Nadu in 1957, Orissa in 1953, The school meal scheme also launched in 1963. In 1960, in Tamil Nadu, the Mid-Day Meal was restarted by the then Chief Minister, K. Kamaraj, in certain areas of Tamil Nadu province. Back in 1982, M.G. In Tamil Nadu, Ramachandran launched the "Nutritious Meal Scheme". The system was universalized in rural areas on 1 July 1982, and the policy was subsequently expanded to metropolitan areas on 15 September 1982. The Mid-Day Meal System is the general term for India's school meal program. A cooked mid-day meal program with its own services for children learning at the primary level was universalized by the states of Gujarat, Kerala, and Tamil Nadu and the union territories of Pondicherry. In the Tribal Populated Regions, the Mid-Day Meal was implemented in Madhya Pradesh and Orissa. Twelve states in India in 1990-91, namely Gujarat, Goa, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra and Meghalaya. The Mid-Day Meal program was initiated by Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttar Pradesh, with their own The programme was introduced fully in Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh with foreign assistance.

In September 2004, the National Nutritional Support Policy for Primary Education (NP-NSPE) launched in 1995 was updated to include 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein for cooked mid-day meals to all children enrolled in I-V classes in Country, Country-Aided and Local Body School and Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternate and Creative Education (AIE) centres. The framework was supposed to decrease dropout rates, increase the quality of learning of children and self-esteem. It was also projected to improve the enrollment of girls and reduce the gender and social divide. The interim order released on 28 November 2001 by the Supreme Court of India made the Mid-Day Meal a fundamental right for all children attending a College, Government-Aided Primary School, Local Body School, National Child Labor Project Colleges, Education Assurance System (EGS) and Alternate and Creative Education (AIE) System in India, Madrasas and Maktabs sponsored by Sarv. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme has been regarded as a "Freedom Oriented Solution" within the system function and as a privilege of any child to improve the Universalization of Elementary Education by breaking the boundaries of geographical inequality, caste, social inequality, gender and others. Food grain at a rate of 3 kg per student per month was provided to all children of Classes I to V in all Government, Government-Aided and Local Body Schools in all States and Union Territories under the dry ration scheme, subject to at least 80% attendance of such students. As already stated, by 1997-98, NP-NSPE had been adopted in all blocks of the world. After 2001, a hot cooked Mid-Day Meal Scheme was mandated by the Supreme Court in which 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein per child every day were consumed for a period of 200 days every enrolled infant. The central assistance under the scheme consisted of a free supply of food grain at a rate of 100 grams per child per school day and a subsidy up to a minimum of Rs.50/- per quintal for the transport of food grain. The system was introduced in 2002 to include not only students in Federal, Federal-Aided and Local Body schools in Classes I to V, but also students enrolled in AIE and EGS centres.

The cause of ruining the wellbeing of rising children is malnutrition / malnutrition; it also adversely

This is obvious that a malnourished infant rarely attends school much of the time that he / she is overweight and sickly. This adversely hampers the aim of Elementary Education Universalisation. The effect of children's wellbeing and nutritional status on schooling should not be ignored because it can affect learners by seriously hindering children's physical, auditory, cognitive , social and emotional growth. Therefore, in consideration of the comprehensive existence of increasing children's health, in conjunction with dieticians and nutrition experts who may prescribe sufficient Prescribed Dietary Intake (RDI), it is important to provide policies and programs that include adequate nutritious supplements required by rising children. The National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-3 research has shown that there is a prevalence of undernourishment among Indian children and has shown that almost half of Indian children are stunted and wasted. The World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended that countries with a high stunting rate use the Body Mass Index ( BMI) for age , i.e., to determine the nutritional condition of children.

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme involves out-of-school and other disadvantaged children, including street children, homeless children, children suffering from chronic malnutrition, children of migrant workers, children with disabilities, child workers and girls belonging to disadvantaged groups, children belonging to poorer sections of society such as the ST and SC, minorities, tribal children, slum dwellers In schools in India, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme was launched to end not only classroom hunger, but also to eradicate prejudice against class , caste and gender. The school feeding programme serves as a very powerful tool for improving the process of socialization. Shiv Kumar (2003) manages to crack the caste and class barriers. The Centre for Equity Studies (CES) survey found that among tribal groups, parental satisfaction of mid-day meals was strongest. It further notes that Mid-Day Meals have a significant socialization benefit besides encouraging school attendance and child nutrition, as children learn to sit together and eat a shared meal, there was some degradation of caste biases and class inequity (Dreze and Goyal). It further stated that there were no incidents of different seating arrangements or racist activities such as different eating or drinking arrangements, but implicit manifestations of caste bias and social inequality were visible as some parents of the upper caste requested their children to come home for lunch or send them with prepared food to school. Dreze and Goyal, (2003) observed that cases of Scheduled Caste cooks were mainly limited to schools with no They observed that teachers usually had optimistic views of the effects of mid-day meals, as most teachers thought that mid-day meals improved the participation of pupils and raised the participation of children in studies. Dreze and Goyal (2003 ) observed that by establishing an environment of sitting together and enjoying food together in school, the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has managed to undermine caste stereotypes.

Elementary education has twin purposes which are: (i) to produce a literate and numerate population who can deal with problems at home and at work (one who can find solutions to the problems of a society) and (ii) to serve as the base upon which higher secondary and tertiary education can be built. With elementary education in India, we mean the education provided to all children in the age group 6-14 years or in classes I to VIII. Some of the most difficult hurdle to cross while achieving the goal of ―Universalisation of Elementary Education‖, are non- enrolment, low attendance and low retention rate. Several attempts have been made to achieve the goal of UEE. One such effort made by the Government of India is the initiation of centrally sponsored scheme of National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, also commonly known as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme; many studies have revealed that MDMS exerts a positive influence on enrolment and attendance at school. In a study by Dreze and Goyal (2003), in the states of Chhattisgarh, Rajasthan and Karnataka, they have noted that teachers in the schools have a positive opinion of the impact of Mid-Day Meal Scheme since majority of the teachers felt that MDMS boosted pupil enrolment and enhanced children‘s interest in studies. Kumar (2003) found that MDMS increased the possibility of retaining children in school for longer period during day which increases the learning opportunities for them. In yet another study by Dreze and Kingdon (2002), they found that MDMS has been able to increase enrolment of girls but not boys in primary stage. Saihjee (2003) in a survey highlighted that almost 95% schools in Tamil Nadu reported that noon meal programme has increased enrolment and retention of girls. Now, it is evident that girl children are subjected to gender inequality compared to boys in most of the States in India, girl child enrolment has increased whenever there is any incentive for them, or provision for free education, free uniform, free Mid-Day Meal, etc,. [Explanation of the term ‗Enrolment‘: Enrolment is the number of students registered on the rolls of an the academic session.

It is a well-known reality that the MDMS is a subsidized meal given by the Government of India to primary school children to provide nutritional support for children studying in University, Government-Aided and Local Body Colleges, AIE and EGS centers, Madrasas and Maktabs sponsored by Sarva Siksha Abhiyan (SSA) from Classes I-VIII (i.e. primary and upper primary phase) to improve 'Universalisa [Explanation of the word 'Sarva Siksha Abhiyan' (SSA): SSA aims to provide all children in the age group of 6-14 years of age with usable and meaningful elementary education by 2010; SSA also aims to bridge educational, gender and geographic differences with the active involvement of the society in school management]. Therefore, in any specified conditions, the consistency of the meals delivered under the program cannot be affected. In order to develop a professional population, it is important to enhance the health status of children and raise their level of learning in order for a prosperous nation to have a prosperous economic and social existence, a prosperous education and a safe body and mind.

The free meal programme of the Karnataka Government called the Akshara Dasoha scheme experienced a big downside when more than 150 children fell ill in a school in Gadag District of Karnataka after ingestion of Mid-Day Meal. Children have become sick due to the ingestion of tainted products. In this event, several NGOs and social activists alleged that the meal was served and cooked in unhygienic conditions by untrained staff / cooks. The involvement of the Non-Governmental Agency in the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is carried out through the Voluntary Agency Partnership in the hot-cooked Mid-Day Meal supply and resource support network through capacity development , testing and assessment and analysis. Under the Society Registry Act or the Public Trust Act, a private group interested in administering the Mid-Day Meal Scheme has been registered. The MDMS guidelines represent that the effective execution of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is vital to community engagement. It guarantees successful local-level oversight and therefore provides a feeling of collective ownership of the under the Children's Right to Free and Compulsory Education Act , 2009 or any similar committee responsible for operating the scheme. There are some requirements for metropolitan communities where the program may be enforced by an NGO. The NGO can introduce the Public Private Partnership (PPP) model of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme. The Mid-Day Meal Scheme may be introduced by NGOs where there are room constraints for setting up school kitchens in classrooms. The developed areas are capable of A research by Kalpana Parikh and SummiyaYasmeen (2004). 22"Groundswell of Support for Mid-Day Meal Scheme

1. Determine the sum of mid-day meal offered at each school chosen. 2. To compare the consistency of the Mid-Day Meal offered in. chosen school

In the present study, the overall prevalence of stunting in MDM school children was observed 75% as compared to 56.34% in NMDM school children, 18.66%) higher in MDM children. It was found that in MDM school more boys were found stunted than girls where as in NMDM school the trend was found reverse i.e. more girls were stunted than boys. According to Kanani and Gopaldas (1998) more mid-day meal program beneficiaries were affected from stunting in age group between 10 to 15 years whereas in present study the most stunted MDM children were in age group 8 to 12 years and in case of NMDM school more stunted children were of age group 6 to 8 years and 10 to 12 years. With regard to Gopaldas (2003) the older boys and girls (11 to 15 years) were found to be more under nourished than younger children in school providing mid-day meal. In present study, in case of girls (of both schools) follow the above study but become contrary in case of boys (of both schools) as more stunted boys were of 9 to 11 years. Thinness (BMI-for-age) In comparing the growth status of school children (MDM and NMDM) in this study with other growth studies in India thefindingswere not in total agreement. It was observed that with regard to some studies there was a similarity and for others a high prevalence rate was observed in the study. The present study revealed that the boys of MDM school were found to be higher in the prevalence of thinness (89.14%) than those of NMDM school boys (79.26%). In MDM the younger boys of age 6 to 8

decreasing trend as age increases whereas in NMDM boys of 12 to 14 years were affected more with thinness and showed an increasing trend as the age increases.

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Research Scholar, Department of Home Science