The Mid Day Conundrum

India since independence has tried to get over some of the major social inadequacies. The biggest of them being illiteracy. Over the past 60 odd years, we have seen a
marked changes in numbers and at present, 74% of our population is literate as per the Census 2011 data. Our country is a young nation, both figuratively and
demographically, and in order to utilize the demographic dividend we possess, education is going to play a pivotal role. The learned representatives of our people
realized this by the beginning of this millennium and there have been a spate of schemes towards encouraging literacy and education, specially amongst the youth and
children.
The greatest hindrance towards children from rural, poor families being sent to school has been the family's dilemma over losing an earning hand and also the extra
expenses towards financing education. The Rashtriya Saksharta Mission started what has now culminated into The Right to Education which is a milestone achievement
towards framing a policy guaranteeing free and compulsory education to children upto 14 years of age. The govt. recognized the immediate need of increasing the
enrollments in schools and came up with the Mid Day Meal Scheme as early as the 1960s . The scheme by guaranteeing one time meal to the students, became a success with
number of students enrolled and attending schools rising exponentially. The scheme meant huge amount of expenditure for the govt. exchequer but then the dividend to be
realised is much more.
The recent incidents though, starting from Neyveli where 170 girl students fell ill to food poisoning, to the very recent deaths of 23 students in Saran district of
Bihar and then yesterday's case of 40 students falling sick in Panaji after consuming Mid Day Meal food, point to a major folly in the implementation of this mammoth
scheme. The scheme is of monumental proportions aiming to feed 12 crore mouths across 12 lakh institutions and was progressing well, but the recent incidents have come
as a black mark on the scheme. The reasons have been common, inadequate storage facilities, poorly paid cooks, less support staff and no means of audit towards the
quality of food being served in the schools. The central govt. sanctions certain amount towards every state taking into account the number of students enrolled and a
figure of Rs.4 per student at primary and Rs. 4.65 for upper, respectively towards cost of cooking. The actual implementation has then been left to the state govts.
The figures which are staggering are that the Bihar govt. returned more than Rs. 450 crores last year, the Andhra Pradesh govt. utilized only 61% of funds allotted to it
for the scheme and other glaring examples of states not being able  to utilize the full quota of funds at its disposal. Over the top of it we see inadequate storage,
cooks being paid a paltry Rs. 1000 for a month where they also do the cleaning ( compare that to a cook in cities who charge anywhere between Rs. 350- 700 per person
depending on which city you are in and that seldom includes cleaning). The incentive for such an underpaid worker to devote time to provide tasty, well cooked food is
minimal. No wonder, most of us would find a mid day meal food barely edible. The inadequate storage and insufficient funds for ration also result in poor grade media
for cooking, makes food prone to infectious organisms and hence the various problems affecting our demographic dividend in a very negative way.
The people in Andhra Pradesh, in the district of Chitoor last year, started social auditing of the scheme and that has borne very positive results. Such audits need to
be supported by state govts. and should be implemented across all states and institutions, making the system more fool proof, accountable and safer for our children.
The funds are available and now with the Food Security Ordinance being passed, more funds will be available towards feeding people. We need to make sure that these
funds are utilized properly and parents through the social audits, support of educated families can ensure that their children are being served proper, healthy food.
We need to address these on a war footing, as CAG also called out in his audit reports to ensure that the iconic scheme delivers its intended results.