BENGALURU: Government schoolchildren in Karnataka will not be denied mid-day meals even if they do not have an Aadhaar number. The state Department of Primary and Secondary Education has written to the Union Ministry for Human Resource Development (MHRD) stating that it cannot made it mandatory to provide Aadhaar number to avail mid-day meal or deny food to those children who have not enrolled for Aadhaar.
This follows a communication from MHRD asking all states to ensure Aadhaar compliance for schoolchildren who are getting the benefit of mid-day meal. A few months ago, MHRD issued a direction to all states asking them to link Aadhaar with mid-day meal scheme and also sent reminders to some states including Karnataka which have not yet achieved 100 per cent Aadhaar enrolment in schools.
The Centre had asked states to prepare target-based state strategy/action plan to take necessary measures to achieve 100 per cent Aadhaar enrollment of schoolchildren. Karnataka has covered 75 per cent of schoolchildren under Aadhaar, but the state authorities are not ready to link it to the mid-day meal scheme.
Primary and Secondary Education Minister Tanveer Sait claimed that the Aadhaar kits provided to the education department for Aadhaar enrolment of government school kids at the doorstep are not more working. “We cannot ask students to go get their Aadhaar done and then consume mid-day meals. We have clearly communicated this to MHRD officials,” he said.
“The main aim of the mid-day meal scheme is to attract students to schools, to encourage them to continue education and also to prevent them from dropping out. When this is the case, how can we deny mid-day meals citing Aadhaar as a reason? We made this clear to the authorities concerned at the central level.” The minister also pointed out that, “We are the only state providing mid-day meals even during summer vacation in drought-hit taluks and hence cannot insist on Aadhaar registration.”