BHUBANESWAR: Odisha is set to introduce mid-day meals (MDM) for students of Class IX and X of government and government-aided schools from the 2025-26 financial year.
Besides, all students will get three eggs and as many nutrient-rich laddoos in their mid-day meals every week. This was notified by the School and Mass Education department on Thursday.
The department will provide eggs and laddoos thrice a week from April 1 to students from Sishu Vatikas to Class X who are covered under PM POSHAN scheme. In the existing MDM menu, students are served rice with ‘dalma’ on Mondays and Thursdays, soya bean curry on Tuesdays and Fridays while Wednesdays and Saturdays have egg curry.
From April 1, they will get eggs in their meals on Monday, Wednesday and Friday. Similarly, three nutrient-rich laddoos will be provided to all students on Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday during morning assembly every week. The laddoos will be made from millets, jaggery, groundnut, ghee, sesame seeds and cardamom powder, with each weighing 34 gram and offering calorie intake of 306.3 kcal and protein intake of 2.5 gram. The government will provide Rs 3.50 as material cost per student to schools for preparation of the laddoos.
“The financial implication of the three new MDM components, amounting to Rs 570.71 crore annually, will be borne from the state Budget under the Mukhyamantri Poshan Yojana,” informed School and Mass Education minister Nityananda Gond.
While MDM was so far limited to schoolgoing children till Class VIII (age 6 to 13), the new move is aimed at supplementing nutritional needs of secondary students and enhancing their enrolment, attendance and retention in schools.
Under PM POSHAN, mid-day meals were served to 43 lakh children, both at primary and upper primary levels. Now, the scheme will cover another 21 lakh students at secondary level. The scheme is implemented on a cost-sharing basis of 60:40 between the Centre and the state. The Centre provides the food grains (rice) while the state has to procure the remaining food materials for the meals.
In another development, the department has notified the opening of Sishu Vatikas (pre-school classes) in all government primary schools from the 2025-26 academic year beginning April 2 where children in the age group of 5-6 years will be admitted for pre-school education.