The Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF) will launch ‘Ksheera Bhagya’ a programme to distribute milk powder to schoolchildren across the state on Thursday.
The programme will target 65 lakh children studying in around 51,000 government schools in the state. Director-marketing, KMF, Ravikumar Kakde said that milk powder will be supplied in one kg packets. “We will supply it in bulk quantities of 20 kg depending on the requirements of the schools. It will be distributed directly to the schools by milk unions once in 15 days,” he said.
The programme will be on till the end of the academic year, Kakde said while emphasising that precautions will have to be taken at the school level to maintain cleanliness and hygiene while reconstituting the milk powder before distributing it to students.
“The staff who supervise the mid-day meals being given to the children will have to ensure that they use clean water and sugar to mix the milk powder in washed vessels under hygienic conditions. The milk powder will be of high quality, so it must be fed to the children without compromising on cleanliness at any level,” Kakde said.
Last week, in the wake of 23 children dying after consuming contaminated mid-day meals in Bihar, the State Department of Primary and Secondary Education requested that the product be packed into sealed cans and distributed to schools. Kakde said that the milk powder will be distributed in sealed packets instead.
Meanwhile, 1.17 lakh kg of milk powder with cream is expected to be supplied each day to nearly 51,000 schools in the state. “Each child will receive 18 grams of milk powder at a cost of Rs 4.64,” said KMF managing director A S Premnath.
He said the programme for school students will cost Rs 313.66 crore and the programme for anganwadis will be Rs 115.59 crore.
As many as 64,000 anganwadis will receive the supply that have 39 lakh beneficiaries. “The shelf life of the product being distributed to schools is three months and the milk powder being given to anganwadis that does not have cream is one year,” he said.