NEW DELHI: Concerned over the growing number of incidents of students falling sick after having Mid-day meal, the Centre has made it mandatory for states to come out with an emergency medical plan to meet any such eventuality.
Though the Union HRD Ministry requested the state governments to develop an emergency medical plan in July last year, Odisha is the only state to have complied with the ministry’s plea.
HRD Minister Smriti Irani had told a recent meeting of the Empowered Committee on Mid-Day Meal scheme that preparing such a plan was mandatory and it should be ready by December-end.
As per the records available with the ministry, average rate of students’ attendance in the country is around 77 per cent and coverage of children under Mid-day Meal Scheme across the country is around 78 per cent. The statewise average coverage ranges from 47 per cent (Chandigarh), 54 per cent(Jharkhand), 55 per cent (Uttar Pradesh), 60 per cent (Tripura), 61 per cent(Delhi), 68 per cent(Bihar), 70 per cent(Gujarat), 75 per cent(Andaman&Nicobar Islands) and 77 per cent(Madhya Pradesh and Daman & Diu).
Referring to best practices in states, Irani advised the state governments to emulate the Gujarat Model. Gujarat has introduced the practice of “Tithi Bhojan”, where community members willingly contribute to improve the quality of mid-day meals on a happy occasion/ event in the family like a birthday, festival etc.
During the meeting, the Mid-day Meal director revealed that there has been a delay in paying the monthly honorarium of `1,000 to cook-cum-helpers in many states and that there have been calls for it to be hiked. It is also revealed that Chhattisgarh, Haryana, Karnataka, Kerala, Mizoram, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, West Bengal, Chandigarh, Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Lakshadweep and Puducherry were contributing more than the minimum prescribed state share for the cook-cum-helpers’ honorarium.
It was also decided to introduce a protocol for standards in food safety and testing of the meals and to strengthen the real-time monitoring of the scheme.