Question : MID DAY MEAL SCHEME

(a) whether under the national mid-day meal scheme the Government propose to ensure that only cooked food and not grain is distributed to school children;

(b) whether there is any Central Government scheme for providing kitchen and Kitchen staff for schools covered by the scheme;

(c) whether Government have launched any studies to estimate the linkage between the availability of mid-day meals, attendance by girls at schools and the consequent fall in fertility rates, as in Tamil Nadu; and

(d) if so, the details thereof?

THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT (SHRI JAYSINGRAO GAIKWAD PATIL)

(a),(b),(c), and (d),: A Statement is laid on the Table of the Sabha.

Statement referred to in reply to part (a),(b),(c), and (d) of Lok Sabha Starred Question No. 507 raised by Shri Mani Shankar Aiyar regarding Mid-Day Meal Scheme for reply on 02.05.2000

(a) The guidelines on National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education (popularly known as Mid-Day Meals Scheme) envisage that the implementing agencies of the programme will be local bodies such as Panchayats & Nagarpalikas who shall have flexibility to organise and decide the type of food to be provided subject to the food being wholesome and having a calorific value equivalent to 100 gms of wheat/rice per student per day. The local bodies are expected to develop institutional arrangements for providing cooked/pre-cooked food within a period of two years from the date of commencement of the programme which was launched in phases. However, in the interim period, as a prelude to the provision of cooked/pre- cooked food in the schools, food-grains at the rate of 3 Kgs. [er student per month may be distributed to all the children of classes I to V subject to a minimum attendance of 80 per cent.

Currently Gujarat, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry and Madhya Pradesh (174) tribal blocks) are serving cooked meals.

(b): The scheme provides that expenditure on construction of Kitchen sheds and wages to cooks/helpers for preparation of cooked-meals shall be eligible for coverage under the poverty alleviation scheme being administered by the Ministry of Rural development.

(c) and (d): An evaluation study to assess the efficiency and effectiveness of the programme in 10 States viz. Assam, Gujarat,, Haryana, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal has been undertaken by an independent agency, Operations Research Group, New Delhi. The findings of the report states that while the programme has given boost to enrolment in Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal; in six other States it has had positive impact on attendance and retention. No study has been made to assess the linkage between Mid-Day Meals Scheme and the fertility rate among girls.