The Hindu : Food for thought

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Aug 05, 2003

Opinion

Opinion - Editorials

Food for thought

WELFARE PROGRAMMES ARE often all too easily dismissed as "populist" schemes that are a waste of resources and only function as sources of state patronage. Such sweeping generalisations are not always based on facts. A recent study based on a survey by researchers from the Delhi School of Economics has brought out the many benefits flowing from one welfare programme, the mid-day meal scheme for primary school children. The survey of 81 villages in three States, Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Rajasthan, has yielded three broad sets of findings. First, the programme has led to higher school enrolment. It has also led to a narrowing of gender inequality in enrolment. Following the provision of mid-day meals, the increase in girls attending primary schools has been greater than that of boys. Second, the nutritional status of children has improved. The programme provides school children from poor homes with a meal that they may not have had otherwise. Parents and teachers in the three surveyed States therefore report the end of what is called "classroom hunger." The nutritional supplement provided at school is one reason why the scheme is strongly supported by parents from poor economic and social backgrounds. Third, the survey finds that when food is cooked in one kitchen and the meal is consumed by upper and lower caste children sitting together, a contribution is made towards ending caste prejudice. There are, no doubt, problems in implementing the programme. The major shortcomings are the lack of adequate infrastructure for preparation of meals and irregular funding that delays payment of salaries to the staff. Another problem is the quality of the meal. During the survey, parents reported that 10 per cent of the children had fallen ill after a meal at school. This incidence of illness is not a small matter and calls for remedial action to improve hygiene and prevent the serving of under-cooked or otherwise unsafe meals.

However, the main message from the survey is that this is a programme that works. The mid-day meal programme therefore needs to be consolidated and improved and its coverage expanded. As a Statewide programme, it was first introduced in Tamil Nadu more than two decades ago by the then Chief Minister, M.G. Ramachandran. The Government of India made it a national programme in 1995, but only provided "dry" rations, free of charge, to the States. It was only after the Supreme Court handed down in 2001 an order, which said the States must provide cooked meals to all children, that most State Governments were goaded into action. Even now two large States, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, have not fulfilled the apex court's order.

The study of the mid-day meal programme estimates that the recurring costs, excluding grain, for covering all children in Government and Government-assisted primary schools in the country would be Rs. 2,900 crores a year, which is equivalent to 0.2 per cent of GDP. The total annual expenditure, including the cost of grain, would not go beyond 0.5 per cent of GDP. This is hardly a financial commitment that the Centre and the States should worry about. Considering the immediate benefits a school meal programme yields in the form of higher school attendance and improved nutrition, there can be no case for the Centre not committing itself to providing free grain from its food stocks and for the States not to meet the supplementary costs of implementation. The real obstacle standing in the way of a universal mid-day meal programme for children in primary schools is a lack of political will on the part of the Central and the State Governments.

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