Family Impact Analysis of Mid-day Meal (MDM) Scheme in India with Special Focus on Child Education and Nutrition

Abstract

The school lunch programme in India was first implemented in 1925 by the Madras Municipal Corporation for disadvantaged children. At present, the school lunch programme in India is known as mid-day meal (MDM) scheme. It was started with an objective to enhance enrolment, retention and attendance rates, and simultaneously improve nutritional levels among children. MDM not only impacts the well-being of each child but also affects the overall prosperity of families. Hence, a family impact analysis of the MDM scheme of India would be instrumental in charting out the future directions of this programme. For this study, no primary research has been carried out, rather this paper is based on secondary literature pertaining to MDM with relation to child nutrition and education. The checklist developed by the Family Criteria (Ad Hoc) Task Force of the Consortium of Family Organizations (COFO) for assessing the intended and unintended impact of public policies, proposals and social programmes on families is used. This checklist, which was later revised by the Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars, outlines six principles to guide analyses of the family supportiveness of policies and programmes: (1) family support and responsibilities, (2) family membership and stability, (3) family involvement and interdependence, (4) family partnership and empowerment, (5) family diversity and (6) support of vulnerable families. There are a good number of intended consequences of MDM scheme which include enrolment, retention, attendance, eradication of school hunger, family stability, improvement of malnutrition, employment to women of disadvantaged communities, improvement of girl child education, etc. However, it also has some unintended consequences, including food contamination or food poisoning. Social discrimination can also be seen as an intended or unintended consequence of MDM.

Keywords

Family stability family diversity girl child education malnutrition school hunger social discrimination

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Afridi

(2011). The impact of school meals on school participation: Evidence from rural India. Journal of Development Studies , 47(11), 1636–1656.

Awasthi

C.P.

Kumar

Tiwari

P.P.

Singh

A.B.

(2000). Nutritional status of pre-school and school children in rural area of Sultanpur district. Journal of Dairying Foods & Home Science , 19(1), 16–21.

Bhardwaj

R.K.

(2003). Mid-day meals in Rajasthan . Paper presented at a workshop on Mid-Day Meal Programmes in Schools in India convened by the Nutrition Foundation of India, New Delhi.

Bogenschneider

Friese

Mills

(2001). A checklist for assessing the impact of policies on families. The Policy Institute for Family Impact Seminars at the University of Wisconsin-Madison/Extension. Madison, WI.

Census of India (2011). Provisional population totals—India data sheet . Office of the Registrar General Census Commissioner, India, Indian Census Bureau.

Chutani

A.M.

(2012). School lunch program in India: Background, objectives and components. Asia Pacific Journal of Clinical Nutrition , 21(1), 151.

Deodhar

S.Y.

Mahandiratta

Ramani

K.V.

Mavalankar

Ghosh

Braganza

(2010). An evaluation of mid day meal scheme. Journal of Indian School of Political Economy , 22(1–4), 33–49.

Dreze

Goyal

(2003). Future of mid-day meals. Economic and Political Weekly , 38(44), 4673–4683.

Drèze

Kingdon

G.G.

(2001). School participation in rural India. Review of Development Economics , 5(1), 1–24.

10.

Food Agricultural Organization (2009). The state of food insecurity in the world: Economic crises—impacts and lessons learned.

11.

Government of India (1993). National nutritional policy. Department of Women & child development . Ministry of Human resource development, New Delhi.

12.

Government of India (1995). Guidelines of national programme of nutritional support to primary education [mid-day meal scheme] . Retrieved 19 February 2016, from http://education.nic.in/htmlweb/mdm/mdm1995.htm

13.

Government of India (2006). National programme of nutritional support to primary education [mid-day meal scheme]. Retrieved 18 February 2016, from http://mdm.nic.in/Files/Guidelines/10.FINAL_Guidelines_MDM_19_sept.pdf

14.

Government of India (2015). India in figures . New Delhi: Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Central Statistics Office Research & Publication Unit.

15.

Laxmaiah

Sarma

R.K.V.

Rao

D.H.

Reddy

Ravindranath

Rao

M.V.

Vijayaraghavan

(1999). Impact of mid day meal program on educational and nutritional status of school children in Karnataka. Indian Pediatrics , 36(12), 1221–1228.

16.

Menon

(2003). Untouchable lunch. Frontline , 20(15), 19.

17.

National Institute of Nutrition (2000). National nutrition monitoring bureau report on diet and nutrition status of adolescence, NIN, India.

18.

Pandey

J.E.

(1988). Psychology in India: The state-of-the-art (Vol. I: Personality and mental processes; Vol. II: Basic and applied social psychology; Vol. III: Organizational behaviour and mental health). New Delhi: SAGE Publications, Inc.

19.

Samal

(2014). Mid day meal menace in Bihar: The public health concerns of the tragedy. International Journal of Advanced Nutritional and Health Science , 2(1), 48.

20.

Thorat

Lee

(2005). Caste discrimination and food security programmes. Economic and Political Weekly , 40(39), 4198–4201.

21.

The World Bank (2015). Nutrition at glance . Retrieved 24 October 2016, from http://siteresources.worldbank.org/NUTRITION/Resources/2818461271963823772/Ind.pdf

22.

UNICEF (2009). The state of the world’s children 2009: Maternal and newborn health . New York: UNICEF.

23.

World Bank (1993). Investing in health: World Bank report . Washington, DC, America: World Bank.