Panel Recommends Good Correctives To Mid-Day Meals
The India Commentary view
View all posts by this Author
By Our Editorial Team
First publised on 2022-07-07 07:40:34
About the Author
The India Commentary view
View all posts by this Author
The Mid-Day meal provided to children in schools and anganwadis is done due to many reasons, the top among them being providing a nutritional meal to children from the deprived sections of society who do not receive such a meal at home and in doing so, provide a reason to parents to send them to school. But are these meals actually nutritional and do they provide the children with what they need? That is a debatable point, especially when several reports have highlighted that children in many places were being fed only rotis/rice and salt or sometimes maybe rotis/rice with chutney and aachar. Even the full meals provided in most states may fill their stomachs but are in no way sufficient to provide them with the nutrients necessary for their growth.
It is in this respect that the recommendations of the inter-ministerial panel advising changes to the National Food Security Act (NFSA) to give more teeth to the act and include protein-rich foods like eggs, nuts and legumes in the Mid-Day meal must be implemented by the government. Although the mandate to include such foods exists, many states do not adopt it for several reasons, local food preferences being the main reason, although some BJP-ruled states have kept out eggs for religious reasons. But these states must be prevailed upon to include such protein-rich food in the meal.
Several reports, including the National Family Health Survey -5, have highlighted the fact that both malnutrition and obesity have gone up in children. This proves that their eating habits are not right and they are not getting the correct amount of micronutrients. The inter-ministerial committee has recommended that this should be corrected by providing children with meals that include micronutrients. The NFSA must be amended to give legal teeth to the same. Also, the centre and the states must keep a strict watch to ensure it is implemented on the ground. Further, as proposed earlier too, the Centre can also think about providing two meals - in the morning and at noon - to provide more micronutrients to the children. The cost will not be very high but the benefit will be huge.
