A chicken and egg situation: Problems in mid-day meal scheme implementation

Analysis of data shows that India has fewer states now providing egg in mid-day meal schemes, even fewer are provisioning fruits and only a third of the states/UTs are giving milk to children

In June, the Kerala High Court put a temporary stay on a controversial order passed by the Lakshadweep administration banning chicken and meat from the mid-day meal scheme. While passing the order, the division bench asked the government why it was upsetting the food habits of the region.

Lakshadweep is among the few states which offer meat and chicken to its school going students as part of the mid-day meal programme. The number of states providing meat in the diet has fallen. Analysis of annual work plan and budget reports from the states for 2015-16 and 2020-21 shows that while five states offered meat/chicken/fish in their mid-day meal scheme in 2015-16, the number has now reduced to three. (Tripura only offers chicken sometimes, whenever local social workers provide it)

Jammu and Kashmir has stopped offering meat products, and so has Nagaland.

In fact, of all the states, Lakshadweep remains the only state which offers a meat/chicken/fish diet four times a week to its school-going children.

But the provisioning issues are not limited to just meat and chicken. Although the National Institute of Nutrition has recommended egg as part of the mid-day meal diet, less than half of the states and UTs have implemented the scheme.

According to 2020-21 data of the 36 states and UTs, only 15 offered egg to students; in 2015-16, 16 states provided eggs to students under the mid-day meal programme. Arunachal Pradesh and Dadar and Nagar Haveli, and Daman and Diu have since stopped provisioning eggs, whereas Bihar has been providing eggs to its students once a week.

There is a wide variation among states in the provisioning of eggs. In Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, the states serve eggs five days a week; in Odisha, Puducherry and a few other states, it is served twice a week. And Bihar serves it once a week.

The count will increase next year as Karnataka, Chhattisgarh and West Bengal plan to serve eggs in some districts.

However, milk and fruits are rarer commodities. Even though demands have been made to include milk in mid-day schemes, analysis shows that only 11 states till now have made provisions to serve milk—higher than 8 in 2015-16. Only 6 states made provisions to serve fruits in 2020-21, and the count has declined from 2015-16 when 12 states were serving fruits.

Mid-day meal success

One of the goals of the mid-day meal scheme was to increase enrollment. Some areas like Jammu and Kashmir still use eggs and other items as incentives to drive enrollment in schools.

While the mid-day meal has undoubtedly helped contribute towards this goal—the exact extent cannot be determined as nutrition has remained a contentious issue.

Patchy implementation and using the meal as a substitute rather than a supplement to regular diet has meant that children get less than desired nutrition.

A recent study published in Nature Communications showed that the prevalence of stunting was significantly lower in areas that implemented the mid-day meal scheme in 2005. Women who received mid-day meal benefits in school were less likely to have stunted children.

Provisioning of milk, eggs and fruits can only help improve these statistics. Data from NHFS-5 for children under the age of five shows that stunting and wasting increased in 12 states, and 15 states witnessed an increase in underweight children as compared to the NHFS-4 survey.

Anaemia among children increased in 18 states, and Lakshadweep witnessed the highest decrease of 10.5 per cent.

A more representative data, albeit a bit older (2016-18), from the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey shows that while stunting in school-going children (aged 5-9) was lower than stunting in adolescents, the incidence of stunting increased as we moved from ages 5-9 to 10-19. Over a quarter of country’s kids were stunted in the 10-19 age group.

Further analysis shows that in 2016-18 states that had an egg component in their mid-day meal programme had higher egg consumption than states that did not.

“The calorie and nutritional prescription is based on the nutrient gap that is prevalent in children of different age group. So, the supplementary food provided through these programs should fill the nutrition gap,” Dr Suparna Ghosh-Jerath, professor and head, Community Nutrition, Public Health Foundation of India, told Business Standard.

“The important point is that they should supplement the child’s diet, not substitute. Many a time, children go to school empty stomach missing their breakfast and consume this meal. In that case, the purpose is defeated,” she said.

Dr Jerath points that inclusion of fruits can help provide micro-nutrients for the body.

But there are costs attached to provisioning more items. How much can be done in that regard needs to evaluated.

The centre’s expenditure on mid-day meal programmes has remained constant over the years. In 2014-15, the centre allocated Rs 11,051 crore towards mid-day meal scheme programme, the following year allocation had fallen to Rs 9,236 crore. In 2019-20, only Rs 9,699 crore was allocated towards the programme.

The centre shares 60 per cent of the cost in the programme with the rest borne by the states. In the case of union territories, the entire cost is borne by the government of India and for the north eastern states the share is 90:10.