Spiraling prices of pulses has landed the Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme in the Government schools in a soup. The teachers entrusted with task of handling MDM in the schools are facing tough time to ensure that the meal is cooked as the per the norms. Ironically enough while the prices of pulses have almost doubled in last one year the budget allocation for the MDM per student has increased by only 5 percent which makes it almost impossible to cook the meals in the budget provided and resulting in watery Dal for the students.
The schools are supposed to provide MDM at the rate of Rs3.76 per day per child in primary schools and Rs5.64 in Upper Primary schools. The schools are provided food grains (rice and wheat) while they had to manage other food items on their own from the budget provided. The teachers are given responsibility for managing MDM in their schools. Bhojan Matas are employed in the schools to prepare the meal for the students.
One of a teacher posted in a remote village in Pauri told The Pioneer that most of the pulses are available in a range of Rs120 to Rs200 per kilogram which means that the entire budget available for MDM would be spent on the pulses only. As per the norms a primary school student should get 20 gm of pulse daily. The market rate of the Arhar Dal is Rs200 per kg which means that Rs4 per student per day is needed to provide pulses only while the total budget is only Rs3.76. “The skyrocketing prices have ensured that either we should not follow the norms while cooking the MDM or pay from our pockets to sustain the scheme. The Department officers do not understand our problem and disciplinary action is initiated against the teachers responsible if any compliant is received in MDM,” informed a teacher. In addition to routine diet the department insists that the students are provided special diets like Kheer and Chole Puri on occasions like Independence Day, Republic Day, Teacher’s Day, Children’s Day and others to the students in the same budget. In addition to the food items like pulses, vegetables, cooking oil and spices the teachers are supposed to manage the fuel expenses in the budget provided.
The Joint Director MDM, P K Bisht accepted that the budget is a problem for preparing MDM. He suggested that the teachers should use local substitutes like mashed potatoes, soya bean dishes to replace costly pulses. Bisht said the School Management Committees (SMC) are bestowed with the power the change the menu and with a little innovation the MDM can be managed.