The Mid Day Meal scheme: A holistic initiative to augment the nutritional and educational status of the children

Abstract

The World Health Organization has estimated that in the year 2012, out of the 6.5 million deaths reported worldwide in the under-five year age group, around 2.4 million were from India alone. All these nutrition-related indices clearly reflect that the nutritional status of under-five children is still bad and needs concerted efforts from the policy makers and the health care professionals in the country. In response to the poor nutrition indicators in the children, the Ministry of Human Resource Development, India, launched the Mid Day Meal scheme in the year 1995. Currently, it is the world's largest school feeding program that caters to about 120 million children in over 1.2 million schools and other centers. Although progress is being observed in the country's commitment to successfully achieve the Millennium Development Goals -1 and 4, the overall achievement is far from the expected. To conclude, the Mid Day Meal Scheme is one of the country's national flagships feeding scheme initiated to improve the nutritional and educational status of the vulnerable children. However, the sustainability of the scheme depends on the political will, community participation, and continuous monitoring of the program.