The Mid Day Meal project was launched by the Union Ministry of Human Resource Department with good intentions of providing relief to poor students especially in rural areas. The scheme was elaborately defined and norms were set forth for providing mid day meals to poor students. The Ministry was concerned about the health and career of the students. It had come to the notice of the Government that most of the drop out cases happened owing to poverty. But very unfortunately the scheme of Mid Day Meals has been abused in some schools. In a corruption-ridden society, those who are on the ground to enforce the scheme were found deficient in moral values. The result was that corruption brought the schema into disrepute. Only recently we have learnt of the tragic deaths of school children in Bihar owing to food poisoning. Prior to this episode, other stories of misuse of midday meals did come to notice.
Our State, too, has come under scanner in this regard. We are not talking of corruption in the scheme but of inefficiency and lack of a sense of responsibility. A concerned wing of the HRD Ministry has recently conducted analysis of implementing of mid day meals in the schools of Jammu and Kashmir and has produced a report that brings disappointment. Several shortcomings have been pointed out. As per the guidelines laid down by the HRD Ministry for guiding, monitoring and implementation of the scheme, State Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee headed by Chief Secretary is required to meet at regular intervals to review the scheme and suggest policy measures for effective implementation of the programme. The report says that only 45% schools were inspected during the period by the concerned authorities in the State. As against total 22878 institutions covered under the scheme the State, district and block officials inspected only 10330. Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee convened neither any State nor District level meeting during the 2012-13 financial year. The HRD Ministry has found many discrepancies in the implementation of the scheme in our State. According to the HRD Ministry analysis, coverage of children against enrolment under the scheme is 60% as against 75% at the national level. This shows that the utilization of the resources allocated under the scheme is not up to the mark. The consumption of food grains is 70% as against the national average of 84%, and utilization of cooking cost is 71% against the national average of 86%. It has also pointed out lifting of food grains less than the national average in Jammu and Kashmir and attributed the same to the delay in 100% clearance of payment bills. An amount of Rs 233.66 lakh was outstanding against J&K till March 31, 2013, the report said.
We are disappointed at the shortcomings in the implementation of the schema in our State as has been pointed out by the HRD Ministry. These are administrative matters and the inference is that the concerned agencies at the State level have not taken their job seriously. There is lack of interest at Government level. Even apart from the discrepancies noted at Government level, in the operation part of the scheme also there are many scandalous stories afloat. Unauthorized people have been reported to be misusing the scheme. Sub-standard food is provided to the kids. Sanitary conditions are reported to be lacking and complaints of stale foods being served to the school children have come in very often.
In view of the tragedy that has recently happened in Bihar, it has become essential that foolproof security of Mid Day Meals for the school children is ensured. The food should be subjected to random testing by a team of health and sanitary experts. All schools that are covered by midday meals scheme should be brought under the umbrella of to be inspected schools. A higher level combined Education and Medical Department team should be constituted to endorse standardized contents of the midday meals provided to the children. In short there has to be accountability at various levels about the health and welfare of student community in receipt of midday meals.
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