Hyderabad: Mid-day meal system hit by official apathy

Hyderabad: The Central government-based monitoring system for mid-day meals received a poor response in the city and state, where most of the schools have not registered their progress report.

The monitoring system aims to keep a track of whether meals were being served in all schools and also and know the number of students benefited by it. This system was released in Telangana in June 2016. As per the system, registered schools are expected to SMS details of the mid-day meal on the toll-free number - 15544.

However, according to the statistics of mid-day meal report December 24, 2019, there are a total of 27,502 schools in Telangana, out of which only 16,800 have not reported for the mid-day meals. Similarly, in Hyderabad out of 898 schools, 291 have not reported for the mid-day meal.

When The Hans India contacted M Anjaneyulu, president of Telangana State Union of Teacher's Federation (TSUTF), on why the schools had not reported, he said, "The respected teachers who are appointed to update the mid-day meal report are regularly uploading it without fail. However, the schools which have not registered are because the teachers are not interested or the students are getting their own lunch boxes."

However, Akshay Kumar, a social and child activist, pointed out that one of the reasons why these children were going to government schools was at least to have a proper meal once in a day. He further said, "There are many schools in the state that do not get mid-day meal. The reasons why these schools have not been registered are because the headmasters concerned have been continuously sending letters to the officials, which are not being taken further."

"I have filed 10 complaints at the National Commission for Protection of Children Rights (NCPCR) on the same issue, out of which 8 complaints are pending and 2 of them are closed," said Akshay.

Students of government schools in Begumpet, Old City, Errammanzil, Ameerpet and Gachibowli are some among the schools are not receiving the mid-day meals. Most of the schools monitored by NGOs face several issues like lack of teachers, sanitary issues, improper infrastructure and mid-day meals.

According to the mid-day meal scheme diet, non-vegetarian foods like egg have to be provided to the children twice a week. However, there are schools which were not following the proper diet of the mid-day meal scheme.

However, in several districts like Jagtial, Jangaon, Jayashankar, Khamam, Komaram Bheem, Mahbubabad, Medchal-Malkajgiri, Rangareddy and Sangareddy the numbers of meal served is way lesser than the number of schools.