Nutrition meal for every school student is Telangana Government’s cup of tea

Hyderabad: The Telangana government has initiated the midday meal scheme, which aims to provide nutritious food to every child. This programme, implemented in government schools and welfare schools, offers meals to a significant number of students. Specifically, the scheme encompasses 25,26,907 students from Classes I to X, attending a total of 28,606 schools.

The scheme was launched in January 2003 for children studying in Primary Schools (Classes I to V) and in October 2008, the same was extended to children studying in Upper Primary Schools (Classes VI to VIII) and to children studying in High Schools (Classes IX & X) with 100 percent state funds.

It has been observed that the majority of the students attending government schools skip breakfast, from this academic year the State government has planned to serve breakfast. From Tuesday, children will be served Ragi Java for breakfast. With the introduction of a mid-day meal scheme. The midday meal programme has shown positive impacts on various aspects such as enrolment, attendance, learning outcomes, as well as nutritional intake and outcomes. Particularly, the program has had a significant positive effect on the enrolment of girls and children from disadvantaged communities, including Adivasis (tribals or 'original inhabitants'), said senior officer.

According to the officials of the education department, from this academic year, students are being served Khichdi prepared with rice and dal, a source of protein has been included in the menu, which will be served to students on every Monday. Unlike earlier, where dal was provided on alternate days, as per the revised menu, dal cooked in different varieties will be served to students daily in the meal.

Along with these, eggs, a rich source of protein will be provided to students on alternate days.