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Contents
National
Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education – Ground Realities
The
National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, popularly known
as the Mid-Day Meal scheme was launched on the 15th August 1995 with
the aim at improving the enrollment, attendance and retention while
simultaneously impacting on the nutritional status of students in primary
schools.
The
programme has major funding component from the central government, such as
bearing the cost of food grains and transportation cost for the movement of the
food grains from the Food Corporation of India godowns to schools/villages.
The component of the state government varied in the manner this programme
was implemented. Initially in many
states, grains were distributed in its raw form, while some states modified it
to provide cooked meals to children.
However,
the recent Supreme Court ruling on the `right to food’ has ordered all the
states to ensure that cooked meals are provided to the children, with a varying
menu.
Specifically
to Rajasthan, this Mid-Day Meal scheme is today popularly known as the Gugri
programme. Gugri is a Rajasthani dish made out of wheat and this dish is
now being served to the school children.
The Gugri
programme, which was launched in January 2002 in the state, has already seen
rough weathers with a number of cases of food poisoning. Notwithstanding this,
there also has been a number of practical problems associated with this
programme, though in the overall, people seem to like the idea, but feel that
some changes needs to be made in the design. We have included some details on
the basis of our on the spot field study. We
have provided details from only two villages, but on the spot assessment was
made in over 60 village schools, but with similar findings.
Village:
Railkamrana
Feedback
from school master:
The
schoolmaster finds the project's goal noteworthy, and said it has proved to be
successful in attracting children to school.
He also said that the children look forward to the dish very eagerly. The
schoolmaster prepares the gugri for his 73 students, which takes approximately
1-1/2 hours to make.
The
largest drawback of the program is that it disrupts the education process and
reduces the amount of time he is able to dedicate to the students.
In
addition, he must take the older boys and girls' help in preparing the gugri and
procuring the wood and pots from their homes with which the meal is prepared.
The children, therefore, must spend a portion of their school time
gathering cooking materials and preparing the gugri.
Another difficulty faced is a shortage of a nearby water source.
Prior
to the gugri program, the children used to receive 3 kilograms of wheat each,
which was generally sold and thus the children did not ultimately benefit from
that program. Overall, the master finds the project's aim to be very good,
however, lack of sufficient resources and the time he must spend in preparing
the meal greatly disturbs the education process.
Feedback
from school children:
According
to the children at the school in Railkamran, the mid-day meal, gugri, is a good
idea. They all enjoy the taste, and all children receive the same
amount of gugri, which they find sufficient.
However, the older children remarked that they would like to receive
more. The children say they have
not experienced any negative side effects from eating gugri.
Village:
Kaiselpura
Feedback
from school master:
In
Kaiselpura, the master found the program to be very good in theory, however
there were both positive and negative aspects in the implementation of the
project. The program has been
successful in providing the wheat on time, and the teacher receives soybean oil
and gur from the panchayat. In the future, however, he will receive the gur from the
government.
Here,
the teacher also has to take the children's help in acquiring pots and firewood.
Two children from a class are asked to help each day, and the class is
chosen on a rotating basis.
Talking
of the quality of wheat, he said that often it is of poor quality, and if that
is so, the children are not interested in eating it.
However,
he added that to bring relief to the children, he prepares the gugri according
to different recipes, so that the children do not get bored with the same dish.
The master also makes it a point to join the children in eating the gugri, thus
ensuring that the meal is properly cooked and not causing health problems. One of his biggest concerns is that there is no supervisor
visiting the schools to ensure that the teachers have good and sufficient
supplies, and are preparing the gugri in a hygienic manner.
According
to the Kaiselpura schoolmaster, the program is good but the materials provided
are of poor quality.
Feedback
from school children:
The
children enjoy the gugri and find the quantity to be plentiful.
Also, according to the children, the preparation of gugri does not affect
their studies because they do most of the necessary work before and after class. Also, the children here have not experienced any negative
impact on their health.
Recommendations
provided by teachers on how to improve programme
The
first issue is that the wheat provided should be cleaner and of higher quality.
Time is often spent on removing stones and other particles, which could
be harmful if a careless teacher did not take the time to clean the wheat.
There should also be an increase in the amount of gur and wheat provided.
In
terms of utensil, he felt that pots, buckets etc needs to be provided and also
storage be provided for water and gugri ingredients.
It
was also noted that someone from the Mid-Day Meal project should visit the
schools to make sure that the program is being implemented properly, and that
the materials should come from the district level, and the quality of the
materials checked at this point.
One of the
need identified by the teachers was that, an assistant be provided for preparing
the meal, which will prevent the disruption of classes.
The
Rajasthan State Government Order Vs. Ground Realities
Having gone
through the cases, let us go through the state government order, which will
point out the limitations in the governance mechanism.
We have also reflected the ground realities together with the order to
highlight the limitations.
1.
District Collector would be responsible for transfer of grains from Food
Corporation warehouses to schools (G.O). The
rationale behind this is that the collector could ensure that the quality of
wheat sent is of high grade: Ground Reality is that the wheat is transported
directly from the FCI, without any sort of inspection by the district collector.
2. A
Committee comprising of the Member of Panchayat Samiti etc be formed to
supervise the cooking of the gugri: No supervisor is ever present and in the 53
of the 60 village schools we visited, no such committee was ever formed.
3.
Gugri Recipes – 4 recipes given: Ground reality is that with the exception of
22 schools, in the remaining 38 schools, only one recipe was being followed.
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