41 lakh govt school students in Gujarat to get breakfast under new scheme

The breakfast will be served immediately after morning prayer with the thought that no child should enter the classroom empty stomach.

2 min readAhmedabadDec 3, 2024 09:52 AM IST

Around 41 lakh students of 32,277 government primary schools in the state will be served nutritious breakfast daily before the commencement of school. (Express File Photo)

Around 41 lakh government school students will be daily served breakfast under the Gujarat government’s “Mukhyamantri Paushtik Alpahar Yojana”.

Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel announced the scheme on Monday under the ‘Suposhit Gujarat Mission’ to realise Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s goal of ‘Padhai Bhi, Poshan Bhi’, according to a government statement.

Under the new scheme, “around 41 lakh students of 32,277 government primary schools in the state will be served nutritious breakfast daily before the commencement of school,” said the statement. The students will also receive nutritious snacks under the scheme.

Already, 200 mg of flavoured milk is provided under ‘Dudh Sanjeevani Yojana’ in addition to the midday meal in government and grant-in-aid primary schools in 52 talukas of tribal areas and 29 developing talukas of non-tribal areas of the state. So, covering these 81 talukas too, over 15.05 lakh students enrolled in 12,522 government primary schools will be given nutritious snacks in the afternoon along with the flavoured milk in the morning.

“The scheme, which was not a part of the annual budget, has been announced by Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel, under Suposhit Gujarat Mission. The breakfast will be served immediately after morning prayer with the thought that no child should enter the classroom empty stomach. This will start on December 11. Directions have been issued to all districts,” a senior official dealing with the Midday Meal Scheme told The Indian Express.

Under the new scheme, during the week, food items made from peanuts, millets and pulses will be provided in the form of Sukhdi and Chana Chaat as breakfast for three days each.

For this purpose, along with the material cost of Rs 493 crore, the salary of the MDM staff will be increased by 50 per cent for additional work of preparing breakfast, amounting to Rs 124 crore. Thus the state government will bear an additional annual cost of Rs 617 crore.

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“The implementation of Mukhyamantri Paushtik Alpahar Yojana will have a positive impact on the education as well as nutrition, health and physical well-being parameters of students in government and grant-in-aid primary schools,” the government statement said.

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