Prices hit Chhattisgarh’s mid-day meal plan

Spiralling inflation has hit the mid-day meal programme in Chhattisgarh with women self-help groups...

Spiralling inflation has hit the mid-day meal programme in Chhattisgarh with women self-help groups (SHGs) and village panchayats expressing their inability to run the scheme with meagre funds.The SHGs, which run the scheme in a number of government schools across the state, have begun withdrawing, as they are unable to meet the expenditure with an allocation of Rs 2.58 per child in primary schools and Rs 2.60 per head in middle schools.

Though the new academic session began a month ago, the mid-day meal programme is yet to take off in a large number of primary and middle schools, particularly in rural areas. Cost overrun, delay in allocation of rice quota and even non-availability of kitchen sheds are only some of the problems.

In Balodabazar, SHG members, who were asked to attend a training programme on the mid-day meal scheme, reprimanded the district administration and the women and child welfare department and demanded a substantial increase in fund allocation.

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Sarpanchs of village panchayats are facing the heat too. Chhattisgarh Sarpanch Sangh president Rohit Shukla has submitted a memorandum to the state Government, demanding substantial increase in funds. The memorandum calls for the school education department to take over the responsibility of implementing the scheme. It has demanded Rs 1 lakh for the construction of kitchen sheds in each school, Rs 10,000 extra for making necessary arrangements in middle schools and provision for engaging two cooks in schools with more than 100 children.

Director of Public Instruction Nidhi Chibber said, “It’s too big a scheme to increase funds allocation. The self-help groups will have to find ways to economise, in consultation with the parents in their respective areas”. She told The Indian Express that the fund allocation was based on total enrollment. The statistics indicated that an average of 60 to 70 per cent of the students took mid-day meal at schools. While the initial idea was to let SHGs cook food themselves, it was later agreed that an expenditure of 50 paise per child or a maximum of Rs 36 per day could be spent if they engaged a cook.

As trouble began brewing, the high level monitoring committee on mid-day meal programme, headed by Chief Secretary Shivraj Singh, had its first meeting and made figures public, pointing out that the Centre had reduced funds for the scheme. A Government spokesman pointed out that the Centre had released mid-day meal scheme funds only for 22,80,519 school children while the state Government had sent a proposal to cover 29,31,838 children for the 2008-09 academic session. The Centre had released funds based on a calculation of 206 school days for more than 22.80 lakh children, as recorded in the census report, the spokesman said, adding that now the Government has decided to write to the Centre again seeking release of funds for all students enrolled in schools.