Abstract |
The problems of malnutrition, anemia, and deficiency in vitamin A and iodine are very common among children in India. Today 94 per cent of children in the age group of 6 to 9 years are mildly, moderately, or severely underweight. A revised mid-day meal scheme, launched in 2004, envisages provision of cooked, nutritious mid-day meal to primary and secondary school children. Importantly, it mentions about setting-up of an appropriate mechanism for quality checks. Given the importance of this scheme and its apparent ineffectiveness in terms of child development indices, this study proposes to identify the critical issues and lacuna associated with the scheme. |