Mid day meals, where implemented well, have been instrumental in getting more kids to school as well as bridging the nutrition gap between the well-off and not-so-well off children
Where the implementation has not been good, there have been numerous incidents of corruption, unhygienic food (with insects, chemicals etc.), inhuman caste discrimination among kids etc. and not to forget the unfortunate incident in the Bihar school in 2013
Some ideas of an alternative approach towards mid-day meal scheme:
Introduce a new subject in the syllabus - Food and Nutrition maybe class VI onwards
- Each class to have a one hour period per week where:
- Teacher gives students an overview of the cooking process as well as something about nutrition
- Students are then divided into various groups:
- Pre-preparation like cleaning the utensils / kitchen, washing vegetables and cereals etc,
- Assist in the cooking process
- Assist in serving
- Assists in clean-up post-meal
- Compulsory rotation that each child ends up doing each activity once a month
- Hazardous jobs (like using knife and gas) to be done by professionals
- The period can have participation from a junior and a senior class together so that kids get age appropriate roles
- The Maximum involvement in this exercise per child needs to be capped at one hour per week
Other potential value adds
- Depending on the enthusiasm / initiative of the school staff, they can experiment with various cuisines thereby teaching students about various parts of India and the world
- Parents (mothers) can volunteer 1-2 days per year each when they can come and oversee the process as well as give their perspective on cooking
- Inter-class as well as inter-school competition where children can cook as well as give a presentation on food and nutrition
Key Benefits
- Better monitoring of quality
- Reduction of school costs
- Teach children about dignity of labour
- Preach as well as practice cleanliness
- All children including Boys must learn the basics of cooking - no shame in that
- Vocational / self-reliance teaching
Most Important Principle
- No separation of role based on caste / community of the child. Any such action should lead to immediate action on the school management
