BHUBANESWAR: The rising prices of essential items has made it difficult for schools in the state to serve midday meals to around 45 lakh students up to Class VIII in government and government-aided schools.
The school and mass education department has urged the Centre to increase the funding for the scheme, which is borne by the state and Union governments on a 40:60 ratio. At present, the state spends Rs 5.42 per meal for primary schoolkids
and Rs 8.10 per meal for upper primary class students. “Price rise is a matter of serious concern. Generally, the Centre raises the annual fund by 7% to 8% every year. But the prices of essential commodities have been increasing at a faster rate than that.We have requested the Centre to increase the price per meal as well as its share of the funds so that children continue to get adequate nutrition,” Sanat Kumar Mohanty, state nodal officer for the MDM scheme, said.
The government resumed the cooked meal scheme on April 2 after almost two years due to the pandemic. It supplies free rice to the beneficiaries, while the school authorities purchased dal, edible oil, and vegetables. School headmasters managing the scheme said the funds they are receiving from the government are falling short making them shell out anything between Rs 1,000 to Rs 1,500 from their own pockets every month.
Bimal Kumar Acharya, headmaster of the Sanjumadi Government Primary School in Mayurbhanj, said, “Our school has 37 students. More than 95% of them are present on most days. For 37 students, we receive Rs 32.52 per child per week to provide noon meal at a cost of Rs 5.42 per meal. Of this, Rs 12 is spent on two eggs twice a week. With the remaining Rs 20.52, we have to give four meals with soyabean curry twice and dalma twice in the week. This includes the firewood or LPG cost to cook the meal as well. To ensure quality and enough quantity, at times we have to pay from our own pockets,” he said.
According to the government guideline, a student in primary classes up to V should get 20 grams of dal, 50 grams of vegetables and 0.5 grams of oil and an upper primary school student should get 30 grams of dal, 75 grams of vegetables and 7.5 grams of oil.
“With arhar/tur dal selling at Rs 110 per kg and mustard oil for Rs 190 per litre, coupled with the high prices of vegetables and firewood or LPG gas, it has been very difficult for us to manage the midday meals,” Laxmipriya Sahu, member of a a self-help group that has been managing MDM in a school in Balasore district, said.
Even for the Akshay Patra Foundation, which provides midday meals to 3,181 schools in the state, the increase in transportation cost has hit their services.
“Due to rise in fuel prices, the transportation cost has increased. This, in turn, has pushed up the meal cost,” Arvind Lenka of Akshay Patra Foundation, Odisha, said.
