PM POSHAN – GOVERNMENT SCHEME
News: Bengal
over-reported mid-day meals worth over Rs 100 cr: Centre's report
What's in the news?
● A
Centre-state “joint review” of the implementation of the PM Poshan scheme in
West Bengal has flagged “great concern” over 16 crore midday meals worth “more
than Rs 100 crore” being “over-reported” by the local administration between
April and September last year.
Key takeaways:
● Under
the scheme, most components including cooking cost are split in a 60:40 ratio
between the Union government and the states and Union territories with
legislatures, and 90:10 with the north-eastern states, Jammu and Kashmir,
Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand.
● The cost of food grains
is borne entirely by the Centre.
● Officially,
the scheme covers 12.21 crore students in classes 1-8 across states and UTs.
PM Poshan Scheme:
● Government
will provide one hot cooked meal in Government and Government-aided schools.
● It
is a centrally sponsored scheme.
● The
scheme will replace the existing national programme for mid-day meal in schools
or Mid-day Meal Scheme.
● It
has been launched for an initial period of five
years (2021-22 to 2025-26).
Nodal Ministry:
Ministry of Education
Coverage:
● Primary (1-5) and upper
primary (6-8) school children are currently entitled
to 100 grams and 150 grams of food grains per working day each, to ensure a
minimum of 700 calories.
● The
scheme will be extended to students
studying in pre-primary or Balvatikas running in government and government
aided primary schools.
● Balvatika
is the pre-school that was started in government schools last year to include
children aged younger than six years in the formal education system.
Features of the scheme:
1. Nutritional Gardens:
● The
government will promote nutritional gardens in schools. The gardens are being
provided to offer additional micro-nutrients to students.
2. Supplementary Nutrition:
● The
new scheme has a provision for supplementary nutrition for children in
aspirational districts and those with high prevalence of anemia.
● It
does away with the restriction on the part of the Centre to provide funds only
for wheat, rice, pulses and vegetables.
● Currently,
if a state decides to add any
component like milk or eggs to the menu, the Centre does not bear the
additional cost. Now that restriction has been lifted.
3. Tithi Bhojan Concept:
● The
concept of Tithi Bhojan will be encouraged extensively.
● Tithi
Bhojan is a community participation
programme in which people provide special food to children on special
occasions/festivals.
4. Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT):
The
central government will ensure Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) from states to
schools, which will use it to cover cooking costs.
● Earlier
money was allocated to the states, which then included their share of the money
before sending it to a nodal midday meal scheme authority at district and
tehsil levels.
● This
is to ensure no leakages at the level of district administration and other
authorities.
5. Nutrition Expert:
● A
nutrition expert is to be appointed in each school whose responsibility is to
ensure that health aspects such as Body
Mass Index (BMI), weight and haemoglobin levels are addressed.
6. Social Audit of the Scheme:
● A
social audit of the scheme has also been mandated for each school in each state
to study the implementation of the scheme, which was so far not being done by
all states.
● The
Ministry of Education will also engage college and university students to
monitor the scheme at a local level.
7. Fund Sharing:
● The
Centre will bear Rs. 54,061 crore of the total estimated cost of Rs 1.3 lakh
crore, with the states paying Rs.31,733 crore (Rs 45,000 crore will be released
by the Centre as subsidies for food grains).
8. Vocal for Local for Atmanirbhar Bharat:
● Involvement of Farmers
Producer Organizations (FPO) and Women Self Help Groups
in implementation of the scheme will be encouraged.
● Use
of locally grown traditional food items for a fillip to local economic growth
will be encouraged.