By Suman Yadav

Mid-day-meal Purpose of case study: Villagers were saying that the quality of food provided by the mid-day-meal is not good. So I decided to do case study on the mid day meal of school. Specific information: After listening the complaint/problems of the villagers I go to the school for finding the reasons behind it &for this I met to the principal of the school and tried to know about the mid day meal. After some formal talk I came to the point &ask about the mid day meal. After listening the word mid day meal the principal said that, “YE BADE JHANJHAT KA KAM HAl”. And he show me the menu provided by the government. Which is as follows: DAY MENU Monday Chapati, tuar dal, & sabji of kabuli chana, & tamatar Tuesday Chapati, moong dal &sabji of tamatar Wednesday Chapati, tuar dal &sabji Thursday Chapati, moong dat &hari sabji Friday Chapati, tuar dat &sabji of rajma &tamatar Saturday Puri, kheer &sabji of alloo & tamatar The latter of this menu was come on 24th July 07 & we started it from 7th August 07. And he said that the government provides us the fund of 2 Rs.per day per student. It is not possible to follow this menu in this fund. He said that the govt. gives this fund on the basis of these rates. Commodity Quantity Price Vegetables 1kg 5 Rs. Dal 1kg 25 Rs. But you also know that this is not according to market rates. And they do not gives any fund for the gas/wood or for the workers. Toots: Observation, interview (of principal & villagers) Observation: After discussion with principal &villagers following points came in to the observation: villagers are not satisfied by the food provided by the mid day meal. Principal is not satisfied by the fund provided by the government (because there is no fund for the gas/wood & for the workers.) And I also found that the fund provided by the government is not sufficient for the menu decided by the govt. Strengths & weakneses: Strengths: “Something is better than nothing”. According to it, this mid day meal is very good for the poor peoples. Most of the peoples (parents) send their children for the mid day meal only. Most of the peoples are not worried about their children launch (because of this midday meal). Weaknesses: The students are not getting nutritional (proper) food. Whatever menu is decided by the govt. is not possible to fulfill because the fund provided by the govt. is not sufficient. There is no provision for the fuel & workers. Conclusion: After discussion with principal & villagers I came to conclude that, the mid day meal programme is not going on properly, Due to insufficient fund. Suggestions: Menu & rates decided by govt. should up to date. Time to time inspections should be done to see whether the program is going on smoothly or not? And what are the problems coming in the program.