After being on hold for over two years, mid-day meals are set to resume in all government and municipal corporation schools for all primary and upper primary students in Delhi from 1 April.
This comes days after Congress president Sonia Gandhi urged the central government to reinstate the mid-day meal scheme in schools, which was halted due to COVID-19 outbreak.
Making a mention of the same during the Zero Hour in Parliament, Gandhi asked the Centre to make hot and cooked food available for children under three years, pregnant women, and lactating mothers as well.
When schools had closed with the onset of the COVID pandemic in early March 2020, the mid-day meal scheme was halted.
Though schools have been opened since 14 February this year, cooked meals in schools had not resumed.
Providing the reason for not resuming the scheme, Education department authorities had stated that it was not feasible to do so when schools were operating in a staggered manner.
However, from 1 April, all schools in Delhi are set to resume in offline mode completely.
The mid-day meal branch of the Directorate of Education has notified all government and municipal corporation schools as well as officials that it has been decided to resume hot cooked meals for all primary and upper primary students from 1 April.
The government has been distributing dry ration – amounting to 145 grams per day for children up to Class V and 217 grams per day for classes VI to VIII – in the place of cooked mid-day meals since December 2020.
The Ministry of Education’s Department of School Education and Literacy had written to states and union territories in November 2021, advising them to resume provision of hot cooked meals but Delhi had continued with dry ration distribution citing logistical difficulties, The Indian Express reported.
(With inputs from The Indian Express.)
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