The recent news of sub-standard and spoilt rice being used for Mid Day Meal scheme in Mokokchung indicates either nonchalance by the concerned departments and agencies or some dealings of supplying inferior quality rice. The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was a novel programme that came into effect in 1995 as a centrally assisted scheme.
The objective of the scheme was to improve the nutritional level among children and at the same time to enhance enrolment and retention in the Govt. and other aided schools in India.
The scheme was launched to provide cooked midday meal to school children from class 1-5 with a minimum of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein for a minimum of 200 days. Over the years it covered not only Govt. and Govt. aided schools but also for children in Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres then even in unrecognised madrasas.
Later in 2007 the scheme was extended to cover children from 6 to 8 and the scheme was renamed as the National Programme of Mid Day Meal in Schools. At present the guideline has made it as 450 calories and 12gm of protein to every child in the primary section and 700 calories and 20gm of protein to every child of middle school.
In Nagaland like the rest of North East India it always undergoes certain constraints in implementing many of the centrally sponsored schemes especially due to the connectivity of the region to the rest of India and also the difficult terrain of many of the North East states.
Therefore the Govt. of India in 2006 revised the scheme to enhance the cost of cooking to Rs. 1.80 per child/ school day in the North East Region a .30p higher than other states in India. Although the supplies reaches district/regional FCI warehouses it becomes a huge task to transport the same to the schools in the villages. Therefore the special category states received a sum of Rs.100 per quintal of rice as transport subsidy where Nagaland is also a part of. The government also sanctioned money for construction of kitchen and to procure utensils to all the schools.
The success or failure of the scheme in Nagaland is but anybody’s guess at the moment. The Dept. concerned is answerable if the scheme is not being implemented correctly in the state. The government guideline ensures that if any day the mid day meal could not be provided then the school has to provide allowance as per the entitlement and the existing cooking rates of the state. But instead of ensuring that mid day meal is provided everyday to the school children at the prescribed level of calorie and protein, we are instead faced with the quality of the food itself.
Surprisingly there are negligible complaints by the parents of the school children to indicate that somehow mid day meal is provided daily in all the schools across the state.
So it may be taken as a 100% implementation by the schools and the department concerned. But on the contrary in the recently published Administrative Report 2016 by the School Education Department there are no mention of any school in Nagaland that was able to provide mid day meal on all the school days. It is true that in our Naga value system, it is the duty of the parents/guardians to provide for one’s children at their own homes which in turn is a matter of prestige. Therefore the concept of sending one’s children to have their meals outside other than one’s own home may take some time to sink in among us Nagas.
