GOVERNMENT OF MID DAY MEAL PROGRAMME

Significant achievements in the Mid-Day Meal Programme in Rajasthan in the last three years.

• Three years back only 'Ghooghri' (a kind of boiled wheat porridge) was being served in schools in the Mid-Day Meal Programme. The State Government started providing hot cooked meals under the programme. • The mid-day meal programme is being implemented in 74,600 Government, Government Aided, Education Guarantee Centres in rural & urban areas of Rajasthan. It covers approxiamtely than 69.6 lac students studying in classes 1 to 5. • The Government of Rajasthan took a pioneering decision in the year 2006-07 by enhancing State contribution of cooking conversion charge from 50 paisa to 1 Rupee per child per day. Provisions in state share were continuously increased from Rs. 75 crore in the year 2004-05 to Rs. 100 crore in the year 2005-06 and Rs. 180 crore in 2006-07. • GOI announced to enhance the programme upto class VIII in Educationally Backward Blocks but GOR decided to include all students upto class VIII. • In the Mid-Day Meal, different recipes are being served for different days of the week on a rotational basis. These include dal-roti. Vegetable-roti, dal-bati, khichdi, sweet rice etc. Seasonal fruit is also being provided additionally once a week. Food being served contains minimum 450 calories and 12 gram protein this variety in the food being served has been widely appreciated and also sustains the interest of the students. • A policy for attracting Public Private Partnership in the programme was launched by the government in January, 2006, Commendable achievements have been made in attracting Public Private Partnership in the programme. Corporate supported NGO/Trusts, which are capable of adding their own resources, are being encouraged. Akshya Patra Foundation, Naandi Foundation, Adamya Chetna Trust,

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\SIGNIFICANT POINTS 2007.doc - 1 - Ltd., Hindustan Ltd., DSCL Kota (Shree Ram Group) are some Trusts/Corporates who have already partnered the government. • To facilitate the donors, A Mid-Day-Meal Trust has been formed and registered which would supplement the government efforts in improving available infrastructure and by value addition in the meals being supplied. • Presently 4.43 lac children in more than 2062 schools are being supplied hot cooked meals prepared under hygienic conditions in 12 mechanised centralized kitchens, set up by charitable trusts and NGOs. Proposals for feeding an additional 3.65 lakh children by means of 14 more centralised kitchens are in the pipeline. It is likely that by the end of Sept 2007, nearly 8.08 lac children would be supplied hot meals cooked from these mechanized kitchens under extremely hygienic conditions. This is the highest such achievement amongst all states in the country. • Stringent checking and inspection norms have been designed for all district, sub divisional and village level government functionaries, so that adequate vigilance is there in the preparation and supply of the meals. During the year 2006-07, more then 1.40 lac visits were done by various officers. • Community participation has also been ensured by formation of local level village committee and by involvement of mothers of schools going children for supervision on a rotational basis. • Effective MIS system has been developed for better monitoring of the programme at the school, block, district and state level. Specialized software developed and 237 computers with operators have been provided to each. • Great efforts have been made in the development of mid-day meal related infrastructure in schools. In the last 2 years, more than 34,000 kitchen-cum-stores have been constructed in schools. The cost of this infrastructure developed is approximately Rs. 216 crore. In addition to this, construction work of 14000 kitchen-cum-stores is in progress.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\SIGNIFICANT POINTS 2007.doc - 2 - • Special arrangements were made for supply of the mid-day meal in nearly 30,000 schools and to 27 lac children in drought affected areas during summer vacations. • Annapurna Mahila Sahakari Samities are successfully supplying hot cooked meals to nearly 3.45 lac children in more than 3200 schools spread over all the districts. • Intensive medical check-up of all students eligible for mid-day- meal is being done every year. During the year 2005-06. A sum of Rs. 15.92 crore during 2005-06 and Rs. 9.62 crores during 2006-07 was provided for supply of micro nutritents, vitamin 'A', iron folic acid and deworming tablets to the children through the Medical & Health Department. • A separate Directorate, Mid-Day-Meal Programme has been established to effectively monitor the implementation and functioning of the programme in Rajasthan. • Many independent evaluation agencies such as UNICEF, DIET's, CUTS and Rajasthan Budget Analysis Centres have appreciated and implementation of the programme in Rajasthan. • The has appreciated the achievements of the Government of Rajasthan for achieving enhanced programme quality using the PPP model. • A sustainable means of livelihood has been provided to more than one lakh thirty thousand persons by effective implementation of the programme.

C:\Documents and Settings\Administrator\Desktop\SIGNIFICANT POINTS 2007.doc - 3 -