Impact of mid day meal programme in primary education of odisha: A study in tarbha block of subarnapur District

The National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education which is popularly known as the mid-day mealscheme (MDMS) was launched by the government of India in 1995 with the objectives of giving a boost to universalization of primary education by increasing enrolment, attendance and retention and simultaneously improving nutritional status of primary school going children. Keeping above objectives in mind the paper attempts to investigate implementation of some of the objectives, to analyse the organizational structure of the programme, to examine teaching-learning process, to examine satisfaction level of students and parents and to assess the extent to which MDM has succeeded in achieving the objectives. The present study was carried out in two Grampanchayats (Charbhata and Kumbharmunda) of Tarbha Block, District Subarnapur District in the year 2014. I took an attempt to find out the impact of MDM on teaching and learning activities in schools, involvement of various agencies and constraints in implementation of the scheme. Both primary and secondary data were collected to achieve the objectives of the study. A total number of 255 respondents have been interviewed for the study including students, parents, teachers, SMC members and cooks and helpers. A total of 17 schools of 2 Gram Panchayats were covered. In the findings the researcher has discussed the major operational difficulties in implementation of mid day meals such as inadequate infrastructural availability in 70% of the selected schools, irregularity in serving mid day meals in 58% of the schools. It has also been found that 65% of the parents are not satisfied with the quality and quantity of mid day meal and. In has been found that70% of the teachers are involved in monitoring the MDM which hinders classroom education. Moreover, Mid-Day Meals were loosely supervised and formal monitoring arrangements were sparse. At the end, the paper concludes that though mid day meal scheme facilitated in elimination of classroom hunger, in more deprived areas where some children did not get two square meals a day, the mid-day meals were a protection against hunger but because of above mentioned gaps the scheme is unable to meet its objectives. Moreover, article suggests strong mechanisms for monitoring and evaluation of the scheme like regular supply of food grains, adequate infrastructural facilities, maintenance of cleanliness and hygiene and constitution of separate steering-cum-monitoring committee from state to block level.