Centre asks states, union territories to introduce millets in mid-day meals

NEW DELHI: The Central Government has asked states, union territories (UTs) to explore the chances of introducing millets (coarse grains) in mid-day meals under the PM Poshan scheme as a step towards enhancing nutrition among children, the Minister of State (MoS) for Education, Annapurna Devi said in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha today.

The Centre has asked to consider districts where eating millets is a part of their culture.

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The Centre has suggested introducing millet based menus once a week and to conduct cooking competitions among cook-cum-helpers to publicize millet based recipes.

The Centre further suggested the states, UTs, to prepare short videos for creating awareness about the goodness of millets and display them in schools. Consumption of millets in meals may be discussed during the school management committees (SMCs) and parent teachers meeting (PTM), it said.

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NITI Aayog is also encouraging the introduction of millets in the PM POSHAN Scheme and conducted a national consultation with state governments, UT administrations. During the consultation, best practices on millets from states of Odisha, Telangana and Karnataka were shared with other states, UTs.

The PM Poshan Scheme provides for 3 types of food grains - wheat, rice and coarse grains. Food grains are allocated as proposed by state governments, UT administrations as per their requirement in Annual Work Plan and Budget (AWP&B) and approved by the Program Approval Board of the Scheme, according to the education ministry’s reply.

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The food grains are allocated twice a year by the Department of School Education and Literacy (DSEL) along with the Department of Food and Public Distribution (DFPD). The entire cost of foodgrains is borne by the Central Government, further said the reply from the education ministry.