Mid-Day Meals: Centre to give monetary assistance for 11.8 cr students

NEW DELHI : The central government, on Friday, announced that it will provide monetary assistance to students through the mid-day meal scheme as a special welfare measure.

The government said that 11.8 Crore students in 11.20 lakh government and government-aided schools will benefit from the decision.The money will be transferred through direct Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT).

The central government, in an official statement, said: “The Union Minister for Education Shri Ramesh Pokhriyal ‘Nishank’ has approved the proposal to provide monetary assistance to 11.8 Crore students (118 Million Students) through Direct Benefit Transfer (DBT) of the cooking cost component of the Mid-Day-Meal Scheme, to all eligible children, as a special welfare measure.”

It will also provide additional funds of Rs 1200 crore to state governments and union territories.

Ever since COVID-19 pandemic induced shut down of schools, mid-day meal programmes, which provided free lunch for government school students, has been in a disarray. States have tried to continue the scheme with varying degrees of success by providing cooked meals or the grocery directly to students.

In September 2020, the ministry of education revealed to the Parliament that Goa was not able to provide mid-day meals to students as it was awaiting “clearance...from their finance department”.

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