Bhanupriya Bisht
M.Sc Scholar
Deptt. of Extension Education and Communication Management
I.C. College of Home Science CCS HAU, Hisar-125004
Rita Goel
Professor
Deptt. of Extension Education and Communication Management
I.C. College of Home Science CCS HAU, Hisar-125004
Vandana Verma
Assistant Professor
Deptt. of Extension Education and Communication Management
I.C. College of Home Science CCS HAU, Hisar-125004
Abstract
Since independence, the focus of Government has always been towards ensuring food security and education to the masses especially to those living in the rural areas popularly known as Mid Day Meal Programme (MDM). Today, Mid Day Meal programme is the world’s largest school feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centres across the country. Thus, MDM could have a major impact on nutritional and educational status of school going children.
The study was conducted in purposively selected Hisar district of Haryana state as it happens to be the low female literacy district as per census of India, 2011. Out of nine blocks of Hisar district, Hisar I and Hisar II were randomly selected. From each of selected blocks, two villages namely Gangwa and Durjanpur from Hisar I and Bhojraj and Tokus Patan from Hisar II were randomly selected. 5 children from each class (I-V) of the govt. primary schools (25 children from each village) and mothers of these children were selected randomly. The impact of the MDM Programme reported by the children was towards the positive side and of high extent for all the 11 indicators covered under the two main aspects of the programme. It was found that 86.0 per cent of the mothers observed decrease in classroom hunger, increase in height of children (74.0%), increase in weight of children (72.0%), reduced morbidity (60.0%) and increased recovery from diseases (54.0%). In terms of educational status, 78.0 per cent reported increased attendance of children in schools, reduced drop out (76.0%), increased retention in schools (74.0%) and increased enrolment (70.0%). It was found that 90.0 per cent of the teachers observed decrease in classroom hunger, increase in height of children (80.0%), increase in weight of children (70.0%), reduced morbidity (60.0%), and increased recovery from disease (50.0%). In terms of educational status, 90.0 per cent reported increased attendance of children in schools, reduced chances of drop out, increased retention in schools and increased enrolment reported by 70.0 per cent of the teachers.
Key words: Impact, Mid Day Meal, Children
