New Delhi, August 22, 2017 | UPDATED 14:21 IST
In the mid-day meal scheme, the government gives free lunch to students from classes 1 to 8 on working days.
In order to maintain proper hygiene of the food being served to students under the governments mid day meal scheme, the Supreme Court has asked the centre and states how they were monitoring the implementation of the schemes in government schools across the country.
Earlier, with centre and the state governments saying those two committees at the national and state level, a bench of Chief Justice J S Khehar and Justice D Y Chandrachud has sought for a response on this.
While posting the matter for hearing to August 24, the bench said:
"How will the implementation of the scheme take place? Tell us and we will crystalise it (in the form of an order)," said the bench.
PIL filed by NGO:
This statement from the SC came in after hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by Non Governmental Organisation (NGO) 'Antarashtriya Manav Adhikaar Nigraani' in 2013, on the issue of mid-day meals. Moreover, it had issued directions to prevent incidents like the one that occurred in a government primary school in a Bihar village where 23 children died after eating contaminated food in 2013.
On March 23, the apex court had asked state governments and union territories to upload information including the total number of students getting benefit of the mid-day meal scheme within three months on their websites.
Here's what centre told SC:
While relying to court, the centre said 11 other states, which have not filed their reply, were also "not averse" to providing the requisite information as required under the proforma, which contains heads under which information is to be uploaded on the website of the state education department.
Here's what the government needs to provide:
Meanwhile, as reported by PTI, information like the total number of schools covered under the scheme, number of beneficiary students, quality and nutritional value of food grains and vegetables, eggs and other supplements served needs to be provided
Also, states need to provide information as to whether there is any monitoring mechanism to check the quality of food served to the children in government schools.
In over 12 lakh government-run and aided schools across the country, children receive free, cooked lunch every day but "they are constantly exposed to the risk of food poisoning and related health hazards due to a lack of mid-day meal infrastructure and proper monitoring of the scheme," the PIL said.
Recent developments in mid-day meals
Recently, the Delhi government has decided to extend the midday meal facility to all the girls upto class 12. This move from Delhi government has been initiated to provide free and better quality food to all the students in state run schools.
Some time back, the HRD ministry has released a notification making the possession of Aadhaar card mandatory for school children. In the process to register all school children under the Aadhaar, it was estimated that there are 4.4 lakh 'ghost students' from schools in Jharkhand, Manipur and Andhra Pradesh.
Benefits of mid-meal scheme:
In the mid-day meal scheme, the government gives free lunch to students from class one to eight on working days.
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