Breakfast scheme of Tamil Nadu

In news– State government of Tamil Nadu has recently launched the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme for students of Class I to V in government schools.

About the scheme-

The scheme covers around 1.14 lakh students in 1,545 schools.
As of now, there are nearly 46.7 lakh beneficiaries spread over 43,190 nutritious meal centres. This includes around 3,500 students of National Child Labour Project (NCLP) special schools.
Besides, as a consequence of the collaborative implementation of the Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS) and the nutritious meal programme, around 15.8 lakh children in the age group of 2+ to 5+ years receive nutritious meals.
After the improved version of the mid-day meal scheme in 1982, the Gross Enrollment Ratio (GER) at primary level (standards I to V) went up by 10% during July-September, 1982 as compared to the corresponding period in 1981.

Note:

According to the 2019-21 National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5’s report, Anaemia is a major health problem in Tamil Nadu, especially among women and children.
From 50% during the period of the 2015-16 NFHS-4, the prevalence of anaemia in children now went up to 57%.

History of food scheme for school children-

In November 1920, the Madras (now Chennai) Corporation Council approved a proposal for providing tiffin to the students of a Corporation School at Thousand Lights at a cost not exceeding one anna per student per day.
The scheme, which was extended to four more schools and facilitated higher enrollment of students, suffered a setback in 1925 when the British government disallowed the expenditure on the supply of mid-day meals to students from the Elementary Education Fund.
It was revived two years later, benefitting around 1,000 poor students in 25 schools.
The concept saw a State-wide application in 1956 when the then Chief Minister K. Kamaraj decided to provide free noon meal to poor children in all primary schools across the State.
The Budget for 1956-57 contained a provision for supplying mid-day meals to schoolchildren for 200 days a year, initially covering 65,000 students in 1,300 feeding centres.
In July 1982, it was left to the then Chief Minister M. G. Ramachandran to extend the programme to children in the 2-5 age group in Anganwadis and those in 5-9 age group in primary schools in rural areas.
Subsequently, the scheme — now called Puratchi Thalaivar M.G.R. Nutritious Meal Programme was extended to urban areas as well.
Since September 1984, students of standards VI to X have been covered under the scheme.
M. Karunanidhi, as Chief Minister during the short-lived Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam Ministry (1989-91), introduced the provision of boiled eggs once every fortnight, starting June 1989.
His successor, Jayalalithaa, in March 2013, extended the scheme by including variety meals along with masala eggs as per the children’s choice.