Hanso Chang
Joint Secretary Chang Students Union Tuensang Town
When we hear this particular word 'meal' we all know what it is all about. Having a great time and filling your stomach to the fullest so that you can be a happy man on earth. Who doesn't like meal we all do but how often do we realize that some people starves for food even in this 21st century. I term poverty as one of the major factor responsible for this.
Anyways, coming back to our discussion that is about the Mid Day Meal, the Government of India launch the Mid Day Meal Scheme/ Programme to ensure the proper nutritional status among the school children. It was in the year 2001 the Supreme Court passed an order that a Mid Day Meal with a minimum content of 300 calories & 8-12 gms of protein each day of school for a minimum of 200 days should be the basic entitlement of every child in Govt. assisted or Govt. Primary Schools.
Later in the year 2015 as per the MDM Rules of 2015 under National Food Security Act, every child was entitled to get nutritional standards of 450 calories and 12 gm of protein for primary and 700 calories and 20 gm protein for upper primary.
Now, my point of view is that are mid day meals properly implemented in Nagaland especially in the far flung areas? As per the MDM Rules of 2015 the sample of the food that is served to the children is to be taken to lab for testing to ensure the standard of the food. But in Nagaland having been known for shortage of equipments we don't go up to that extend I suppose.
I'm not of the view that the govt. schools are showing negligence to this particular programme or scheme. All I wanted to share is that it is the right of every children and responsibility of the Government schools to provide children the food with required amount of calories and proteins.
Simply cooking and feeding them is not what MDM is about, it’s about maintaining a nutritional balance among school children.
Therefore, keeping in mind the importance of education with good health the Govt. Sector needs to be more sincere while building a future for better tomorrow.
