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Centre for extending MDM to backward dists -Akshaya Mukul

-The Times of India


NEW DELHI: Government's failure to run the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme smoothly in the government schools has not stopped it from proposing to extend the programme to cover 25% children of private schools in SC, ST and minority-concentrated districts.

Initially, the idea was criticized within the HRD ministry and now both the finance ministry and the Planning Commission have put a spanner in the proposal. Sources in the finance ministry said, "The HRD ministry's proposal for the Expenditure Finance Committee (EFC) only said that it intends to cover 25% children of disadvantaged sections in private unaided schools. However, the ministry did not provide any detail as to how only a portion of students; i.e 25% of an unaided school would be served hot cooked meal for disadvantaged sections." The finance ministry said such a scheme would not only be difficult to implement but also, invite discriminatory pressure on the 25% of students who belong to disadvantaged sections.

The Planning Commission has not shot down the idea since the extension of coverage of MDM to private schools in 196 SC, ST and minority-concentrated districts was first recommended by a national-level review committee set up by it. But it has said extension be done in a phased manner. In the first phase, it should be extended to private schools in the tribal dominated districts followed by the SC- dominated districts and then in the minority-concentrated districts. The Plan panel also pointed out flaw in the HRD's EFC note. At one place the amount estimated for covering the special focus districts is Rs 4,892 crore and at another it is pegged at Rs 7,050.1 crore. It has asked the HRD ministry to find out the actual figure.

Within the HRD ministry it was pointed out that there is no research that talks of health status of children in private unaided schools and how free MDM would help them. It was also said that children in private unaided schools are usually from a better economic background since they pay for the education.

It was also pointed out that apart from the Muslim minority, the other minority groups are better educationally which reflects in the overall indicator of education.