-Outlook Shillong: More than 18 years after it was rolled out in Meghalaya, the mid-day meal scheme has failed to keep children in schools or provide dietary nutrition - the two objectives of the centrally-sponsored scheme. A survey of the schools in the state where the scheme was launched in 1995 discovered that over 50 per cent children still suffered from stunted growth and that the food served is mostly deficient in...

-The Indian Express BHUBANESWAR: The Odisha Government is toying with the idea of introducing laddu - made of millets - in the menu of mid day meal (MDM) to add a "dash of sweetness" for the school children. It is also contemplating to add banana to the platter. At a high-level meeting here on Thursday, the addition of a sweet dish in form of millet laddu and fruit in form of banana...

-The Hindu This includes those who never enrolled and those who dropped out Bangalore (Karnataka): As many as 1,70,525 children in the State between the age of seven and 14 are out-of-school, reveals the survey carried out by Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. This includes children who never enrolled and those who have dropped out of school. The data, which has been compiled after school and household surveys, has been further tracked at the block,...

A new report by National Academy of Agricultural Sciences (NAAS) reveals that despite the nutritional value of millets, otherwise known as coarse cereals*, there has been a drastic reduction in the area under its cultivation from 36.34 million hectares in 1955-56 to 18.6 million hectares in 2011-12 thanks to the wrong agricultural and price policies adopted by the Government (see table 1, and the links below). Based on previous National...

-The United Nations Urging greater efforts to identify and address the gaps that prevent the most disadvantaged of the world's 2.2 billion children from enjoying their rights, the United Nations released an innovative new report today spotlighting the importance of data in targeting funds and action to reach those who need it most. "Data have made it possible to save and improve the lives of millions of children, especially the most deprived,"...