By 15 July this year, on the birth anniversary of Kamaraj, the breakfast scheme was extended to cover students in government-aided schools.
Published Sep 02, 2024 | 12:00 PM ⚊ Updated Oct 10, 2024 | 9:28 PM
School children (iStock)
Two years ago, the DMK-led government in Tamil Nadu launched a scheme that provides free breakfast for students studying at primary government schools, that is for students from classes 1-5.
It was launched on 15 September 2022 in Madurai by CM MK Stalin, on the birth anniversary of the late CM and founder of DMK, Arignar Anna. It initially covered 1,545 schools in several districts in the state, offering nutritional food for about 1.14 lakh students. By the next year, on 25 August 2023, it was extended to cover all the government primary schools in the state.
By 15 July this year, on the birth anniversary of the late CM and DMK leader Kamaraj, which is being celebrated in Tamil Nadu as ‘Kalvi Valarchi Naal’ (Education Day) it was announced that the scheme will start benefiting students in class 1-5 in government-aided schools too. It was started in a school in Thiruvallur district’s Keezhacheri by CM MK Stalin while MPs and MLAs simultaneously launched it in all other districts.
This scheme now benefits more than 20.73 lakh children across Tamil Nadu, who get to eat nutritious and delicious breakfast every day. And to execute the scheme for the year 2024-2025, ₹600 crore has been allocated.
Has the scheme been beneficial for students? Has it helped in increasing the attendance of students, increasing their enrollment and addressing their nutritional needs? This ground report seeks to answer these questions.
The scheme is implemented through the Corporation Commissioner in Chennai and in other Corporations through Municipal Administration Department through integrated kitchens.
Also, in Rural panchayats and hilly areas, implementation is being carried out through Panchayats or Women’s Self Help Groups through the Managing Director of Tamil Nadu Women’s Development Institute.
A Coordination officer has been appointed for each district to monitor the scheme.The quality of the food is also ensured as all the information including when the food is prepared in kitchens, what time the food is brought to school, and quality of food is uploaded and monitored through a special application.
In schools, breakfast is served through staff selected from self-help groups designated separately for the breakfast scheme. It is noteworthy that the children of these workers are only employed if they study in the same school.
This correspondent visited the government primary school in Thirumullaivoyal Sathyamoorthy Nagar in Chennai to understand what the kids think about the scheme. Children usually start coming to the school from 7.45 am. Meanwhile, the breakfast program staff arrive at around 07.15 am and get busy with washing dishes, etc.
The food is cooked in a designated location depending on where the particular school is and it is loaded into the vehicle and sent to the concerned school.
Speaking to South First about the scheme, Gayatri, a mother of a student at the government school, said, “I work as a daily wage worker. My two children study in this school. I always have to go to work early in the morning. I wake up in the morning and go to work after cooking for all four, including my husband and children. I used to be worried about whether my kids ate the food after I have to go to work. Now I can relax because I don’t have to worry about it.”
She continued, “I used to cook for all four of us but now I only have to prepare for me and my husband. This saves approximately around daily ₹20 to 30. You can save up to ₹600 per month.”
Explaining about the scheme, Pushpalatha who works as a teacher at the school said, “The number of students coming to school has increased and dropout rates have decreased significantly due to the breakfast program. Students can be see in the classrooms diligently paying attention to the lessons.”
According to the Department of Social Welfare, out of 1,540 schools where the scheme was implemented on September 15, 2022, attendance of students has increased by at least 10 percent in 624 schools, while there has been a increase of 10-20 percent of improvement in attendance in 426 schools.
In the two years spanning 2022 and 2023, breakfast scheme was started in 31,332 government schools in different phases. According to the school education department, more than 2.50 lakh students have been newly enrolled in government primary and middle schools in the academic year of 2024-2025 after the scheme was launched. With such developments, the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s breakfast scheme has received appreciation from all parties, including students, parents and the public.
Speaking to South First, Meenakshi, the mother of a student at a government school in Chennai said, “This program reduces the financial burden on parents, specifically the huge workload on mothers or parents who are employed. It eliminates the concerns that a working parent would generally have about what to give their kids for breakfast. Or if they can’t, about their kids being hungry in the class.”
She added that the kids are happy that menu for each and every day differs. The scheme now ensures that about 20.73 lakh students in Tamil Nadu get to eat nutritious and delicious breakfast on all working days.
Talking about whether the scheme has contributed to an increase in attendance of primary school children, a teacher at a government school told South First, “The number of students coming regularly to school has significantly increased and dropout rates have decreased because kids feel encouraged to come to school.”
She also observed that students, thanks to the nutritional intake during breakfast, “sincerely pay attention in class.”
There is a fixed menu for what students get to eat everyday of the week and teachers are expected to ensure the quality of food that students eat. The scheme approximately has 293.40 g calories of energy, 9.85 g of protein, 5.91 g of fat, 20.41 g of iron and 1.64 g of calcium.
The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s breakfast program has received praise from all parties, including students, parents and the public.
Through this scheme, over 20.73 lakh children across Tamil Nadu receive nutritious and delicious breakfast daily. The scheme does not provide eggs in the menu, though it is a part of the midday meal scheme.
The decision to not provide the commonly eaten breakfast and dinner in Tamil Nadu – idli and dosa – was a conscious decision. It is something that kids do get to eat at home or anywhere else and it doesn’t really have much of nutritional value and it is full of carbohydrate.
Speaking about the breakfast scheme and the choice of menu, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister said on 15 September 2022, “The meal list has been prepared to address the nutritional deficiencies needed for students.”
Hence, the state government aims to ensure the students eat nutritional food by providing khichdi or upma which has vegetables and wheat or sorghum in it. While upma and khichdi are provided twice a week, the meal is designed in such a way that, if students are provided wheat rava upma on monday, they get to eat vermicelli upma on thursday of that week.
It is common practise in Tamil Nadu to eat upma or khichdi without much of an accompaniment except for maybe sugar. The Tamil Nadu government believes that by providing sambar as side dish, kids would be motivated to eat the said dishes more willingly.
The scheme now covers 30,992 primary government schools and 3,935 government-aided schools.
Nutrition expert Sivaraman Gurusamy said, “According to the guidelines set by the Recommended Dietary Allowance (RDA) program, there are specific recommendations for the amount of protein, iron, and other nutrients that a child needs to intake to absorb nutrients and not end up malnourished. And the government’s breakfast scheme is based on the guidelines set by RDA.”
He further explained that since idli and dosa are high in carbohydrates and low in protein, it is best to prevent kids from eating that for breakfast. “The Tamil Nadu government has chosen each item in the breakfast menu based on how rich it is in nutrition. For instance, wheat is high in protein. Since protein and iron are essential for growing children, such foods are included in their diet,” he added.
(Edited by Neena)
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