Right to Food and Implementation Realities of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in West Bengal: An Insight

Author(s): Atendriya Dana amd Anwesha Banerjee

Abstract:

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), recently restructured as PM POSHAN, is one of the largest school feeding programmes globally and constitutes a central pillar of India’s rights-based welfare framework. Originating from the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (1995) and subsequently strengthened through Supreme Court directives (2001) and the National Food Security Act (2013), the scheme seeks to enhance school participation, improve child nutrition, and promote social equity. This paper presents findings from a field-based study conducted in August 2025 across approximately fifty government and government-aided schools in four districts of South Bengal, namely Malda, Murshidabad, Nadia, and Birbhum. The study evaluates implementation dynamics, participation patterns, nutritional adequacy, infrastructure, labour conditions, and monitoring mechanisms. The findings indicate that while the scheme remains operationally stable and widely accessed, its implementation reflects uneven infrastructure, limited dietary diversity, delayed honorarium payments to cook-cum-helpers, and variations in community monitoring. The paper argues that although the scheme continues to serve as a critical nutritional support mechanism, particularly in economically vulnerable areas, qualitative improvements are required to align implementation with the constitutional and policy objectives underpinning the programme.

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Pages: 25-32     |    2 View     |    1 Download