Lack of necessary infrastructure hinders MDM
Source: Hueiyen News Service / Laishram Roshan
Imphal, July 30 2013:
Even though the Education Minister has been shouting that there should be proper hygiene and proper implementation of Mid-Day-Meal programme in all the schools under the Government of Manipur, no proper facilities, infrastructure and amenities have been provided to implement the programme.
In fact, some of the schools do not even have a kitchen shed for cooking the meal to be provided to the students.
Hailed as one of the flagship programmes of the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre, the main objectives of the programme included improvement of nutritional and health standards of the students, to reduce drop-out rates, to create supplementary employment opportunities to the villagers, etc.
As per laid down norms, there should be one cook-cum-helper for schools upto 25 students and two cooks for schools upto 100 students.
The quantity to be fed to the students is 100 grams per child per school day for class I-V and 150 grams for class VI-VIII .
On a visit to some of the schools in ZEO, Zone-II Imphal East by Hueiyen Lanpao, it was found that some of the schools are in the most pathetic conditions, although some others were found providing mid-day-meals to the students.
Kairang Awang Leikai Primary School was found in a dilapidated condition with no proper facilities.
The school was found to be closed early without providing mid-day�meal.
There is no kitchen shed and the cook has to manage it inside one of the classrooms.
No proper blackboard was found and the teachers had to scribble everything on a small portion of the wall painted as blackboard.
Speaking to Hueiyen Lanpao, Headmaster of the school Md.Jahangir Khan revealed that there are about 125 students in the school.
But the building is about 40 years old and the existing class rooms cannot accommodate all the students.
When inquired about the reasons for not providing mid-day-meal today, the Headmaster answered that as most of the students are Muslims, during Ramzan the required rice and money are distributed to them instead of providing cooked meals at the school.
The Headmaster also disclosed that no funds for mid-day-meal have been released for the months of April to June and uniforms under SSA were supplied only for 40 students.
Another school, Kairang Govt.Primary School was also found in a very miserable condition.
The passage to the school was flooded and it was very difficult for the students and teachers to reach the classrooms.
The kitchen shed had no proper walls and chimney.
Moreover, the land around the kitchen was swampy.
The Govt.Aided L.P School at Kairang Mamang Leikai was found closed.
Lairikyengbam Leikai P/S was also visited.
The kitchen had no walls and many bricks and sands were found stored inside it.
One of the teachers informed that there is only one cook and it is not adequate for more than 60 students in the school.
When the cook is sick, the teachers have to prepare the food for the students.
The teacher appealed to the concerned authorities to send another cook as soon as possible.
The Mid-Day-Meal programme is supposed to be the world's largest feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore students in over 12.65 lakh schools in the country.
As per records, 3215 schools are providing meal to 1.90 lakh students at primary level and 42,000 students at upper primary level.
6335 cooks are currently employed for providing mid-day-meal to students for 225 days in a year.
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