Introduction
On 28 November 2001, the Supreme Court directed state governments to introduce cooked mid-day meals in all government and government-assisted primary schools within six months (see legal action section for further details). This landmark order was one of the first achievements of the right to food campaign. The order was followed by organised public pressure for the introduction of cooked mid-day meals in primary schools, e.g. in the form of a country-wide "day of action on mid-day meals" in April 2002.
In response to this pressure, and to the court orders, all state governments have initiated mid-day meal programmes. Today, with more than 100 million children covered, India mid-day meal programme is by far the largest nutrition programme in the world.
The quality of mid-day meals, however, varies a great deal between different states. Some states, notably in southern India, have reasonably good mid-day meal programmes. Others initially introduced ramshackle mid-day meals on a shoestring budget, mainly to appease the Supreme Court. The campaign focuses not only on the implementation of Supreme Court orders but also on quality issues.
2013
- With mid-day meal, a glass of milk a day(Aparajita Ray,The Times of India, 17 June)
- Dedicated cell to monitor mid-day meal scheme(The Times of India,15 June)
- Three samples of mid-day meal found unfit for human consumption(Hindustan Times, 15 June)
- Mid-day meal workers up in arms( The Hindu, 14 June)
- 2012
- Service, by the ladle-full (Pamela Philipose, Business Line, 19 October 2012)
- Feeding a million hopes daily (Prajwala Hegde, The Indian Express, 2 June 2012)
- 2010
- Yes, free lunches (Anika Gupta, Hindustan Times, 1 November 2010)
- 2009
- Mid Day Meals (Himanshu Upadhyaya)
- 2008
- Renuka pushes for pre-cooked meal, Plan panel says no, open to misuse (Ritu Sarin, Indian Express, 16 March 2008 ) [4 June]
- Renuka faces House steam over pre-cooked meal scheme (Express News Service, 18 March 2008) [4 June]
- PM Opposes Packaged Food for School kids (Nitin Sethi, TNN, 15 March 2008) [4 June]
- Biscuit Firms Tweak Plan to sell wares (Nitin Sethi, TNN, 24 March 2008) [4 June]
- Midday Meals: Welfare by Rote, not reason (Mrinal Pande, Hindustan Times) [4 June]
- More than a Meal (Shree Venkatram, The Times of India, 3 March 2008) [2 June]
- Brief report of the National Seminar on "feeding the child" (Organised by Swami Sivananda Memorial Institute, 26 February 2008) [26 August]
- Rama Baru, Rajib Dasgupta, Mita Deshpande, Aparna Mohanty Full Meal or Package Deal? (Economic and Political Weekly, 14 June 2008)
- 2006
- Ravi, Padmalatha School meals make slow progress (India Together, 5 December 2006)
- Khera, Reetika (2006) Mid-Day Meals in Primary Schools: Achievements and Challenges (Economic and Political Weekly, 18 November 2006)
- 2005
- Zaidie, Annie (2005) Food, for education (Frontline, March 2005)
- 2004
- Parikh, Kalpana and Summiya Yasmeen (2004) Groundswell for mid-day meal scheme (India Together, January 2004)
- Dogra, Madhu and Bharat Dogra (2004) Reforming the Mid-day Meal Programme
- Gopaldas, Tara (2004) Towards effective school health
- Joel, Lee and Thorat, Sukhadeo (2004) Dalits and the right to food: discrimination and exclusion in food related government programs
- Rana, Kumar (2004) The Possibilities of Mid-day Meal Programme in West Bengal
- Sinha, Shanta (2004) Mid-day meal scheme and schools - A need for universal coverage
