Latest news with #PM-POSHAN
India Today
3 days ago
- Politics
- India Today
Kendriya Vidyalaya enrolment falls sharply, lowest in last five years
New enrolments in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) have dropped to their lowest point in five years, according to figures tabled in the Lok Sabha on shared by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in response to questions from MPs BK Parthasarathi and Sudha R revealed that fresh admissions, which stood at 1.95 lakh in 2020-21, slid to 1.83 lakh in 2021-22 and further to 1.58 lakh in 2022-23. Though the number rebounded slightly to 1.75 lakh in 2023-24, it has dipped again to just 1.39 lakh in the ongoing academic session (2024-25).advertisementThe overall student strength across the 1,280 Kendriya Vidyalayas in the country has also declined during this period — from 13.88 lakh in 2020-21 to 13.5 lakh this year. Kendriya Vidyalayas, set up primarily to serve children of transferable Central government employees, are considered among the most sought-after government-run schools in the the enrolment decline comes even as the Centre cleared the establishment of 85 new KVs in December 2023. Pradhan informed Parliament that these schools, along with the expansion of one existing KV in Shivamogga, Karnataka, will be developed at a cost of nearly ?5,872 funding for the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) has continued to grow, with allocations rising from ?6,437.68 crore in 2020-21 to ?8,727 crore in Union Education Ministry has also recently raised concerns over falling enrolments in government schools more broadly. During discussions on the PM-POSHAN (midday meal) scheme earlier this year, States and Union Territories were asked to investigate reasons behind the enrolment dip at the primary and upper-primary levels across 23 regions and to submit detailed reports.(With PTI inputs)- Ends
Indian Express
3 days ago
- Politics
- Indian Express
Kendriya Vidyalayas enrolment at five-year low: Minister in Lok Sabha
The number of new students enrolled in Kendriya Vidyalayas (KVs) fell to a five-year low in 2024-25, according to data presented by the Centre in response to a question in the Lok Sabha. New enrolments fell from 1.95 lakh in 2020-21 to 1.83 lakh in 2021-22, and 1.58 lakh in 2022-23. The number rose to 1.75 lakh in 2023-24, before falling to 1.39 lakh in 2024-25. The total number of students studying in KVs has also dropped in this period, from nearly 13.88 lakh in 2020-21 to 13.5 lakh in 2024-25, says data provided by Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan in response to a question from MPs BK Parthasarathi and Sudha R. Kendriya Vidyalayas — a total of 1,280 are functioning in the country — cater to children of central government employees who are subject to transfers. The drop in new enrolment comes even as the Centre approved the opening of 85 new KVs in December last year. Pradhan said the Centre 'has approved opening of 85 new KVs under the civil/defence sector across the country and expansion of one existing KV — Shivamogga, Karnataka— by adding two additional sections in all the classes at an estimated amount of Rs. 5,872.08 crore'. According to the data presented by Pradhan, the funds allocated to Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan (KVS) have seen a steady rise over the past year, increasing from Rs 6,437.68 crore in 2020-21 to Rs 8,727 crore in 2024-25. Earlier this year, during meetings with States and Union Territories to discuss the performance, plan and budget under the PM-POSHAN (midday meal) scheme, the Ministry of Education had flagged a drop in government school enrolment at the primary and upper-primary levels across 23 States/UTs in 2024-25, and asked them to identify reasons for the drop and submit reports.
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Business Standard
25-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Standard
LIVE news updates: French President Macron says France will recognise Palestine as state
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio has strongly criticised France's decision to formally recognise the state of Palestine. In a sharply worded post on X, Rubio described the move as 'a slap in the face to the victims of the 7 October attack,' stating that the United States firmly opposes President Emmanuel Macron's plan to seek recognition at the United Nations General Assembly. He further argued that the decision serves Hamas propaganda and undermines efforts towards peace. Macron announced on Thursday that France intends to recognise Palestine during the UNGA session in September. Separately, the Haryana government has approved a budget of ₹665 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) scheme, commonly known as the mid-day meal programme. In the 2024–25 financial year, ₹478 crore was spent on providing meals to schoolchildren across the state. The budget for 2025–26 was cleared at a state-level steering-cum-monitoring committee meeting chaired by Chief Secretary Anurag Rastogi on Thursday. A magnitude-6.6 earthquake struck in the South Pacific near the island nation of Samoa on Friday, but caused no apparent damage. The quake occurred 440 kilometers (273 miles) southwest of the capital Apia at a depth of 314 kilometers (195 miles), the US Geological Survey said. 9:46 AM Court orders auction of ex-MLA's sports academy in ₹512 cr fraud case A special anti-money laundering court has ordered the auction of properties linked to former MLA Vivekanand Shankar Patil to facilitate repayment to creditors of a cooperative bank based in Panvel in Maharashtra's Raigad district. The properties, comprising a multi-acre sports academy and a land parcel in Panvel, have been attached by probe agencies in an alleged fraud of over Rs 512 crore at the Karnala Nagari Sahakari (cooperative) Bank.
Hindustan Times
25-07-2025
- Health
- Hindustan Times
Haryana approves ₹665 crore as mid-day meal scheme budget
The Haryana government has approved a budget of ₹665 crore for the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN) Scheme, also known as mid-day meal scheme. A sum of ₹478 crore was spent to provide mid-meals to school children in Haryana in the financial year 2024-25. A sum of ₹ 478 crore was spent to provide mid-meals to school children in Haryana in the financial year 2024-25. (Getty Images) A state-level steering-cum-monitoring committee for the PM-POSHAN scheme met on Thursday under the chairmanship of chief secretary Anurag Rastogi to approve the budget for the 2025-26 financial year. Rastogi said the scheme aims to benefit more than 15 lakh children, including 80,862 in Bal Vatikas, about 8.28 lakh in primary, and about 6.38 lakh in upper primary schools by providing nutritious, protein-rich meals to every eligible child. He directed officials to adopt best practices from other states and incorporate menu improvements based on nutritional science and local dietary preferences. 'This scheme is not just about providing meals. It is a mission to ensure the universalisation of primary education by improving enrollment, retention, and attendance, while also enhancing children's nutritional status,' he said. An official spokesperson said that on a suggestion by the additional chief secretary, health, Sudhir Rajpal steps have been taken to plant green leafy vegetables like methi, palak, and sarson in 10,080 school kitchen gardens across the state. School education additional chief secretary Vineet Garg said to enhance the nutritional impact of the scheme, the department has recently signed an agreement with the world food programme for four districts—Mewat, Panipat, Sonepat and Palwal (only Hathin block). As part of enhanced nutritional support, 'pinni' is being distributed once a week in Bhiwani and Mewat as a supplementary food item. Chief minister Nayab Singh Saini has also approved the department's proposal to serve 200 ml of skimmed flavoured milk six days a week, instead of the three days earlier. Pinnis will also now be distributed once a week across all districts. On two days a week, protein milk bars will also be provided to students from Bal Vatika to Class 8 in all government schools. District elementary education officers have been asked to get the quality of meals tested before they are served.
The Hindu
04-07-2025
- General
- The Hindu
PM-POSHAN vs reality: How India's midday meal programme struggles on the ground
A hundred years after the Madras Municipal Corporation first introduced the midday meal scheme, every Indian State and Union Territory today runs the programme—some, like Kerala, serving modern additions such as egg fried rice and micro greens. Yet, inefficiencies persist across the country, with funding remaining a major concern for a scheme that has consistently improved students enrolment and retention in schools. In early 2025, the Maharashtra government mulled scrapping eggs from the mid-day meal citing funding constraints. But following widespread criticism, it reversed the move—reinstating eggs and bananas weekly and doubling the scheme's budget, though critics raised concerns over the dilution of the programme's nutritional value. The Hindu takes a deep dive into various meal programmes in the country, tracing the origins and examining the effectiveness of the implementation. A century-old journey Midday mealsin schools have a long history in India. In 1925, India's first-ever midday meal scheme was introduced for disadvantaged children in the Madras Municipal Corporation. Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, and the UT of Pondicherry had universalised a cooked midday meal programme with their resources for primary students by the 1980s. The Union government launched the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education, a nationwide mid-day meal scheme, on August 15, 1995, to ensure enrollment, retention, and attendance, as well as improve nutritional levels among children across India. 'In Tamil Nadu, M Singaravelar, a member of the erstwhile Madras Municipal Corporation in the 1920s, took the initiative to introduce the first ever Midday Meal Scheme for marginalised children under the Corporation limits. Later, it was transformed into a fully-funded government scheme along with the inclusion of vegetables, fruits and pulses into the menu,' said P.B. Prince Gajendra Babu, general secretary of the State Platform for Common School System-Tamil Nadu (SPCSS-TN). The Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM-POSHAN), which was introduced for an initial five-year period (2021–22 to 2025–26), aimed to provide one cooked meal to students up to Class 8 in Government and Government-aided schools. It replaced the earlier midday meal scheme, launched in 1995, which focused on universalising primary education. PM-POSHAN's cost is shared by the Centre and States on a 60:40 basis, with the Centre supplying foodgrains. Taking the vision to the next level, Tamil Nadu launched the Chief Minister's Breakfast Scheme on September 15, 2022. Initially rolled out in 1,545 government schools, the programme covered over 1.14 lakh primary school students from Classes 1 to 5. The scheme, designed to eradicate hunger, malnutrition, anaemia, vitamin B12 deficiency and underweight conditions, has already shown measurable impact. According to the State Planning Commission, attendance rose in 1,319 participating schools so far. Building on this momentum, the State government has announced that from July 15, 2025, the scheme will be expanded to include all government-aided schools in urban areas, thereby bringing all government and aided schools under its ambit. As of now, more than 17.53 lakh students across 34,987 government and aided schools are receiving breakfast under the scheme. Undeniable results A 2024 systematic review of 31 studies on the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme in India found that regular access to MDM consistently improved enrolment, attendance, retention, and even learning outcomes, though nutritional improvements varied. Educationalist Ms. Aruna Ratnam, who previously worked with the UNICEF, said primary school attendance improved after the introduction of the midday meal scheme. 'A study by economist Jean Dreze found that primary school attendance improved in the 1990s following the universalisation of the midday meal scheme. It was achieved way before the introduction of schemes like Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan, introduced in 2001,' she said. Dipa Sinha, an independent development economist and researcher associated with the Right to Food Campaign—an informal network of organisations and individuals working to ensure food is recognised as a fundamental right—said midday meals have helped bring children to schools and retain them there, particularly those from backward communities. 'It also addresses the issue of classroom hunger as many children, who come to school without having breakfast, can have a meal. That, in turn, improves their learning,' she said. 'We take loans to fund the meals' Vasudha (name changed), a headteacher at a government-aided school of Kerala's Kozhikode district, gets barely enough time to juggle between academic duties and regular administrative responsibilities as the new decision by the State's education department to introduce new dishes like Egg Fried Rice has caused immense pressure on her to find sponsors for each day. 'My school has nearly 650 students and all of them take meals from the school. I have to spend more than half a day to ensure that all are being fed on time. It severely affects my academic duties,' said Vasudha. She claimed that the delay in disbursing funds has forced teachers to spend more than ₹ 50,000 from their pockets to manage their weekly requirements. The Kerala government currently allocates ₹ 6.78 and ₹ 10.17 for midday meals per child a day in lower primary and upper primary classes respectively, less than half of what schools actually spend. 'We have been struggling to get funds from the government for midday meal schemes for the last 4-5 years. Some teachers had to take loans to meet these expenses last year,' she said. Vasudha pointed out that even when payments are cleared, they often arrive after a delay of three to four months, and usually in instalments. 'We won't receive the amount of vegetables, eggs, and milk together, and we have to visit the offices multiple times to complete the process. But we have to settle the expenses with shopkeepers and milkmen every week. With this new menu, we will have to find at least ₹ 40 per child. Besides, we will have to spend ₹ 7 for an egg, ₹ 60 for milk twice a week, ₹ 12,000 for LPG for a month, and transportation charges for foodgrains. Be it the regular rice and grain or the new dishes, we are permitted to appoint only one cook to prepare for 500 students. We could only use LPG for cooking as the government has mandated it to promote a sense of environmental protection among the students. We are clueless about how to manage these skyrocketing expenses,' she said. Other Indian States are no exception. Schools across India are grappling with the lack of support through the PM-POSHAN scheme despite statistics revealing that the midday meal scheme has shown significant progress in student retention rates. 'We receive only ₹ 4 and ₹ 6.19 per child for lower and upper primary classes. ₹ 4 is allocated to provide fruits for each child every Monday. Apart from this, the government provides wheat and rice of 100 grams for each child from the government ration shop, but we have to bear the transportation cost of bringing grains from the outlet to the school. Besides, we aren't receiving any separate funds for grinding the wheat,' said a headmaster from Azamgarh of Uttar Pradesh. He pointed out that, of late, funds are being disbursed late. 'With the current inflation, these funds were never sufficient. We are providing 100 grams of milk every Wednesday by spending from our pockets. We are not receiving the funds for the mid-day meal scheme every month. The grant is often given after 3 months or 6 months without any specific timelines. With the current grant, we won't be able to feed everyone. The government believes that only 80% of the children require food and the remaining 20% of children bring tiffin from home. But in reality, the majority of the children aren't able to afford such luxuries and all of them eat their lunch from the school,' he added. Educationist Anil Sadgopal claims that universalised midday meals are still a distant dream in States like Bihar. Sadgopal, who was part of Bihar's Common School System Commission in 2007, recommended universalising school education until Class 10 to provide equitable quality for all students through initiatives like the midday meal scheme. 'There is a complete mismanagement in midday meal schemes in Bihar. Back in 2007, our Commission submitted a set of recommendations calling for universalised nutritious mid-day meals cooked by trained staff. But the proposals were shelved. Six years later, in 2013, 23 children lost their lives and over 100 were hospitalised after consuming contaminated food in a school meal. More than a decade on, nothing has changed and there are various areas in the State where the scheme is blatantly absent,' said Sadgopal. Caste-based discrimination Caste-based discrimination has been reported in serving and consuming mid-day meals. Discriminatory practices, such as separate seating arrangements or denial of meals based on caste, have been reported in both Northern and Southern States, breaching the principles of equality and inclusion. Students from marginalised communities often face social exclusion in accessing mid-day meals. Madhu Prasad, a former philosophy professor at Delhi University and a veteran activist working for equitable access to quality education for all children, claimed that caste-based discrimination is very prevalent across public schools in the Delhi NCR region. 'Dalit children are still made to sit separately in dining areas and teachers are putting down food into their bowls without bending down. There are instances of parents avoiding school meals if the cook was a Dalit. Following complaints from parents, many schools in the NCR region had removed these cooks as well,' she said. South India is also facing a similar challenge and experts feel that the midday meal scheme brings in an aspect of social dining amidst the issues of caste-based discrimination. 'Caste is indeed a major issue in this scheme in Tamil Nadu. There are places where dominant caste groups won't consume lunch prepared by female cooks from non-dominant or marginalised castes. However, teachers are making an effort to ensure that children do eat their midday meals. With the introduction of breakfast in schools, the situation has improved a lot these days,' said Ms. Ratnam. Is PM-POSHAN effective on the ground? The PM-POSHAN scheme, on the other hand, introduced as a solution for classroom hunger, has its own lapses. The scheme covers about 11.80 crore children studying in 11.20 lakh schools across the country. In 2020–21, the Centre spent more than ₹24,400 crore on the scheme, with nearly ₹11,500 crore earmarked for food grains. The total approved outlay stands at ₹54,061.73 crore from the Central Government and ₹31,733.17 crore from States and Union Territories. However, activists point out that the scheme has a 'one size fits all' approach that is unsuitable for several states with unique challenges. 'The PM-POSHAN scheme, in its current form, falls far short of its intended goals. Proposals like setting up nutrition gardens in schools or implementing IT-based monitoring systems are largely tokenistic and disconnected from on-ground realities, especially in rural or under-resourced areas. Other than the cosmetic rebranding of the old Midday Meal Scheme, the initiative offers nothing in terms of meaningful nutritional innovation. What's urgently needed is a serious overhaul incorporating a scientifically designed meal plan and the inclusion of breakfast and nutritional snacks to address classroom hunger and malnutrition,' said Ms. Prasad. Echoing a similar view, Ms. Sinha opined that the PM-POSHAN scheme has always had a disparity in terms of fund allocation. 'Many States in the South are receiving only the basic minimum required resources as per norms while several North Indian states are getting more than what the norm requires them to provide. Financial assistance to procure items like eggs are not provided to all the States. The scheme isn't bridging the gap of state-level disparities, but providing only basic minimum resources across all States,' she said. Tamil Nadu appears to be at the forefront of bridging critical nutritional and implementation gaps in the midday meal scheme with its proactive initiatives, outperforming many other States. Ms. Ratnam attributes this to the Dravidian model of investment in education and health. This approach is said to have ensured that all schools are seamlessly implementing these schemes. 'Awareness among the general public and elected officials plays a crucial role in the wide reach and success of these schemes. Around 97% of Tamil Nadu has definitely been covered in the scheme and is showing huge results on the ground. Although teachers are burdened with statistical duties connected with the midday meal scheme, they do see the reasoning behind it. In Tamil Nadu, schools have started assessing the BMIs of students. Meanwhile, Anganwadis have turned into a crucial feeding centre for kids along with duties like immunisation. All these initiatives help ensure that the effect of malnutrition at such a young age is eliminated,' said Ms Ratnam. 'The school dropout rate, particularly for girls, has drastically reduced up to Class 12 and more girls are showing interest in education,' she said. Way forward Experts point out that States like Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Odisha offer successful models that can be replicated across the country by adapting to the local requirements. 'Even States like Tamil Nadu aren't able to handle exceptional cases as issues that come outside the purview of department-driven programmes become a problem. They won't be able to deal psychosocial areas related to these schemes. This is where NGOs can play a crucial role as they have funding and expertise to address them without involvement of the State,' Ms Ratnam said. Ms. Sinha has called for better financial assistance from the Centre for the scheme. 'The resource-generating capacity of the State governments has become limited and the funding must come from the Centre as the majority of taxes are collected by the Union government and some of these initiatives are centrally-sponsored schemes. It is the children who ultimately suffer due to these shortages in the end. While States continue to manage these schemes amidst the shortage in resources, the fiscal space to bring innovative measures has also become limited. The norms and structures of the scheme were created with the expectation that these funds and resources would be provided. There are numerous cases of funds being withheld with claims that some norms are not followed,' said Ms. Sinha. Experts pointed out that customising midday meals for a specific population has been a weakness in almost all States. 'The more local these schemes are, the better it is for the general population. Kerala has a good model with grassroots level participation to provide nutrition, childcare and child rights. It ensures a community-level approach,' said Ms Ratnam.
