Thousands of schoolchildren may go hungry in Kerala as the free noon meal scheme has gone awry, thanks to the COVID-19-induced disruption in the distribution of foodgrains.
Free noon meal is one of the key factors that is drawing thousands of children from poor socio-economic background to the classrooms in the State. As many as 26.26 lakh students from 12,324 schools are the beneficiaries of the scheme. The State has been providing free lunch to students up to 8th standard.
Though the schools closed for the summer vacation in March, the students are legally entitled for foodgrains and food safety allowance — the expense for cooking food during vacation. This year, the outbreak of pandemic had upset the plans in providing children their rightful share of foodgrains, said officials of the Education Department.
Under the scheme, a student of lower primary (LP) section is entitled for a daily allocation of 10 g rice, 50 g vegetable, 20 g pulses and 5g of coconut oil. It will be 150 g rice, 75 g vegetables, 30 g pulses and 7.5 g oil for students of upper primary (UP) section. The cooking cost has been fixed at ₹4.98 a day for the LP section and ₹7.45 for UP section.
Till now, the State could complete the distribution of foodgrains up to March. It is yet to come up with some schemes for honouring the statutory commitment to students during the vacation months and for the current academic season which got under way the other day.
Though foodgrains for vacation months could not be fully distributed to the students, most of them might have benefited from the 15 kg rice and the kit of essential commodities that was distributed to the families of the State during the lockdown period, said an official.
K.V. Thomas, former Union Minister, who had piloted the Food Safety Act of the UPA government, demanded steps for feeding the children. Children should not go hungry. Schemes for providing food to children should be initiated, he said.
Responding to the developments, K. Jeevan Babu, Director Public Instructions, said the government nod for a scheme to provide foodgrains for the pending months was awaited. Once approved, the distribution would begin without any delay.
A similar scheme would be devised for students for the current academic year. Since the students were attending the virtual classes from their homes, distribution of foodgrains would have to be considered, he said.
