28 Sep Mid Day Meal Scheme
The Social Audit of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme
The topic is based on Social Audit. It talks about the need for Social Audit and its objective. It also talks about how the Mid Day Meal Scheme impacts the Indian Economy and Social Development.
Prelim: economy and social development
Mains: GS II: government policies and intervention for the development, and resolving issues
Why in the news?
The central government has ordered the State government and Union Territories to carry out the social audit of the mid-day meal scheme in each and every district by November 30.
What is a social audit?
- It is an audit done jointly by the government and public agencies, checking the detailed resources, both financial and non-financial, for the development initiatives that are shared with the people, through a public platform.
- The social audits authorize the public to enforce accountability and transparency, providing the ultimate users with a window to scan the development initiative.
Benefits of social audit
Guaranteed Accountability:
- The audit authority guarantees public accountability, transparency, and citizen participation in executing the government schemes services, and programs, and also the direct performance of the implementing agencies.
Evaluation of the service:
- The audit authority will evaluate the quality of the service delivered by the government schemes and programs. In addition, it will also carry out a people’s satisfaction survey to find out the various outcomes of various schemes.
Plan and perform the social audit:
- It will find out the efficiency and effectiveness of the service delivery and whether public money is being used economically.
Recognizes and builds the capacity of civil services organizations:
- It gives technical assistance towards the productivity of implementation of various schemes and programs; provides technical aid to the finance and planning department towards strengthening the yearly plans and their result budgeting, and also evaluates the quality standards of development and infrastructure works in rural and as well as urban areas.
Need for social audit:
Pic: Need for social audit
Challenges of social audits
- In many parts of our nation, social audits are not unhampered to prevent corruption, due to the lack of adequate administration and political will in institutionalizing social audits.
- It becomes difficult for Social audit units as well as village social audit facilitators, to access primary records for verification, due to the ongoing resistance and intimidation.
- As there is a lack of education, awareness, and capacity building in the common people, the participation of people is less.
- The absence of an independent agency to investigate and act on social audit findings
Mid-day meal schemes
Pic: Mid-Day Meal Schemes
- It was started by the government in 1995 on 15th August, as the national Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE)’.
- On October 27, 2007, it was renamed the” National Programme of Mid-Day Meal in Schools’, and popularly known as MDM Scheme. Currently, it is functioning under the name of PM Poshan Shakti Nirman or PM Poshan from 2021.
- Under the Poshan Shakti Nirman or PM Poshan scheme, a freshly cooked hot meal per day is provided to all children (studying in Class I to VIII) enrolled in government schools, local body schools, government-aided schools, special training centers (STC), mastabas and madrasas which are supported by the Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.
The objectives of the Mid-day meal scheme
The main objectives of the scheme:
- To boost the admission the school the children who belong to the unprivileged sections of the society
- To boost the attendance of the student in the government and government-aided schools
- To keep up the children studying in classes I to VIII.
- to give nutritional support to the children studying in early, particularly in the areas which are affected by drought.
- To address malnutrition and hunger and resolve the social issues among castes.
Calories Intake
The calorie intake which is prescribed per child per school every day is given below:
| No. | Nutrition | Primary Class | Upper Primary Class |
| 1 | Protein | 12gms. | 20gms. |
| 2 | Calories | 450 calories | 700 calories |
Funding and implementation of the Mid-day meal Scheme
- In each state and UT, at the state and district and block level, they have set up state steering –cum Monitoring committees (SSMCs), to supervise the implementation of this scheme, as well as establish a mechanism to keep up the quality and nutritional standards of the meal.
- It is a Centrally sponsored scheme, the fund is shared between the center and state with a ratio of 6:4.
- But, Sharing is 90:10 for the Northeastern states, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand, while the Centre bears 100% of the costs in UTs without legislature.
Source:
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Plutus IAS current affairs eng med 28th Sep 2022
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