Parliament Question: Children Covered under Mid-Day Meal Scheme

GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF EDUCATION DEPARTMENT OF SCHOOL EDUCATION AND LITERACY LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO- 3753 ANSWERED ON- 16.03.2026 Children Covered under Mid-Day Meal Scheme 3753. Shri Malaiyarasan D: Will the Minister of EDUCATION be pleased to state: (a) the total number of children covered under the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme in the country, State-wise including Tamil Nadu, especially in Kallakurichi Lok Sabha Parliamentary Constituency; (b) the nutritional standards and quality control mechanisms put in place to ensure that meals provided under the Scheme meet prescribed dietary requirements; (c) whether the Government proposes to introduce regional menu variations to incorporate local dietary habits and improve acceptability among children in Tamil Nadu; (d) the measures taken by the Government to strengthen infrastructure, such as kitchens and storage in schools under the MDM Scheme; and (e) the details of steps taken by the Government to ensure that all enrolled children receive timely, hygienic and nutritious meals, including measures for monitoring, grievance redressal and local community participation? ANSWER MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF EDUCATION (SHRI JAYANT CHAUDHARY) (a) to (e): Education is in the Concurrent list of the Constitution and most of the Government Schools and School Boards are under the administration of the State Governments and Union Territory (UT) Administrations. Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) Scheme is one of the foremost rights based Centrally Sponsored Scheme implemented in partnership with the States and UTs for providing one hot cooked and nutritious meal to all children studying in Bal Vatika (just before class-I) and classes I to VIII of Government and Government-aided schools. The Scheme covers about 11 crore children in more than 10.35 lakh schools in all the States/UTs. The overall responsibility for smooth functioning of the scheme including providing hot cooked and nutritious meal to the eligible children as well as engagement of cook-cum-helpers (CCHs) lies with the States/UTs. State/UT-wise details of number of children enrolled (including in the State of Tamil Nadu) under PM POSHAN Scheme is at Annexure-I. The State Government of Tamil Nadu has informed that, in Kallakurichi Lok Sabha Constituency, a total of 1,37,861 children are covered under PM POSHAN Scheme.As per the provisions of National Food Security Act, 2013 and the Guidelines of the Scheme, the nutritional and food norms prescribed under the Scheme are at Annexure-II. The State/UTs are encouraged to decide menu suitable to the local conditions within the prescribed nutrition and food norms and to procure locally grown food items. The Government of India has issued detailed guidelines to improve the implementation of the scheme to all the States/UTs. These guidelines are available on official website https://pmposhan.education.gov.in . These guidelines, inter-alia, provides for instructions to schools to procure Agmark quality and branded items for preparation of meals, training to CCHs, tasting of meals by members of School Management Committee including at least one teacher before serving the hot meal to children. The Guidelines inter-alia provides for training of CCHs on nutrition, cooking processes, health and hygiene, preparation of raw grains and vegetables, recipes, serving skills etc. States/UTs are providing training to CCHs in collaboration with Ministry of Tourism, Government of India through their Institutes of Hotel Management and Food Craft Institutes, FSSAI, State Agricultural Universities etc. States/ UTs are directed to conduct Cooking Competitions among CCHs to encourage them to cook varied and nutritious meals. Many States/ UTs are conducting the Competitions and also giving cash prizes to the winners. The cost of construction and repairing of Kitchen-cum-Stores (KCS) is shared between Centre and States/ UTs as per the approved sharing pattern. The norms for construction of KCS are as per plinth area norm and State Schedule of Rates. A 20 sq meter KCS may be constructed for school having enrolment of 100 students. Additional 4 sq metre may be added for every addition of up to 100 students. The slab of 100 students may be modified by the States / UTs depending upon local conditions. In one State / UT, there can be more than one slab, however, the modified prescription of plinth area has to confirm to the above ceiling. The scheme also provides elaborate monitoring mechanism i.e. Empowered Committee under the Chairpersonship of Hon’ble Union Education Minister, Programme Approval Board (PAB) under the Chairpersonship of Secretary (DoSE&L), State Steering-cum-Monitoring Committee under the Chairpersonship of Chief Secretary, District level Steering-cum- Monitoring Committee under the Chairpersonship of District Collector. The PM Poshan Guidelines provides a District Level Committee under the Chairmanship of senior most Member of Parliament (MP) of the district to monitor the scheme on quarterly basis. At local level Gram Panchayats/Gram Sabhas, members of Village Education Committees (VECs), Parent-Teacher Associations (PTAs) and the School Management Committees (SMCs) monitor the regularity and wholesomeness of the meal served to children, cleanliness in cooking and serving of the meal, timeliness in procurement of good quality ingredients, fuel, etc., implementation of variety in menu so as to make it attractive to children and ensuring social and gender equity on daily basis. *****ANNEXURE-I ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (E) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3753 FOR 16.03.2026 RAISED BY SHRI MALAIYARASAN D, HON’BLE MP REGARDING CHILDREN COVERED UNDER MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME. Number of children enrolled under PM POSHAN Scheme Total Number of Students S.No. State/UT enrolled 1 A & N Islands 29226 2 Andhra Pradesh 2592740 3 Arunachal Pradesh 141799 4 Assam 3919049 5 Bihar 17308297 6 Chandigarh 99872 7 Chhattisgarh 2854587 8 Delhi 1656071 9 DNH & DD 75468 10 Goa 161643 11 Gujarat 5155763 12 Haryana 1548109 13 Himachal Pradesh 513484 14 Jammu & Kashmir 952108 15 Jharkhand 4103745 16 Karnataka 4133412 17 Kerala 2785920 18 Ladakh 17564 19 Lakshadweep 8961 20 Madhya Pradesh 6024221 21 Maharashtra 9651600 22 Manipur 189046 23 Meghalaya 709669 24 Mizoram 138987 25 Nagaland 128971 26 Odisha 4253138 27 Puducherry 51306 28 Punjab 1910058 29 Rajasthan 5701848 30 Sikkim 44606 31 Tamil Nadu 3947829 32 Telangana 1575209 33 Tripura 369820 34 Uttar Pradesh 15228504 35 Uttarakhand 619766 36 West Bengal 11344146 Total 109946542ANNEXURE-II ANNEXURE REFERRED TO IN REPLY TO PARTS (A) TO (E) OF LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3753 FOR 16.03.2026 RAISED BY SHRI MALAIYARASAN D, HON’BLE MP REGARDING CHILDREN COVERED UNDER MID-DAY MEAL SCHEME. Nutritional and Food Norms under PM Poshan Scheme For children of Primary For children of Upper Primary Items classes classes A) Nutritional Norms (Per child per day) Calorie 450 700 Protein 12 gms 20 gms B) Quantum of Food Norms (Per child per day) Food-grains 100 gms 150 gms Pulses 20 gms 30 gms Vegetables 50 gms 75 gms Oil & fat 5 gms 7.5 gms Salt & condiments As per need As per need