The welfare state at lunch: India’s school mid-day meal programme

Sinha, Dipa and Bhargav, BS (2026) The welfare state at lunch: India’s school mid-day meal programme. In: Realising right: a handbook of welfare in India. Azim Premji University, Bengaluru, pp. 119-148.

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Abstract

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) — a programme started by a single municipal corporation in 1920, is India’s most enduring and wide-reaching social welfare interventions today. The MDMS addresses the crucial intersection of poverty, hunger and malnutrition, and primary education by currently providing cooked meals to over eleven crore children in approximately twelve lakh schools nationwide. Its impact can be captured via two crucial material outcomes. Hot cooked meals are a significant factor in boosting enrolment and attendance rates especially for girls and children from marginalised communities who would otherwise not be able to attend school. It reduces women’s burden of unpaid care work. It has been an instrumental scheme which has had a tangible effect over the progress of Indian society.

Item Type:	Book Section
Authors:	Sinha, Dipa and Bhargav, BS
Document Language:	Language English
Subjects:	Social sciences > Public administration Social sciences > Education > Elementary education Public Health
Divisions:	Azim Premji University - Bengaluru > University Publications > Centre for the Study of the Indian Economy (CSIE)
Full Text Status:	Public
URI:	http://publications.azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/id/eprint/7633
Publisher URL:	https://azimpremjiuniversity.edu.in/

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