ACADEMIA Letters
Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat
Smruti Bulsari, University of Essex
Kiran Pandya, Drs Kiran and Pallavi Patel Global University
Yogesh Vansiya, Veer Narmad South Gujarat University, Surat
Mid-day meal (MDM) Scheme was launched by the Government of India (GoI) in 1995 with
an objective to encourage enrollment, increase attendance, improve retention rate, reduce the
drop-out rate and most importantly, improving the nutritional status among children study-
ing in primary (including upper primary) schools (GoI, 2017). Children enrolled in class 1
to 8 are primary school students. In fact, some states had implemented the mid-day meal
scheme even before 1995. Gujarat had implemented this scheme, way back in 1984 (Gov-
ernment of Gujarat, 2019). Over these years, the scheme evolved from covering the children
of government schools, government-aided schools and local-body schools to include children
studying under the education guarantee schemes (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Ed-
ucation (AIE) centres. EGS and AIE are non-formal education centres; the details could be
found in Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, (2001). The nutritional needs of
the children are taken care by providing them a square meal for lunch at school. As per the
MDM implementation guidelines (GoI: MHRD, 2011), the meals are required to be cooked
in the school premises, either by a dedicated staff employed by the school or by the members
of the self-help groups (SHGs). The scheme is funded jointly by the Centre and the State in
the ratio of 60:40 and 100 per cent by the Central Government for Union Territories (GoI:
MHRD, 2019b). Details of MDM scheme can be found in (GoI: MHRD, 2019a).
School closures following the lockdown, imposed as a measure to prevent the spread of
COVID-19 pandemic, naturally led to closures of the MDM kitchens. Amid the lockdown
and school closures, the results of a study by KMIC, (2020) reveal that 85 per cent of the
children are deprived of the benefits to be provided in lieu of the mid-day meals, and also
Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
1
that the parents could not go to the school for claiming their children’s MDM entitlements.
The results of the said study are based on survey of 375 parents of 700 children, enrolled
in primary schools of Ahmedabad. It is worth noting that out of 700 children, 27 per cent
(189 children) are in secondary school and hence, 511 children are primary school students.
Out of these 511 children, only 27 per cent (138 children) are enrolled in government school.
Thus, the findings about the efficacy (or otherwise) of MDM of the KMIC, (2020) study
are based on a small very sample of 138 children, who are entitled to MDM. Moreover, these
children belong to those households which are associated with the community initiatives of the
Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA). Therefore, the finding that 85 per cent
of children were deprived of MDM benefits on the basis of this small sample of Ahmedabad
requires to be interpreted with caveats. The study partially quotes Katiyar, (2020) that the
Government of Gujarat (GoG) made it easier to obtain food grains by providing the coupons
that can be exchanged for food grains at the public distribution system (PDS) shops. However,
apart from this, Katiyar, (2020) clearly states that Gujarat is among those seven states that
have performed better in comparison with the other states in distributing MDM entitlements.
She further mentions that in Gujarat, even the amount for cooking costs is paid to children’s
families over and above distribution of food grains.
GoI has been working proactively to ensure that the children are not deprived of the nu-
tritional requirements even during the lockdown or school closures. GoI, (2020a) issued a
circular on March 20, 2020, four days before the lockdown was implemented, to provide food
security allowance (FSA) to children, while the schools would remain closed. The subse-
quent letter dated July 3, 2020, GoI, (2020b) provided for the FSA to children even during the
summer vacations, with an intention to safeguarding their immunity during the pandemic by
retaining their nutritional levels.
On one hand, the government is taking proactive measures to ensure that the nutritional
needs of the children are met and their immunity is safeguarded. Katiyar, (2020) reports that
the performance of Gujarat is better than most other states on distributing MDM benefits,
while the results of (KMIC, 2020) results show that the 85 per cent children are deprived of
the benefits in lieu of MDM. Therefor, in order to get a first-hand information on the state
of MDM benefits disbursement in Gujarat, an exploratory study was undertaken in remote
rural and tribal areas of three districts (Surat, Tapi and The Dangs). Tapi and The Dangs are
tribal districts with very low-level of infrastructure facilities. In Tapi, only 9.8 per cent of its
population live in urban area, whereas this percentage is 10.81 for The Dangs (GoI, 2011).
The percentage of tribal population in Tapi is 84.18 per cent and that in The Dangs is 94.6 per
cent (GoI, 2011). The Dangs is a hilly terrain, with a large cover of dense forests. Schools
selected for the present study from Tapi and the Dangs are far away from their respective
Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
2
district headquarters. Surat is a developed district but the talukas selected for the study are far
away from the district headquarters, with modest infrastructure development. Thus, the study
covered schools that are remote, largely rural and far away from urban centres.
A Structured questionnaire (schedule) with fixed-choice alternatives as well as open-ended
questions was designed, pilot tested and then the schedules were canvassed during January –
February 2021. The team personally visited 197 schools in 14 talukas of these three districts.
The schedules were canvassed on principals in 177 schools, whereas in 20 schools, where
principals were not available, the schedules had to be canvassed on school teachers.
The objective of this study is to examine the situation about the distribution of the MDM
/ FSA benefits to the primary school children, during the COVID-19 pandemic, while the
schools were closed. The present study does not attempt to generalize the situation of the
distribution of MDM / FSA benefits, rather it attempts to provide an independent perspective
by undertaking a survey of primary schools in the remote and rural areas of these three districts
of Gujarat.
Out of 197 schools selected for the study, MDM was not implemented in three schools
and two schools did not respond. The analysis is therefore based on 192 schools, with a total
enrolment of 17096 students (8641 boys and 8480 girls).
Out of 192 schools in Surat, Tapi and The Dangs, 158 (82.3 per cent) schools supplied
food grains as per the GoI, (2020c) circular, 23 (12 per cent) schools transferred the amount
equivalent to the MDM ration, including cooking oil, spices and cooking fuel to the students’
bank accounts, whereas 11 (5.7 per cent) schools supplied food grains and cooking oil, and
deposited the amount for spices and cooking fuel to the students’ accounts.
Distribution of food grains and cooking oil was done through the PDS shops. The village
people were able to visit the PDS for their monthly ration even during the lockdown months.
Therefore, they collected the MDM ration, allocated for their children, at the time when they
went to the shop for the family ration. Teachers / principals distributed the coupons for MDM
ration to the children / household of the children, when visiting a street to impart education;
street education was imparted during the school closure. Each day, the teacher / principal
visited two to three streets and hence, there was no delay or lapse in distributing the MDM
ration coupons.
On further investigating the response of depositing the amount for entire MDM / for spices
and cooking fuel to children’s bank accounts, the principals / school teachers informed the
team that the school has taken special interest to open the bank accounts of in children’s
name when they get enrolled to the school. Therefore, most of their students already had a
bank account. Since these children are minor (under the age of 18 years), their accounts are
operated by either or both of their parents. Thus, for those children, whose bank accounts
Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
3
were yet to be opened, the monetary benefits were transferred to their parents’ bank accounts.
The food is cooked for the entire family. Therefore, the parents are not required to with-
draw money from the child’s bank account to buy additional spices and cooking fuel sep-
arately. However, in case any need arises to buy spices or cooking fuel for the family and
money is required, the joint account holder of the child would operate the bank account to
buy necessities for the family. No evidence of misuse of MDM amount, deposited in the
child’s bank account, was found during the survey.
These findings are based on the details given by the school principal / teachers to the study
team members. Children’s parents could not be contacted because during the working hours
of the school, their parents would be either working on an agricultural field, in the factory or as
a casual labourer. Therefore, the results of the present study are not directly comparable with
that of (KMIC, 2020). However, on informal interactions of the study team members with
some parents, wherever they could be contacted, they confirmed the information collected
from the school principals / teachers. Moreover, the team did not find any reason to doubt /
question the responses of principals / school teachers.
The analysis further reveals that in 139 (53.5 per cent) schools, principals ensured the
smooth conduct of the MDM / FSA. In 67 (25.8 per cent) schools, officers for monitoring
the performance of MDM along with the school principals / teachers were responsible for the
purpose. In 41 (15.8 per cent) schools, teachers are responsible where as in 13 (4 per cent)
schools, either the village leader or a leading citizen of the village is found to have taken the
responsibility of ensuring the smooth conduct of MDM / FSA. The percentages here, add up
to more than 100 per cent. This is because in some schools, more than one person (principal
and school teacher, principal and MDM officer, or principal, school teacher and MDM officer,
and such combinations) are found to shoulder the responsibility of smooth conduct of MDM
/ FSA distribution.
Thus, the present study gives an independent and alternative perspective on the status of
MDM benefits distribution based on a survey of 192 schools in remote and rural areas of
three districts of Gujarat. It is found that in these schools the alternative arrangements made
for distributing MDM benefits, following the guidelines of the GoG and GoI, by setting up a
system to ensure that the benefits reach the children.
Acknowledgements
Rushang Bhandari, Shambhavi Mehta and all Field Investigators.
Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
4
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Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
5
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ment, Ahmedabad and UNICEF.
Academia Letters, January 2022 ©2022 by the authors — Open Access — Distributed under CC BY 4.0
Corresponding Author: Smruti Bulsari, smruti.bulsari@essex.ac.uk
Citation: Bulsari, S., Pandya, K., Vansiya, Y. (2022). Mid-Day Meals during COVID-19 Pandemic: A Study of
Three Districts of Gujarat. Academia Letters, Article 4535. https://doi.org/10.20935/AL4535.
