Thursday 28 November 2013

Mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka tops MDM ranking

The Ministry of Human Resource and Development has recently announced the state-wise ranking for implementing the mid-day meal scheme. The implementation of mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka topped the rankings. Overall the rankings suggest a success rate of 77.79% in implementation of the mid-day meal programme across India.

Apart from the mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka, the other four top states are Punjab with a score of 76.81%, Daman and Diu with 71.40%, Himachal Pradesh with 71.31% and Bihar with a score of 70.36.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, an NGO in Karnataka implements the Government mid-day meal programme. The effort of this NGO in Karnataka has significantly contributed towards the success rate of mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka.

The NGO started its programme by first providing mid-day meal in Karnataka by working in collaboration with the State Government. Currently, Akshaya Patra provides mid-day meals to 4,60,046 children from 2,627 Government schools across the state. Its reach in implementing the mid-day meal scheme in Karnataka is seen in five locations namely-Bangalore, Bellary, Hubli, Mangalore and Mysore.

The survey for the ranking was done during the first quarter of the current financial year between April 2013 - June 2013. Amarjit Singh, Additional Secretary, HRD ministry said, "The rankings, done for the first time by the Ministry, give a fair idea about the areas that a state needs to improve upon.

We are sharing these rankings with all states and will refine the next rankings." The states were evaluated and ranked based on their score on a set of 15 parameters. Some of the parameters are: number of beneficiaries, utilisation of food grain against allocation, utilisation of funds, payment to Food Corporation of India, monitoring and supervision, honorarium to cook-cum-helpers, infrastructure and health.

This ranking indicates that the impact of mid-day meal programme is being realised at the governing level. Hence to better the reach of the programme, this state-wise ranking was done on a variety of all-inclusive parameters.

0 comments:

Post a Comment