Cooking cost under the Mid Day Meal Scheme

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is implemented in partnership with States/UTs. As per the Scheme, the Central Government provides food grains at the rate of 100 gms per day per child for primary and 150 gms for upper primary children to the States at subsidized rates. The entire cost of food grains is borne by the Central Government. The funding for cooking cost which includes the cost of vegetables, pulses, oil, condiments and fuel is shared with the States/UTs in the ratio of 90:10 for NER States and three Himalayan States, 100% for UTs and 60:40 for all other States. Besides, Central Assistance is also provided for honorarium of cook-cum-helpers, transportation of food grains and monitoring & evaluation expenses.   Several States/UTs are contributing additional funds for additional food items in the menu as well as for honorarium of cook-cum-helpers.

 The Planning Commission had allocated Rs.90, 155 crore for implementation of Mid Day Meal Scheme during the 12^thPlan.  The year wise details of funds allocated in the budget and funds released to States/UTs upto 2015-16 are as under:-

(Rs. in Crore)

A sum of Rs. 9700.00 crore has been allocated in the budget for 2016-17 for Mid Day Meal Scheme. The decrease in fund releases from 2015-16 onwards is mainly on account of change in funding pattern which has come down from 75:25 to 60:40 for most of the states since 01.04.2015

The cooking cost under Mid Day Meal Scheme has been increased by 7% with effect from 1^st July, 2016 over and above the cooking cost for the year 2015-16 and the revised cooking cost is Rs. 4.13 and Rs. 6.18 per child per day for primary and upper primary stages respectively.

This information was given by the Union Human Resource Development Minister, Sh.Prakash Javadekar today in a written reply to a Lok Sabha question.