Shortage of midday meals: Govt blames Covid disruption

Gurgaon: Over a month after the new academic session began with offline classes, the mid-day meal services in government schools are yet to be regular. Several schools in the city cited inadequate food supply, while the education department blamed the crisis on the inertia of the pandemic years and the enrollment of new students.
A section of government schools in Gurgaon reported falling short of food for students from classes 1 to 8. A primary school in the Suncity area said it has been receiving food for less than 100 students over the past month though it has over 120 students, forcing it to cut short the proportion of the meals served. “For the past month, our students have not been served proper food. Earlier, one box would have meals for 50 students. But now, it has food for 35 to 40 students only. As a result, we have reduced the quantity served so that everybody gets something,” said a teacher at Suncity Government Primary School.
In April 2020, shortly after the national lockdown due to the pandemic, the government announced that students would get only dry rations since the schools had closed. After the schools reopened for offline classes in February 2022 and students started clocking nearly 100% attendance from March onwards, the government resumed the cooked midday meal service from the new academic session. However, the system has been in disarray, with a few schools continuing to distribute dry rations and others saying food supplied by the government-hired vendor is inadequate.
There are over 98,000 students in nearly 350 government primary schools in Gurgaon. But the meal is for only 70,000 students, according to the schools. The situation is worse in schools which have seen a jump in enrollment. “The government has money to distribute free tablets but not provide food for all students. Despite several letters written to the education department, schools are not getting an adequate food supply. The agency hired for the distribution of meals said it is cooking food based on the strength of students in the 2020-21 academic session,” said Dushyant Thakran, the district head of the Haryana Prathmik Shikshak Sangh.
According to senior officials with the education department, the problem will be resolved soon. “We have reviewed the matter and directed the vendor to ensure an adequate food supply. We also instructed teachers to take the meals after weighing the boxes. It is a readjustment issue. Since the cooked meal services stayed suspended for the past two years and there has been a major increase in student numbers due to new enrollment, with some schools seeing a three-fold increase, we have been facing these initial hiccups,” said a senior education department official.