Currently, students are served a rice or wheat-based menu six days a week (representative image)
The assurance that children can try millet-based dishes in the form of “Bajre ki Roti” or “Bajre ki Khichdi” once a week is yet to be fulfilled
About two crore government school children are still waiting for millet-based food in their mid-day meals (MDM), due to delay in the procurement process.
A proposal has been sent to the Center but a response is still awaited. The plan is to serve millet-based dishes once a week to improve children’s nutrition. Currently, students are served a rice or wheat-based menu six days a week.
The promise that students will get an opportunity to taste a millet-based dish in the form of “Bajre ki Roti” or “Bajre ki Khichdi” once a week has not materialized so far.
“We have sent a proposal to the Government of India in this regard. We are waiting for the response from the Food Corporation of India and the Union government,” said an official of the MDM Authority, Uttar Pradesh.
“The MDM Authority, Uttar Pradesh, has proposed to the Center that students of classes 1 to 8 enrolled in 1.42 lakh government and government aided schools across the state should take a once a week get a millet-based meal. But the tender remained a problem. Therefore, we have allowed districts that can purchase millet to introduce it. Unless the foodgrain is readily available, we cannot implement it on a regular basis,” said Vijay Kiran Anand, director general of school education in the state.
To improve nutrition among children, the Center in February 2022 asked the state governments and union territory administrations to explore the possibility of introducing millets under the PM Poshan Scheme, preferably in the districts where eating millets is a culturally accepted dietary habit.
It was proposed to introduce a millet (coarse grains) based menu once a week and also hold cooking competitions among chefs and helpers to popularize millet based recipes.
It was suggested to make small videos to spread awareness about the goodness of millets and show them in schools and consumption of millets.