More girls attending schools in Meghalaya for midday meals

SHILLONG: More girls are going to school in predominantly matrilineal Meghalaya, and more so after the introduction of the midday meal scheme, which has boosted the literacy rate in the country, a senior official at the Union human resource development ministry said on Tuesday.
HRD joint secretary Amarjeet Singh, who was here to review the implementation of the scheme in the northeastern states, said subsequent to implementation of the scheme, the gap in the number of school-going boys and girls has been reduced by 9 per cent.
"Earlier, the gap between male and female children attending school was 25 per cent; now it has come down to 16 per cent. We want to bring it down to 10 per cent. Earlier, girls were expected to cook meals for their siblings, but now they are going to school because meals are provided there," Singh said, adding the literacy level among women has also gone up consequently.
Stating that Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have seen a higher increase in literacy rate compared to other states, Singh stressed the government wanted to ensure that infrastructure like kitchen sheds, utensils and cooks were in place in all schools.
"Across the country, 11 crore children in 12 lakh schools are benefiting from the mid-day meal programme. According to recent studies, the scheme is responsible for removal of classroom hunger, improving gender parity, increasing literacy rates and good health," he said.
The review meeting discussed issues related to hygiene, timely serving of food and real time monitoring of implementation. "We are trying to put in place a system where the teachers would keep the district headquarters informed about the progress of implementation of the scheme on an everyday, real-time basis. In case of any lapses, the district authorities can take action immediately," he said.
Asked about scams involving the scheme, the official said action has been taken against those responsible for diversion of foodgrains meant for the mid-day meal programme. "Teachers and school authorities have also been taken to task for failure to implement it," he said, adding that monitoring was being done from at least four different levels of administration.