SOCIAL WELFARE AND WOMEN EMPOWERMENT DEPARTMENT

PURATCHI THALAIVAR MGR – NUTRITIOUS MEAL PROGRAMME

Education lays the foundation for the development of a society and hunger becomes an impediment to learning. Keeping this vision, the Nutritious Meal Programme was introduced by the then Chief Minister Puratchi Thalaivar Dr. M.G.R. on 01.07.1982. Tamil Nadu is a pioneering State which introduced the Nutritious Meal program during the year 1982. The objective was to enhance the enrolment of students and retain the attendance in schools and simultaneously to improve the nutritional levels among children. A Child who is hungry or ill cannot concentrate in his/her studies with full attention. Due to this factor a free hot cooked lunch is being provided to children in Primary and Upper Primary classes up to Tenth Standard in Government, Government aided Schools, Special Training Centres, Madarasas and Maktabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan.

OBJECTIVES OF THE PROGRAMME

To maximize enrollment and reduce school dropout rates with a view to universalize elementary education.
To provide nutrition to the under fed and under nourished children.
To encourage children from disadvantaged backgrounds to attend school regularly and to help them in attaining formal education.
To empower women by offering employment opportunities.

SALIENT FEATURES OF THE SCHEME

i) Primary School children in the age group of 5-9 years and Upper Primary School children in the age group of 10-15 years are provided with hot cooked nutritious variety meals inside the school campus itself, for five days a week for a total of 220 days in a year.

ii) There are 18 centres for the children enrolled under National Child Labour Project Special Schools in Kanchipuram District are also provided with hot cooked nutritious variety meals for 312 days in a year.

iii) Foodgrains (rice) @ 100 gm per child per school day for primary children (1^st std to 5^th std) and @ 150 gm for upper primary (6^th std to 10^th std) is provided.

iv) During important occasions, Sweet Pongal is served to children by using Jaggery and Ghee.

MILESTONES OF NUTRITIOUS MEAL PROGRAMME

The Nutritious Meal Programme was introduced on 01.07.1982 for the Children in the age groups of 2 to 5 years in anganwadi and 5 to 9 years in primary schools. The scheme was extended to urban areas with effect from 15.09.1982 and further extended to all the children in the age group of 10-15 years from 15.09.1984.

DEPARTMENTAL HIERARCHY

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Introduction of Variety Meals:

As a special nutritional intervention 13 kinds of variety menu with 4 different kinds of egg masalas were introduced during the year 2013 in one pilot block of each district. After ascertaining the success of this scheme, the variety meals programme has been extended to the rest of the blocks in all Districts from 15.8.2014.

Provision of Eggs

The State provides eggs with minimum weight of 46 gms along with hot cooked nutritious variety meals is provided to the enrolled children on all school working days which provides 6.12 gms of protein and 80 kcal of energy.

Procurement of eggs with Agmark specification of ‘A’ for medium grade eggs is done through State level tender by following the provisions of the Tamil Nadu Transparency in Tenders Act,1998 and Rules,2000. Stamping of eggs with food graded colours has been introduced to strengthen the monitoring mechanism.

Provision of Pulses – Bengal Gram and Green Gram

On the first and third Tuesdays of every month 20 gms of ‘Black Bengal Gram’ is provided to each child in the form of ‘Pulav’ which provides 72 kcal of energy and 3.42 gms of protein.

On the second and fourth Thursday of every month 20 gms of ‘Green Gram’ is provided as ‘sundal’ to each child which provides 67 kcal of energy and 4.80 gms of protein.

Potato

Every Friday children are provided with 20 gms of chilly fried potato to increase the carbohydrate content, which has 19.04 kcal of energy and 0.32 gms of protein.

Banana

Bananas are provided to the children who do not eat egg. 100 gms of Banana provides 116 kcal of energy and 1.2 gms of protein, 806 children are benefited in this District.

Double Fortified Salt and Cooking Oil

Palmolein and Double Fortified Salt are supplied by Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation which are used in the preparation of nutritious meal. Palmolein is fortified with Vitamin A & Vitamin D which helps in prevention of Vitamin A & D deficiencies. Double Fortified Salt is fortified with Iodine and Iron which prevents Goitre and Anaemia.

Nutritional Norms

Sl. No	Stage	GOI Norms		State Govt Provision
Sl. No	Stage	Calories (In Kcl)	Protein (In gms)	Calories (In Kcl)	Protein (In gms)
1.	Primary	450	12	557.00	18.92
2.	Upper Primary	700	20	735.00	22.77

BENEFICIARIES IN SCHOOLS (NUTRITIOUS MEAL CENTRES) 2020-2021

The total number of beneficiaries in Primary Schools (1^st std to 5^th std) are 33311 covering 367 Nutritious Meal Centres in Kanchipuram District. The total number of beneficiaries in Upper Primary schools (6^th std to 8^th std) are 22191 and in respect of 9^th and 10^th std are 7475 covering 254 Noon Meal Centres. As regards the National Child Labour Project 447 beneficiaries are covered by 18 NCLP Centres. Thus, the total number of beneficiaries have been 63424 in 621 Noon Meal Centres during the year 2020-2021.

INTRODUCTION OF DRY RATION DISTRIBUTION DUE TO COVID -19 PANDEMIC

Due to this covid pandemic situation, many of the people became unemployed and turned into much more poor condition to meet out the day to day expenses. The distribution of dry ration and 10 eggs per month will make them sufficient to face this hard situation and the schools remains closed from March 2020 to till date. Government of Tamilnadu have instructed to distribute dry ration to all the Noon Meal Beneficiaries under this scheme from the month of May 2020 until the schools reopens in the following quantities.

Commodity	Quantity	Distribution from which month
Rice	100 gm per student per working day for Primary Class (1^st to 5^th Std.) 150 gm per student per working day for Upper Primary Class (6^th to 8^th Std.)	from May – 2020 to till date
Dhall	40 gm per student per working day for Primary Class (1^st to 5^th Std.) 56 gm per student per working day for Upper Primary Class (6^th to 8^th Std.)	from May – 2020 to till date
Egg	10 Eggs per month for per student (1^st to 8^th Std.)	from September – 2020 to till date

Commodity

Quantity

Distribution from which month

Rice

100 gm per student per working day for Primary Class (1^st to 5^th Std.)

150 gm per student per working day for Upper Primary Class (6^th to 8^th Std.)

from May – 2020 to till date

Dhall

40 gm per student per working day for Primary Class (1^st to 5^th Std.)

56 gm per student per working day for Upper Primary Class (6^th to 8^th Std.)

from May – 2020 to till date

Egg

10 Eggs per month for per student

(1^st to 8^th Std.)

from September – 2020 to till date

Noon Meal Employee Details

Each Noon Meal Centre has three sanctioned posts of Noon Meal Organiser, Cook and Cook Assistant. But, if the number of Noon Meal beneficiaries in a school exceeds 500, an additional Cook Assistant can be appointed.
Only Women are employed in Noon Meal Programme.
25% is reserved for special categories like widows and destitute women in the posts under the Noon Meal Programme.
4% is reserved for physically challenged persons for the post of Noon Meal Organiser.

These employees are classified as ‘Part Time Permanent Employees’ with working hours from 9 am to 2 pm.

The Noon Meal Employees are also provided with Special Monthly pension, Lumpsum payment, Festival Advance, Pongal Bonus, Hill allowance and Winter allowance, Special Provident fund Gratuity Scheme, Additional Charge Allowance, Family Benefit Fund, New Health Insurance Scheme, General Provident Fund, Maternity Leave, Voluntary Retirement, Compassionate Ground appointment etc.,

FOOD GRAIN MANAGEMENT

Tamil Nadu Civil Supplies Corporation supplies rice, dhal, oil and salt at the doorsteps of the Noon Meal Centers in order to ensure quality and quantity.

Maintaining 45 days buffer stock at NMC level to provide meal without any delay

FUND FLOW MECHANISM

The Noon Meal Organizers are permitted to purchase vegetables and condiments locally using the funds credited as advance grant into their bank account through Electronic Clearance System (ECS). From the year 2019, an amount of Rs.2.28 per primary school child and Rs. 2.42 per Upper Primary school child is provided to the Noon Meal Organizers towards this purpose.

INFRASTRUCTURE & FACILITIES :

CONSTRUCTION OF KITCHEN-CUM-STORES

The cost of construction of kitchen-cum-stores is determined on the basis of plinth area norms and State schedule of rates prevalent in the State. Now, 20 sq.mt plinth area is admissible for schools having upto 100 children and additional 4 sq.mt plinth area for every additional 100 children can be added. The expenditure arrived out of the schedule of rates are shared in the ratio of 60:40 between the Centre and State. From the year 2011 upto 31.3.2018, 691 new Kitchen-cum-Stores have been constructed in combined Kanchipuram District.

MODERNISATION OF NOON MEAL CENTRES

In order to create ‘smoke free atmosphere’ in the Noon Meal Centres, Modernisation of Noon Meal Centres have been taken up and LPG connection is provided to the centres exclusively out of State Funds. A sum of Rs.22,350 is provided per centre, which is inclusive of the cost of construction of cooking platform, procurement of gas stove and gas connection (including non returnable valve, safety measures etc.). The work has been completed in 1551 centres in Combined Kanchipuram District. All Noon Meal Employees have been provided training by the respective gas agencies in handling the gas stoves.

KITCHEN DEVICES

Government have sanctioned a sum of Rs.480.75 lakh towards the procurement of 19,230 Pressure cookers @ Rs.2,500 per piece in order to facilitate the cooking process easily and the same has been procured and distributed to the centres.

Noon Meal Centres are provided with necessary kitchen devices like Aluminium Dabara with lid, Stainless steel karandi, Indolium kadai etc., to facilitate cooking at a cost of Rs.5,000 per Noon Meal Centre. A sum of Rs.6.00 crore was sanctioned for 12,000 centres during the year 2017-2018.

In order to ensure the exact measurement of the daily ration used for cooking noon meal, electronic weighing scales will be supplied to the noon meal centres. A sum of `1.86 crore has been sanctioned to procure 43,200 electronic weighing scales.

National Programme for Mid day Meal

The Government of India initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15th August 1995 as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme. During 1997-1998, the scheme was universalized across all blocks of the country covering children from 1st standard to 5th standard. During October 2007, the scheme was extended to upper primary classes of 6th standard to 8th standard and the name was changed from ‘National Programme for Nutritional Support to Primary Education’ to ‘National Programme of Mid Day Meal in Schools’.
The Government of India provides fund for implementing the scheme with 60:40 sharing pattern between the Centre and State Governments. However, the cost of food grains, its transportation and Monitoring, Management and Evaluation (MME) component is fully borne by Government of India.
Government of India provides rice at the rate of Rs.3,000 per MT to children from 1st standard to 8th standard. In addition, a sum of Rs.750 per Metric tonne is provided as transportation cost.
Government of India provides cooking cost (excluding the labour and administrative charges) @ Rs.4.13 for primary and Rs.6.18 for upper primary children. However, the State Government provides more than the mandatory share of 40% so as to provide nutritious food to children.

Class	MDM Norms (60:40)	Centre (60%)	State (40%)	Additional State Contribution	Total
Primary (1st to 5th Std.)	4.13	2.48	1.65	2.98	7.11
Upper Primary (6th to 8th Std.)	6.18	3.71	2.47	1.03	7.21
9th & 10th Std.	100% contribution by State Government				8.78

Training

Training programmes are organized at regular intervals to orient the employees on nutrition, health, personal hygiene, storage of commodities and disposal of food wastes. The employees have also been trained by expert chefs in the preparation of variety meals.

SCHOOL HEALTH PROGRAMME

Under the School Health Programme, health camps are conducted by the Health and Family Welfare Department in all schools to address the health and nutrition needs of the children The following activities have been taken up.

Screening for anemia, general health and other health problems – health care and referral.
Immunization, eye and dental check-up in particular.
Distribution of Iron Folic Acid (IFA) tablets.
Distribution of Deworming tablets.
Individual health cards are maintained for all children.

District Level Steering cum Monitoring committee Meeting

Once in six months, Member of Parliament of this District takes up the review of every scheme in which the implementation of noon meal programme is also monitored.

Contact Numbers

**In District Level**
Designation of the Officer	Landline No.	Mobile No.
Personal Assistant to Collector, (Noon Meal Programme) Kanchipuram	044-27237695	7402606004

**In Block Level**
S.No.	Designation of the Officer	Mobile No.	Landline No.	Designation of the Officer	Mobile No.
1	Block Development Officer(B.P.), Kanchipuram	7402606019	044-27277620	Deputy Block Development Officer (Noon Meal), Kanchipuram	7402902102
2	Block Development Officer(B.P.), Walajabad	7402606022	044-27256031	Deputy Block Development Officer (Noon Meal), Walajabad	7402902118
3	Block Development Officer(B.P.), Uthiramerur	7402606028	044-27272233	Deputy Block Development Officer (Noon Meal), Uthiramerur	7402902137
4	Block Development Officer(B.P.), Kundrathur	7402606038	044-27174152	Deputy Block Development Officer (Noon Meal), Kundrathur	7402902175
5	Block Development Officer(B.P.), Sriperumbudur	7402606033	044-27162757	Deputy Block Development Officer (Noon Meal), Sriperumbudur	7402902157
6	Commissioner, Kanchipuram Municipality	7397372823	044-27222801	Manager, Kanchipuram Municipality	–

Contact Address:
Personal Assistant to Collector,
Noon Meal Section,
1^st Floor, Collector Office Building,
District Collectorate,
Kancheepuram – 631501.
Office Phone No. : 044-27237695
Personal Assistant to Collector (Noon Meal) Mobile No. : 7402606004
Office Mail Id: panoon.tnkpm@nic.in