Amid inflation, government school officials in India's West Bengal said that they have been finding it challenging to serve mid-day meals to kids as prices of essential commodities have increased.
Last week, the Bengal Primary Teachers' Association drew the attention of the School Education Department to the issue and demanded an increase in the allocation so that the nutritional value served to the children is not affected.
Firoza Begum, handling the affair in a primary school in Murshidabad District, told Indian news agency PTI: "We're receiving the cost of the pre-pandemic time or before 2020. But in two years, the price of commodities has increased, including of potatoes, eggs, vegetables, etc."
Under the midday meal scheme, government schools serve wholesome freshly-cooked lunches to children. The scheme was initiated to increase children's educational attainment, reduce dropout rates, and improve their overall growth.
In West Bengal alone, a total of 83,945 schools with 11.5 million students are provided midday meals every day.
Similarly, a schoolteacher from the Birbhum district told news channel Network18: "We are left with no option but to resort to cost-cutting".
"It feels bad when we can't put eggs or pieces of fish on the food plates of students. Many students in my school come on an empty stomach in the morning and all are counting on us", she said.
Speaking about the situation to Sputnik, Sachin Jain, an activist who launched the Right to Food campaign, said: "One has to understand that most of the beneficiaries of the scheme are the students from disadvantaged backgrounds —mostly rural areas, underprivileged students".
Midday meals are successful in raising enrolment rates, particularly among children from the lowest socio-economic backgrounds. Especially for those with the least educated parents and lowest economic status, Jain said, explaining the importance of the scheme.
"And, if proper food in proper nutritional values is not served to these children, it may lead to long term problems", Jain said.
Global food security experts attribute acute malnutrition to widespread poverty, endemic hunger, rapid population growth, pockets of weak governance, and poor health systems.
The schemes come under the Food Security Act, under which is mandatory for all state governments to ensure proper nutrition for children, Jain added.
The schemes come under the Food Security Act, under which is mandatory for all state governments to ensure proper nutrition for children, Jain added.
The state and the federal governments should pay heed to the problems on an urgent basis, Jain said, adding: "At least West Bengal raked up the matter. We don't know the ground reality in states bigger or backward states like Bihar, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Chattisgarh, etc."
Last year, the Global Hunger Index ranked India at 101 out of 116 countries, well below Bangladesh, Nepal, and Pakistan, and even countries like Cameroon and Tanzania in Sub-Saharan Africa.
The pandemic has worsened the situation as schools were closed, and the scheme was put on a long pause.
Although many state governments have said that they provided dry ration kits to these family, according to experts, not a single state managed to reach even 40 percent of kids during the pandemic.
The scheme was mostly re-implemented in February-March, when schools started offline.