Mid Day Meal Programme in Himachal Pradesh: A District Level MDMS Analysis (Kangra‪)‬

Introduction The national programme of Nutritional support for Primary Education NPNSPE and also the National Midday Meal Scheme (NMDS was started to the children of pre-primary and primary school the year 1995. Since then the number of states providing cooked meals rose sharply. After the Supreme Court (dated 28 November 2001) order all state governments to introduce cooked mid--day meals in primary school rose sharply from early 2002 ( NAC, 2004). But the genesis of midday meals goes back much earlier, to 1925, when the Corporation of Madras introduced the scheme for school children. In 1956, the Chief Minister of Madras, K Kamraj, set up a 'Poor Feeding' programme. Five years later, American aid enabled all corporation and government schools in urban areas to be covered under the fooding scheme. And in 1982, the legendary chief minister of Tamil Nadu, M G Ramachandran, set up a state-wide scheme called the 'Nutritious Meal Programme'. In a sense Tamil Nadu was the pioneered state for the midday meal scheme.