Bengaluru: Karnataka stands joint sixth, along with four other states, in the midday meal scheme, with 92% of enrolled students having meals in school. With this, Karnataka joins the league of states with the highest proportion of students availing the scheme in 2024-25.The data compiled under Azim Premji University’s recent report — Realising right: A handbook of welfare in India — puts Goa on top with 97% of students availing meals, followed by Meghalaya at 96% and Nagaland at 95%. Ladakh recorded 94%, while Kerala and Mizoram stood at 93%.Karnataka shares the honours with Odisha, Sikkim, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh. At the national level, the average proportion of enrolled students availing meals was 76.2%. Trailing the national average are Bihar — the lowest — with 60% of enrolled students availing meals, Chandigarh (63%), Delhi (65%), Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand (67% and 69%, respectively).The report highlighted disparities in data. “There is a gap between the number of children enrolled in schools and the number of those proposed to be covered under midday meal scheme. Further, there is also a gap between the number of children approved for midday meals by the Programme Approval Board (PAB) based on these proposals and the average number of children availing meals,” the report pointed out.AS Seetharamu, former faculty at Institute for Social and Economic Change, said: “There may be several reasons for gaps across approvals and enrolment. Approvals are on district-level plans submitted during previous year ending, based on current year enrolments and forecasts of succeeding year additions/school leavers. There may be a change in the estimated figure due to dropouts beyond expected figures, additional enrolments, siblings below school age taking food.”“Estimates approved in previous years may not match with current year attendance due to drop-outs. Many kids go to school only during lunch time. Monitoring may be lax. Class attendance and MDM attendance registers are different. Both need to be integrated. At school level, differences are small. When discrete small numbers are consolidated for the whole district, figures become significant,” he added.K’taka spends highestKarnataka is one of the states which spend more on midday meals. While the per-meal cost is Rs 5.37 per child, it spends on hot milk for classes 1–10 (Rs 6.26/child/day for five days under Ksheera Bhagya Yojana) and eggs/bananas (Rs 6.00/child/day for six days a week).Only 10% kitchens centralised in stateSome 10.5% of schools in Karnataka are served by centralised kitchens for supply of midday meals. This is in contrast with states such as Delhi and Goa, where 100% and 99% of schools, respectively are served by centralised kitchens. Puducherry has a coverage of 95.8%.BOXQUICK BITESSome interesting additions in midday mealsKarnataka – Ragi malt with milk and jaggery, eggsUttar Pradesh – Seasonal fruitTelangana – Fortified ragi java with jaggery, eggRajasthan – MilkChhattisgarh – Soya chikkiAndhra Pradesh – Egg/chikki
