IMPLEMENTATION OF MID- DAY MEAL PROGRAMME IN PRIMARY SCHOOLS OF ODISHA ? AN OVERVIEW

The National Programme of Nutritional Support, popularly known as Mid - day Meal programme is the largest social welfare programme in India. It involves provision of free lunch, free of cost to school going children on all working days. Presen tly in India, 12 crores of students of 12 lakh schools are getting benefit under this programme. In Odisha, the Mid - day Meal programme was introduced on 1 st July, 1995 in primary schools. The programme is running in more than sixty thousand primary schools and near about sixty lakh students are getting benefit out of this programme. The programme is managed by Department of School and Mass Education, Govt. of Odisha. Government of Odisha has made systematic departmental arrangement at each level for the smo oth functioning of the programme. Steering - cum - monitoring committee in block, district and state level have been formed to monitor the programme. For the enrichment of Mid - day Meal programme, different innovative practices are going on in the state. The sl ogan of Mid - day Meal programme in Odisha is taken as “Nutrition for Education”.