WHAT IS A MIDDAY MEAL PROGRAM?LIST SOME BENIFITS OF THIS PROGRAM.HOW DO YOU THINK THIS PROGRAMME MIGHT HELP IN PROMOTING GREATER EQUALITY?

TheMid Day Meal Schemeis a multi-faceted programme of theGovernment of Indiathat, among other things, seeks to address issues of food security, lack of nutrition and access to education on a pan nation scale.^[1]It involves provision for free lunch on working days for children in Primary and Upper Primary Classes in Government, Government Aided, Local Body, Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternate Innovative Education (AIE) Centres,Madarsaand Maqtabs supported underSarva Shiksha AbhiyanandNational Child Labour Project(NCLP) Schools run by Ministry of Labour. The primary objective of the scheme is to provide hot cooked meal to children of primary and upper primary classes.^[2]with other objectives of improving nutritional status of children, encouraging poor children, belonging to disadvantaged sections, to attend school more regularly and help them concentrate on classroom activities, thereby increasing the enrollment, retention and attendance rates.^[3]According to the government, it is the worlds largest school feeding programme, reaching out to about 120,000,000 children in over 1,265,000 schools and Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) centres across the country.^[4]