No sign of midday meals in Marathwada, despite SC orders and Centre’s fund allocation By Aparna Shukla and Yoshita Sengupta Photograph by Manoej Paateel
A Zilla Parishad school in Osmanabad, which is to serve vacation midday meals, and has been locked since end of April
It’s been over 20 days since the Union Human Resource Development Minister Smriti Irani, in a written response to a question asked in the Lok Sabha, said that keeping the drought conditions in mind the Centre has decided to extend the Midday meals to summer vacations in nine states, which includes Maharashtra. Over and above the Rs. 2215 crore that has been allocated to the states for the Midday meal scheme (MDMS) for the year 2016-17, the Centre has approved a budget of Rs.726.34 crore for the vacation meal programme, with Central assistance component of Rs. 468.89 crore, of which a little above Rs. 46 crore has been allocated to Maharashtra. Aside the fact the budget sanctions for the vacation meals is coming a tad too late with the vacations nearly ending, there’s also the fact that the implementation of the vacation meals has still not begun in several parts of Maharashtra. Take for example Daroda village in Maharashtra’s Osmanabad district. Ask the villagers if they have even heard of the announcement and they shake their heads in unison. “Only when someone goes
out of the village, we find out about schemes. We have lost all our hopes from the gram sabha meetings. Nothing consequential and related to us is discussed in the meetings, “says26 year-old Mangal Sudaakar Sontake, who stopped attending Gram Sabha sessions since 2007. About 45 kilometres outside of Osmanabad city, the residents of Daroda village dread the summer vacations as it means feeding one extra person, one additional meal each day; more if there is more than one child at home. “The midday meal can be of big help. From the 25 kilogram, five kilogram per person, that we get from the ration shop, saving the three lunches each day makes a lot of difference, especially now since landless labourers like us have no work due to the drought,” says Sontake, mother of two boys and a girl. The situation is no different in Haasegar village in Kalamb Taluka, Osmanabad. All the rooms in the Zilla Parishad Primary School have been locked for weeks and there’s absolutely no sign of midday meals being cooked or served. In Naagulgaav, the village a little ahead of Haasegar, the situation is the same. “The schools haven’t been running in any way since May 1. I’m not aware of any schemes either,” says Vinayak Bore, whosehouse is bang opposite the Zilla Parishad Primary School. Bore has three kids, all of whom are enrolled in the Zilla Parishad School. SushilaTrishool Kumbar, a resident of Naagulgaav, who cooks the midday meal for the Zilla Parishad Primary school confirms Bore’s claims. “Yes, the Midday meals stopped in May. I used to cook the meals till April. I did hear something about the scheme being extended to vacations, but nothing has been communicated to me by my bosses,” says Sushila. The writers visited over eight to 10 villages since May 15 in Beed and Jalna districts in Maharashtra and came across not a single village, where the schools were open or where residents spoke of vacation midday meal being made available to children.