top of page
Search

Mid-Day Meal Gaps in Gadchiroli and Melghat: Tribal Nutrition Crisis in Vidarbha

Mid-Day Meal Gaps in Gadchiroli and Melghat: Tribal Nutrition Crisis in Vidarbha
Mid-Day Meal Gaps in Gadchiroli and Melghat: Tribal Nutrition Crisis in Vidarbha

In tribal regions where food security and healthcare remain major concerns, nutritional interventions aimed at schoolchildren have become an essential state tool.


Among the most prominent of these is the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, a national programme revised over the years to deliver structured meals to school-going children. Yet, the situation in places like Gadchiroli and Melghat reveals a stark contrast between policy expectations and actual outcomes.


Despite increased coverage and revised guidelines, these districts continue to record concerning levels of malnutrition. These outcomes underline the complex realities that characterise the implementation of national schemes in remote tribal areas of Vidarbha.



Gaps Between Guidelines and Ground Implementation


The Mid-Day Meal Scheme, started in 1995, has undergone several updates.


Current standards prescribe 450 calories and 12 grams of protein for primary students and 700 calories and 20 grams of protein for upper primary students.


Meals are expected to include a specified quantity of rice or flour, pulses, vegetables, and oil. Some states, like Meghalaya, have set slightly higher benchmarks. The 2024–25 revision expanded the nutritional menu to include millets, seasonal vegetables, and eggs, with soya substitutes for vegetarians.


Since April 2022, the use of iron, folic acid and B12-fortified rice has also been mandated through the Food Corporation of India.



While these efforts reflect a growing policy emphasis on nutrient sufficiency, the uniform standards do not account for regional dietary needs or differences in caloric expenditure.

In tribal areas such as those in Vidarbha, children frequently walk long distances to school and are more likely to experience baseline malnutrition, making the standardised nutritional design inadequate.


The one-size-fits-all approach has failed to align with the traditional food practices and higher caloric requirements of tribal children.

Monitoring and food quality controls have not kept pace with the expanded guidelines. In Melghat and Gadchiroli, the revised menus often do not translate into diverse meals.


Though schools report using seasonal vegetables, the actual meals typically rotate between rice, dal, and basic curries, lacking both variety and micronutrient density. This mismatch raises concerns about the programme's capacity to address complex nutritional deficiencies common in tribal regions.


Structural Challenges in Remote Implementation


Implementation of the scheme in tribal districts involves logistical hurdles tied to geographical isolation, infrastructure shortages, and administrative delays.


In Gadchiroli, many schools still operate with substandard food storage conditions. Even in cases where schools receive timely grain deliveries, such as 36 schools that were noted to have doorstep food grain supplies, the quality of vegetables often suffers during transport, especially in remote areas where road conditions are poor.



Physical monitoring remains limited due to staffing shortages and cost inefficiency, particularly in hilly or forested locations.


The monitoring mechanisms designed for school-level kitchens lack consistent oversight, leaving room for hygiene lapses and irregular operations.


Reports from Maharashtra indicate that although nearly 91% of enrolled children in Gadchiroli consumed the meals provided, these figures reflect quantity more than quality.

There is no rigorous assessment to verify whether the meals meet the 450-700 calorie and 12-20 gram protein benchmarks on a regular basis.

Cultural alignment is another issue. The scheme's menus often do not reflect traditional tribal food customs, resulting in lower acceptance of the meals among children.


In communities where indigenous food habits remain strong, this leads to plate wastage or reluctance to consume meals, which further undermines the nutritional goals of the scheme.


Malnutrition Trends Despite Coverage

Malnutrition Trends Despite Coverage of Mid Day meal in Vidarbha
Malnutrition Trends Despite Coverage

Despite formal coverage of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, Melghat presents a disturbing nutritional picture.


The district shows high rates of child underweight (60.9%), stunting (66.4%), and wasting (18.8%). These numbers are compounded by a Composite Index of Anthropometric Failure (CIAF) of 76.3%, suggesting that over three-fourths of children suffer from at least one form of malnutrition.


Household food insecurity continues to affect the scheme’s outcomes, limiting its ability to offer meaningful dietary supplementation. Many children come from families that face persistent hunger, rendering a single school meal insufficient to reverse their nutritional status.



Morbidities such as diarrhoea and respiratory infections, commonly found among children in the region, further impact the nutritional benefit derived from school meals.

Maternal health conditions significantly influence child nutrition. Research points to early maternal age, below 20 years at the time of first pregnancy, as a major contributing factor to child malnourishment. Practices such as withholding colostrum from newborns are still present, which limits early-life nutrition and contributes to chronic malnourishment.


These health and cultural factors, although beyond the direct scope of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, interact with its outcomes and reduce its effectiveness.


Anaemia rates remain high in the district, indicating that fortified rice, despite its roll-out in 2022, has yet to make measurable improvements in micronutrient deficiencies.

The lack of convergence between school nutrition initiatives and broader maternal and child healthcare strategies means that even well-structured schemes often fail to meet the nutritional needs of children in tribal parts of Vidarbha.


Administrative Weaknesses and Monitoring Failures


Multiple systemic failures continue to affect the delivery of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in tribal districts. Administrative tasks are still managed through manual record-keeping, which opens up possibilities for data inaccuracies and accountability gaps.


The Android-based application, introduced to streamline stock and attendance tracking, remains underutilised in many parts of Vidarbha due to issues with internet access and digital literacy.

Monitoring is inconsistent and infrequent. Official reports acknowledge that physical inspections are difficult and cost-intensive in remote districts, resulting in irregular visits. This lack of oversight creates space for lapses in food quality, hygiene, and menu compliance. In comparison to urban schools, rural and tribal institutions receive far fewer inspections, making problems harder to detect and resolve.



Supply chain inefficiencies further disrupt the scheme. In many instances, tribal schools receive ingredients later than their urban counterparts. Stock management systems remain inadequate, and the absence of proper inventory control results in periodic shortages.


When supplies do arrive, the deterioration of perishable items like vegetables becomes common, particularly during transit to schools in remote villages.


Transparency with the community is limited. Parents and local stakeholders often remain unaware of the entitlements guaranteed under the scheme, which prevents them from questioning inconsistencies.

The absence of grievance mechanisms further limits community participation in ensuring the programme’s effective implementation.


Financial irregularities are another point of concern. While the central government supplies food grains and shares cooking cost expenses with the states, the flow of funds through multiple administrative layers increases the chances of diversion.


In districts where banking infrastructure is weak and financial literacy is low, this contributes to delays and inconsistencies in fund utilisation at the school level.


The delivery of nutrition to schoolchildren in tribal areas through the Mid-Day Meal Scheme is not just a matter of policy design but one of actual execution on the ground.


The experience of Gadchiroli and Melghat shows how standardised frameworks, when detached from local realities, often yield incomplete results.

These tribal districts in Vidarbha continue to reflect serious gaps in both nutritional outcomes and implementation mechanisms, despite formal improvements in policy. Administrative systems remain fragile, oversight is insufficient, and critical factors such as cultural context and regional dietary needs receive inadequate attention.


In this landscape, the numbers from Melghat, where over three-quarters of children face some form of malnutrition, stand as a stark reminder that school meals alone cannot resolve a deeply rooted nutritional crisis.



References




bottom of page