Authors: Sheen Thankalayam
Abstract: India’s one of the crucial and conspicuous schemes for improving schoolchildren’s nutrition is PM POSHAN, a revised version of the previous Mid-Day Meal Programme. This initiative results in a significant increase in the number of school attendees. Along with the studies, the students’ physical health and nutrition are given importance. This scheme turns out to be the world’s largest school-feeding endeavour as it ensures equity among the students from various backgrounds across diverse regions. Educational access has also been amplified due to this. However, implementing this infrastructure requires additional refinement. Because of the mediocre execution, several challenges, including financial crises, labour welfare issues, and uneven decentralisation, have arisen. The successful installation of the scheme in a few states does not deny the fact that several other states still struggle with the same issues due to the uneven supply and unsystematic monitoring. Most often, the women workers are assigned these labours for insufficient wages. Their toils are not even recognised or made invisible, which underscores the feminisation of welfare. During the pandemic era, the vulnerabilities of this scheme have been exposed more as the infrastructure lacks any persistent precautionary strategies. Since the schools act as the primary nutrition providers, the pandemic interrupted the systemic flow of the project. The aim of this study is to dissect the progressive features of the PM POSHAN, coupled with the shortcomings of the infrastructure. Research thus focuses on aspects of nutritional status, social equality and equity, and employees’ recognition to enhance the child welfare development program of the country.
DOI: http://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.20758711
