Tamil Nadu to roll out the first phase of free breakfast scheme from mid-September

At a cost of Rs 33.56 crores, the government said about 1.14 lakh youngsters will benefit from the initial phase, benefiting 1,545 schools, including 417 in urban areas, 163 in towns and district centres, 728 in rural areas, and 237 in remote, hilly areas. Every day, the menu will change to include a variety of breakfast items such as upma, kichadi, pongal, rava kesari, or semiya kesari.

The government order in this regard, issued by the Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu, also detailed the improvement to the meal programmes that happened over the decades in the state, from the period of former Chief Ministers K Kamaraj, M Karunanidhi, and M G Ramachandran.

Tamil Nadu has been a state that pioneered the noon meal programme in schools, essentially to fight poverty and the increasing number of school dropouts in the state schools. The Justice Party had pioneered it before independence in Chennai.

The Chief Secretary V Irai Anbu signed the Government Order, which went into detail about the changes made to the programme while K Kamaraj, M Karunanidhi, and M G Ramachandran were state chief ministers.

Former CM Kamaraj was the first to extend the programme across the state. When MGR came to power, he expanded it further by providing nutritious meals to children between 2 and 9 years old. Karunanidhi was credited with adding eggs to the menu, and bananas for children who don’t eat eggs. Jayalalithaa had added different types of rice to the noon meal scheme. Over the decades, several other Indian states too have started the same modelled on Tamil Nadu’s programme and execution method.

The programme was essentially mooted to retain the student strength in schools as many students, from complex social conditions, used to quit education for work as food remained a challenge at home. But the programme, in its later stages, was being upgraded for many more reasons, including childhood malnutrition.

Celebrating the first anniversary of his government, Chief Minister M K Stalin in May 2002 announced five schemes, and the free breakfast scheme was one of them. “There was a government study that showed that many children who start early from home to school were skipping breakfast. They mostly miss breakfast not only because of the distance they have to travel but also of the misery and difficulties at home. So we are launching this scheme…” Stalin said last May.

After signing the order for the free breakfast scheme, Stalin said his satisfaction knew “no bounds” and that Tamil Nadu would now be modelled by the entire nation. Calling it a dream project, Stalin said the programme would help the poor children complete their studies. He called it a Dravidian model and said he has no doubt that other governments will adopt this special Dravidian Model plan.

The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) regulations are mandatory for the execution of the project and the caretakers and the school management committees are responsible for ensuring the quality and taste of the food on a routine basis.