In order to address the problem of malnutrition in children, soon more flour-based fortified rice will be served in mid-day meal. This decision has been taken in a recent meeting chaired by Education Secretary Anil Swarup. The ministry is preparing a Cabinet note about this, which will soon be placed in the central cabinet meeting.
A highly placed source from the Ministry of Human Resource Development said that about 70 per cent of pre-school children are suffering due to deficiency of iron. At the same time, 57 percent of children lack vitamin A. To overcome this, many states have added fortified flour and fortified edible oil in mid day meal. However, there are many states in the country where the main diet is rice. In this way, the ministry has decided to increase the amount of iron in rice and give it to mid day meal. The source said that at the moment it will be started in some states on an experimental basis. After seeing the results, fortified rice will be included in the whole country’s mid-day meal.
The source said that the work of preparing cabinet note has been started in this regard. It will be placed in the Cabinet meeting for approval in the next few weeks. Known, Mid Day Meal is the world’s largest food program. Under this, 9.78 million children of 11.40 lakh schools are given lunch.
