No. of schools providing mid-day meal shrink

THe list of schools covered below the Centre’s flagship PM Poshan (formerly Mid-Day repast) intrigue has declined steady from 11.19 lakh in 2020-21 to 10.35 lakh in 2024-25 — a net reduction of 84,453 schools, or about 7.5% over five years — according to data shared by the Union education ministry in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday.The Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM Poshan) scheme, a centrally sponsored programme implemented with states and Union Territories (UTs), provides one hot cooked meal to children in Bal Vatika (pre-Class 1) and Classes 1 to 8 of government and government-aided schools across the country.Data presented by minister of state for education Jayant Chaudhary, in response to AAP MP Sanjay Singh’s query on the scheme, shows that the sharpest fall occurred between 2020-21 and 2021-22, when coverage declined from 11.19 lakh to 10.84 lakh schools — a drop of 35,574, or 3.18%, in a single year.The pace of reduction slowed thereafter. The count fell marginally to 10.76 lakh in 2022-23, down by 7,604 schools (0.7%). It slipped further to 10.67 lakh in 2023-24 — a dip of 9,509 schools (0.88%) — before contracting again in 2024-25, when coverage dropped to 10.35 lakh, marking a sharper fall of 31,766 schools (2.98%) in a year.Uttar Pradesh recorded the steepest decline, with the number of beneficiary schools falling from 1.67 lakh in 2020-21 to 1.41 lakh in 2024-25 — a loss of 25,361 institutions. Madhya Pradesh followed, with coverage shrinking from 1.12 lakh to 88,204 schools, a fall of 24,704. Assam too saw a significant drop, from 53,427 to 44,106 schools — down 9,321. Together, these three states accounted for nearly 59,400 of the 84,453 schools that ceased to be covered under PM Poshan over five years.Chaudhary did not specify the reasons for the decline but said that “the overall responsibility for providing hot cooked and nutritious meals to the eligible children lies with the state governments and UT administrations.”According to Unified District Information System for Education Plus (UDISE+) data, the number of government schools fell from 10.32 lakh in 2020-21 to 10.13 lakh in 2024-25 — a reduction of 18,727 schools, or about 1.8%. Government-aided schools dropped more sharply, from 84,295 to 79,349 — a fall of 4,946 schools, or roughly 5.9%, over the same period.“Under the scheme, meals are served to children for an average of 220 days per year. Under the scheme, against the enrolment of 11 crore students on an average 8.5 crore students are availing hot cooked meals on daily basis in more than 10.35 lakh schools in all states/ UTs,” Chaudhary said.In April, the Union government increased the material cost for midday meals from ₹6.19 to ₹6.78 per student per day for kindergarten and primary classes (1 to 5), and from ₹9.29 to ₹10.17 for upper primary students (classes 6 to 8).The Centre allocated ₹12,467.39 crore to the PM Poshan scheme in FY 2024-25, later revising it to ₹10,000 crore. However, only ₹5,421.97 crore had been spent by February 18, 2025. The scheme has been allocated ₹12,500 crore in the Union Budget for FY 2025-26.