Children in some of India’s poorest families may be missing out on free school meals because the scheme does not match parents\u2019 aspirations for their futures, new research has revealed.<\/p>\n
The study into the world\u2019s largest school feeding programme, India\u2019s Mid-day Meal Scheme (MDMS), found that free school meals remain a vital source of support, particularly for families experiencing acute hardship. But, it found, their value cannot be understood through nutrition and school attendance alone, and the scheme must be reframed if it is to be taken up more widely.<\/p>\n
The study<\/a>, by the Food Security for Equitable Futures<\/a><\/em> research team at Lancaster University and the Indian Institute of Technology Kanpur,\u00a0 found the scheme\u2019s ability to reach and support children is shaped by factors extending well beyond the meal itself, including perceptions of school quality, the costs of schooling, household labour needs, and the social meanings attached to receiving free food.<\/p>\n Introduced three decades ago, the MDMS provides free cooked meals to around 118 million children with the aim of both improving nutrition and encouraging school attendance. It is widely regarded as one of India\u2019s most successful food programmes. But the meals are only available in government and government-aided schools, so families\u2019 decisions about the scheme are bound up with decisions about where to educate their children.<\/p>\n The study, funded by UK Research and Innovation and published in the Journal of Social Policy, draws on interviews with 246 members of 60 low-income households in Uttar Pradesh and Goa. It found that families judged the scheme less on its nutritional value than on how it fitted their aspirations for their children. Many opted for low-cost private schools they saw as offering a better education, trading free meals for private education. Often, this also involved cutting back on food at home to pay the fees, worsening food budget pressures.<\/p>\n For others, relying on school meals carried stigma, shaped by caste, class, gender and religion, and by expectations that parents should feed their own children. Some children felt ashamed to queue for food or ask for more. For the poorest households, a free meal was often outweighed by the need for children\u2019s labour or by hidden costs such as transport.<\/p>\n