Telangana students shun mid-day meals citing health reasons and poor quality food

The mid-day meals social audit for 2024 commissioned by the School Education department revealed that 22.5 percent of urban students do not take mid-day meals. Similarly, 21.2 percent of students do not have meals from schools where the centralised agency supplies food.

Hyderabad: Health reasons and poor-quality food are among three the top reasons why government and local body schools are shunning the mid-day meals served to their students.

A recent study on the mid-day meals revealed startling facts for Telangana, with a significant number of students staying away from the mid-day meals. Nearly 22.5 percent of urban students as against four percent of their rural counterparts were missing out on mid-day in schools.

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Health issues, poor quality of meals served and economically better off students who bring their own lunch-boxes were found to be the top three reasons for the alarming drop in the students’ participation in the mid-day meals scheme.

For instance, in Medchal-Malkajgiri district, 92.5 percent of schools cited health reasons, while in Hyderabad and Jagtial districts, health reasons followed by poor quality of meals as the prime reasons for students not partaking in the meals.

The study brought to the fore that overall eight percent of students do not eat mid-day meals, with 22.25 percent, a higher proportion in the schools located in the urban areas. At State level, 63.6 percent of the schools cited health reasons, followed by economically better off (28.1 percent) and around 28 percent of schools cited meals served are of poor quality for not partaking the meals.

The mid-day meals social audit for 2024 commissioned by the School Education department has also revealed that 21.2 percent of students do not take meals from the schools where a centralised agency prepares and supplies the food, as against 6.1 percent from the schools where the local cook prepares the meals. Among the reasons is the lack of food varieties supplied by the agency.

Another concerning trend noted by the audit team, particularly in the urban schools with centralised food supplies, was food wastage. Lack of variety in the menu, same curries being served most of the time and excessive portions for primary school children, approximately 50 percent more than the recommended portion size, turned out to be main reasons for food wastage.

As many as 660 schools with 20 schools from each of the 33 districts as mandated were studied as part of the social audit. As many as 6,872 school students have been sampled as respondents during the study.

Around 18 percent of schools, more from Urban (30.5 percent) than rural schools (15.9 percent) received adverse reports on the quantity and quality of mid-day meals. However, the schools reported significant improvement in the food quality after sharing their feedback with the supplier.