From the States : Rajasthan

Mid-day meal
scheme - a success story
From Our Correspondent

The mid-day meals scheme introduced in the Government and Government-aided primary schools in Rajasthan has had a positive impact on enrolment of children, particularly of girls, at the elementary level. It has helped improve both the quality of education and health of students, besides helping the families to tide over the problems of hunger and malnutrition. This is the conclusion of a new study undertaken in the BJP-ruled State.

Raje Government popularity on the rise : Survey From Our Correspondent As BJP government in Rajasthan completed half of its present term, it brought it a bouquet of good news to Chief Minister, Smt. Vasundhara Raje: a recent survey has indicated that her Government’s popularity graph was on the rise. According to the survey conducted by a leading local Hindi daily, over 56 per cent of people in the State feel Smt. Raje’s Government was coming up to people’s expectations. On her part Smt. Raje claimed that during the two and half-year period her Government achieved what the previous Government could not during its entire five-year term. She said she was satisfied with the work carried out to provide drinking water and developing infrastructure facilities. She feels the opposition Congress lacked a vision and that was the main reason behind its opposition to setting up of the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) and monument scheme, which would bring about a sea change in the field of investment and tourism. (Courtesy : The Pioneer)

A participatory expenditure tracking survey on the scheme in the district of Chittorgarh in Rajasthan, conducted by CUTS-Centre for Consumer Action, Research and Training (CUTS-CART) in association with the World Bank reported improvement of enrolment in 64 per cent of the schools and improvement in retention in 51 per cent schools during the past years. The enrolment of girls registered an increase in 58 per cent of the schools surveyed while it was found that quality of education improved in 49 per cent of them.

The survey results were presented at a State- level dissemination meeting before experts, World Bank representatives, Shri JVR Murty, Shri Vinod Sahagal, MLAs, Shri C.P. Joshi, Chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and Shri Nathu Singh Gujjar, besides Shri Rajendra Bhanawat, Divisional Commissioner, Jaipur, Smt. Saroj Punhani, Accountant General (Audit), Jaipur, Shri Sarathi Acharya, director of the Institute of Development Studies, Jaipur and former director Shri S.S.Acharya.

Presenting the findings, the survey team leaders, Sarvshri K.C. Sharma and Dhudeshwar Kumar, they said they found the quality of food served in the schools to the liking of the parents and the children. About 92-95 per cent of the students ate the mid-day meals at school and found it satisfying both qualitatively and in quantity.

The State had initially started the mid-day meals with “googri” or boiled wheat with either salt or jaggery. It started providing variety from April 2005 under the new guidelines of the Supreme Court. Under the guidelines, roti-subzi, roti-dal, puri-sabzi, mithe chawal, namkeen chawal, khichri, mitha daliya, namkeen daliya, lapsi and dal-chawal are in the menu.

Earlier the Centre was providing Re.1 per student as cooking conversion cost against 50 paise from the State Government. In the current session (2006-07), the Rajasthan Government has increased its contribution to Re.1.