An empirical study of the mid-day meal programme in Khurda, Orissa
The mid-day meal programme was initiated as a means of achieving universal primary education of satisfactory quality for all schoolchildren below the age of 14 by increasing enrolment, improving attendance and retention, and simultaneously improving nutritional status. This paper attempts to investigate some of these aspects based on primary data collected from Khurda district of Orissa. Data was collected from schools as well as from a sample of households of schoolchildren. The investigation includes a study of the organisational structure of the programme and also examines the cooked meals and dry ration variants.