PAISA District Surveys: Mid-Day Meals

Accountability Initiative Staff
(2013)

The Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme is the world’s largest school based feeding program covering around 12 crores children in over 12.65 lakhs elementary schools across the country. Since its launch, MDM has been rigorously evaluated by academics and policy practitioners from the perspective of its impact on key parameters such as student enrolment and attendance and on student nutrition levels.However; there is relatively little rigorous empirical work on the day to day governance of the scheme.

This PAISA study is an attempt to fill this gap. It examines governance questions with a focus on the budgeting and financing system in MDM. Through a combination of primary survey work and secondary analysis of government documents, this study tracks releases, grain and fund flows and expenditures from Government of India all the way down the schools for the financial year 2011-12. The study is based on data collected from two districts each in Uttar Pradesh (Hardoi and Jaunpur) and Bihar (Nalanda and Purnea).