Last year, PM POSHAN, the world’s largest school meal programme, reached more than 11.2 crore children in over 10.3 lakh government and government-aided schools. The scheme, entitled under the NFSA Act 2013, provides a universal mid-day meal to students up to class 8 or age 14, as applicable. Since its inception in 1995, it was expanded only in 2009 to include upper primary schools.To date, this entitlement remains limited up to class 8, which is precisely before children enter adolescence.This cut-off after class 8 mirrors the policy ambitions of the mid-1990s, when India’s foremost challenge was to achieve universal elementary education within limited fiscal capacity. Today, in the formal labour market, completing higher secondary education is the minimum sought qualification. In this direction, the NEP 2020 also envisions achieving universal access to quality education from preschool to class 12 by 2030.However, against this changing context and the importance of mid-day meals as an incentive for school attendance and nutrition, the rationale for discontinuing support after class 8 weakens. It clearly represents a policy incongruity between the country’s evolving educational policy aspirations and mid-day meals’ stagnant coverage. In March 2025, the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Education flagged this policy incongruity and recommended extending PM POSHAN to class 12 in a phased manner. Yet, the proposal has received negligible policy attention or public deliberation.Educational attrition after class 8Official data sources reveal that limited coverage of the mid-day meal up to class 8 has direct implications for educational attainment in later grades. According to UDISE+ 2024–25, the national dropout rate is just 0.3% at the primary level and 3.5% at the upper primary level, but it rises sharply to 11.5% in secondary education when mid-day meal entitlement ends.The longer-term picture is even more disquieting. The UDISE+ 2024–25 report reveals a remarkably low cumulative retention rate, with only 47.2% of students remaining until class 12 from 82.8% in class 8. In other words, less than 5 out of 10 students entering Class 1 reach Class 12. Although school retention is influenced by several socio-economic factors, continued limited coverage of PM POSHAN is difficult to justify against this backdrop. The mid-day meal entitlement ends after Class 8 precisely at the transition to secondary education, where dropout rates rise sharply, and students become more vulnerable to leaving school. Heightened nutritional vulnerability during adolescenceAs per UNICEF, adolescence is the second most important period of human growth after early childhood. Rapid physical development, hormonal changes, and cognitive maturation substantially increase nutritional requirements during adolescence. Essentially, during this period of heightened health vulnerabilities, India’s adolescents remain outside the mid-day meal entitlement.The implications are amply evident from NFHS-5 (2019–21) reports, which show that 59.1% of girls aged 15–19 years are anaemic, and the Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey (2016–18) found that one in four adolescents (24%) were thin for their age (BMI-for-age<−2 SD). In the longer run, these nutritional deficits can impair cognitive development and affect learning capacity.A missing incentive beyond class 8For many low-income households, the mid-day meal is often the day’s most nutritious meal and an important incentive to stay in school. After class 8, when the midday meal entitlement ends, adolescent children in low-income households are more likely to combine schooling with paid or unpaid work. The Economic Survey 2024-25 shows that of out-of-school adolescents aged 14–18 years, 44% leave school to supplement household income and 28% to undertake domestic chores.Further, the consequences of this economic burden are evident in school enrolment trends. UDISE+ 2024–25 shows that the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) exceeds 90% at both the primary and upper primary levels but sharply falls to 78.7% in secondary school and only 58.4% at the higher secondary level. In such circumstances, a daily school meal can offset part of the economic cost of attending school and ease the economic pressure that pushes adolescents into child labour.This challenge is particularly acute for migrant workers, nomadic communities, and casual labour households, where parents often leave home early and return late in the evening. Consequently, many children attend government or government-aided schools without a packed lunch, relying completely on the midday meal for support. In such circumstances, the discontinuation of midday meals after class 8 exacerbates challenges to both educational continuity and nutritional attainment. Extending coverage is feasible and indispensableFiscal capacity is unlikely to be a major constraint in extending PM POSHAN coverage. In 2026–27, PM POSHAN accounts for 9% of the Union Ministry of Education’s total budget of Rs 12,750 crore and covers around 11.2 crore children. Based on the state-centre combined five-year (2021-26) financial outlay of Rs 13,0794.90 crore (including the cost of food grains), this amounts to an average public expenditure of only about Rs 2,217 per child per year, or roughly Rs 10/child per school day. By comparison, several states, including Maharashtra’s Mukhyamantri Majhi Ladki Bahin and Karnataka’s Gruha Lakshmi, provide large-scale monthly direct cash transfers involving substantially higher annual per-beneficiary expenditures than the incremental cost of extending PM POSHAN coverage.Remarkably, this total budget outlay for mid-day meals remains at less than 1% of India’s GDP but has one of the largest long-term social impacts through augmented productivity, public health, and human capital formation. Notably, Rockefeller Foundation’s estimate suggests that every US$1 invested in school meal programmes generates around US $9 in social and economic returns through improvements in education and health.Recent policy momentumSome Indian states have demonstrated that extension is feasible. Tamil Nadu and Karnataka continue providing nutritious school meals up to class 10 through state-funded programmes. Despite this imperative, globally, India was not among the 40 countries that used the 2025 School Meals Coalition Summit organized by the World Food Programme in Brazil to announce fresh national commitments toward the global target of reaching an additional 150 million children by 2030. India’s absence is conspicuous, given that it has the world’s largest school feeding programme and population.The rationale for limiting coverage up to class 8 warrants reconsideration. A national universal mid-day meal entitlement up to class 12 or age 18 is the surest mechanism that avoids leaving India’s largest adolescent populations underserved and without social protection during critical years of schooling. Beyond direct welfare, extending PM POSHAN coverage will augment an investment in social equity, human capital, and India’s long-term economic future.Prashant Kumbhar is a teaching fellow at Plaksha University.