New Delhi: The Delhi government has said that the doorstep delivery of dry ration kits will continue rather than hot cooked midday meals till 100% attendance is achieved in Delhi government schools after the Delhi Rozi Roti Adhikar Abhiyan (DRRAA), an organisation working on food rights, sent a legal notice to the Delhi government and three municipal corporations in the national capital.The DRRAA notice said that hot-cooked midday meals in schools did not resume even though schools reopened for physical classes for Classes I to VIII on February 14, following the improvement in the Covid-19 situation.In the notice, served through senior advocate Prashant Bhushan, DRRAA said that a hot cooked midday meal is the “right of every child” studying in schools run by local bodies and government-aided schools.“When schools have resumed physical classes and activities for students, there is no reason for not restarting provision of hot cooked midday meals in the schools,” the DRRAA said.‘Extremely erratic supply of dry ration’The legal notice alleged that the implementation of ‘food security allowance’ in lieu of hot cooked meals – when schools were closed until recently beginning in March 2020 due to the pandemic – had been “extremely erratic”.“This is despite the multiple advisories and guidelines of the Government of India and the directions of the Hon’ble Supreme Court directing that proper nutrition be provided to children through this period,” it said.It also alleged that for schools run by the Delhi government initially, only a paltry amount of cash transfer was provided for cooking costs, and no dry ration was supplied.Also read: Centre’s Financial Crunch to Delay Provision of Breakfast Under Midday Meal SchemeThe notice also charged that while it was announced that from July 2020 dry rations would be provided, however, the government failed to put in place a fixed and well-publicised schedule for distribution of foodgrains, resulting in numerous children neither receiving any dry rations, nor any food security allowance on a monthly basis. This, it said, denied them their “statutory right”.The notice also added that the Delhi Commission for Protection of Child Rights (DCPCR) issued a notice to the Director (Education) of the North Delhi Municipal Corporation for not allocating dry ration as midday meals in its schools for 17 months.The legal notice highlighted information accessed under the RTI Act which showed that the Delhi government did not lift the allocated grains for midday meals for several months, leading to the denial of food for lakhs of children.Going into the details on its findings, the campaign said according to the details available on the official website of the Government of India on the MDM scheme, food grains have been allocated for 6,45,311 students in primary schools and 6,39,793 students in upper primary schools in Delhi for the third and fourth quarter of 2021-22 i.e. October 2021 to March 2022.The notice added that “in such a scenario, wherein food grains have been provided for nearly 13 lakh children till March 2022, and directions have been issued by the Government of India for resumption of MDM in the form of hot cooked meals as schools reopen, there is no basis for denial of hot cooked meals to eligible children in schools run by local bodies or government and government-aided schools”.Through the legal notice, DRRAA also urged all the implementing agencies of the midday meal scheme in Delhi to commence providing midday meals in the form of hot cooked meals for all eligible children “with immediate effect”.“The authorities concerned are also called upon to transfer the requisite amount of food security allowance or provide the requisite quantity of food grains for the period of time when MDM was stopped due to closure of schools to all eligible children who have not been provided the full entitlement,” it said.The notice claimed that while foodgrains were released for 13 lakh children during Covid-19, they did not reach many of them; dry rations too were not supplied to them in keeping with the announcements.Note: This report has been updated with the response of the Delhi government. (With PTI inputs)
