P Srinivasan I [email protected]
The government of Rajasthan has started Mukhyamantri Bal Gopal Yojana for the students of class 1 to VIII in government schools to improve the nutrition level. Milk has beneficial effects on malnourished children to fight stunting and wasting.
Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot in the budget 2022-23 said that nutritious milk will be given to children made of milk powder in the government schools and madrasas. The chief minister said that this scheme was implemented with an objective that enrolment in government school’s increases, their attendance increases and reduction in drop out. Besides this, nutrition of children increases and the aim of this scheme is to provide important micro nutrients.
Milk will be provided after the prayer twice a day on Tuesday and Friday. If it is a holiday due to some reasons on these particular days, then milk will be provided on the next day. Students of class I to V will be provided 150ml milk made of 15-gram milk powder in which sugar will be 8.4 grams. Similarly, for students of class VI and VIII will be provided 200ml milk made of 20-gram milk powder in which sugar will be 10.2gms. The speciality is that the milk is totally free from adulteration. Apart from this, milk is full of nutritious elements which will help in the physical development of children.
This scheme will prove to be a boon for children, for which a committee has been made under the chairmanship of additional chief secretary of the school education department in which commissioner, midday meal has been made the member secretary. Along with this, additional commissioner, midday meal and joint secretary level officer of the finance department have been included as the members. Administrator and managing director, Rajasthan Cooperative Dairy Federation (RCDF) has also been kept as the member in the committee.
The nutrients in milk powder and the method of making milk from the powder are also mentioned on the milk packets provided by the RCDF. The RCDF and the School Management Committee (SMC) will ensure the quality of the milk. A teacher and a guardian of the student/SMC member will taste the milk like the midday meal and after getting satisfied, will give it to the children to drink. RCDF will make the doorstep supply of the milk at the schools. It will be the responsibility of the SMC to prepare the milk in the schools, in which nutritious food is distributed through SMC, Centralised Kitchen, Annapoorna Women Cooperative Samiti.
The milk from the milk powder will be made as per FSSAI standards and directions have been given to take all precautions in this. Milk will not be made from the expired milk powder. It has been decided to ensure that the person who will heat the milk and provide it to students, should not be infected from any kind of infectious diseases. Around 69.22 lakh children have started getting milk from this scheme of the state government which will certainly increase the enrolment in the schools and their health will also improve.
