UPSC Mains 2013 GS Paper 2 Q9: model answer
The concept of Mid Day Meal (MDM) scheme is almost a century old in India with early beginnings in Madras Presidency in pre-independent India. The scheme has again been given impetus in most states in the last two decades. Critically examine its twin objectives, latest mandates and success.
What the question wants
Critically examine the mid-day meal scheme's twin aims, its latest mandates and how far it has succeeded.
How to structure it
Critically examine: history in one line, objectives, mandates, success, gaps.
- Origin
- Twin objectives
- Latest mandates
- Success
- Problems
- Way forward
How to think it through
The question gives you the history; do not repeat it at length. The twin objectives are nutrition and education (enrolment and retention). Then bring it up to 2026: PM POSHAN, the NFSA entitlement, and the Bihar tragedy of 2013 as a quality warning.
Model answer
In July 2013, 23 children died at a school in Saran, Bihar, after eating a meal cooked in oil stored in a pesticide container. That same year the meal reached about 11 crore children. The scheme's scale and its fragility were visible in one week.
Twin objectives
- Nutrition: one hot cooked meal to fight classroom hunger and malnutrition.
- Education: higher enrolment, attendance and retention, especially of girls and SC/ST children.
- A third, often missed: social equity, as children of all castes eat together.
Latest mandates
- PUCL v Union of India (2001): the Supreme Court made a cooked meal a legal entitlement.
- NFSA, 2013: free meals for children aged 6–14 are now a statutory right.
- PM POSHAN (2021): renamed scheme, extended to pre-primary classes; nutrition gardens, tithi bhojan (community contribution) and social audits.
Success
- Studies found higher attendance among girls and lower classroom hunger.
- Tamil Nadu's breakfast scheme (2022) built on the same idea.
- It employs about 25 lakh cooks and helpers, mostly women.
Problems
- Quality and hygiene lapses; adulteration.
- Caste discrimination in some schools: refusing food cooked by Dalit cooks.
- Low cooking cost norms and delays in fund release.
- Nutrition gains limited without protein (eggs are left to States).
Way forward
Food safety audits, real-time monitoring, local menus with eggs or millets, and the Poshan Tracker approach.
The meal has met its education goal better than its nutrition goal; both need sustained funding and vigilance.
Draw: Two arrows from 'one hot meal': nutrition (partial tick) and education (tick), with equity as a third thin arrow.
Keywords, cases and data to drop in
Madras 1925, NP-NSPE 1995, PUCL (2001), NFSA 2013 Section 5, PM POSHAN 2021, tithi bhojan, Saran tragedy 2013, cook-cum-helpers, social audit.
Where most answers lose marks
- Spending half the answer on history. The question gives it; move to objectives and success.
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Question text as printed in the official UPSC Civil Services (Main) question paper. The model answer is original Battle IAS work; use it to learn structure, not to memorise.
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