8/6/2020 To 30/6/2020 Food Security Allowance
The central government’s mid-day meal programme – according to which students up to class 8 are served cooked, nutritious meals during school hours – has taken a hit as schools remain shut since March in view of the coronavirus (Covid-19) pandemic.
Despite the Centre’s order to provide food security allowance to students amid the lockdown, parents of students of both government and municipal schools in Delhi say they have not received the subsidy since April.
The mid-day meal scheme, which aims to provide food security to children from economically weaker families and increase enrolment in public schools, is channelised through state governments.
Delhi schools have been shut since March 19. The Centre on March 20 directed states to either provide cooked meals or food allowance to students till schools reopen. In March, between Rs 78 and Rs 95 were transferred to accounts of students of Delhi government and municipal schools.
Kulsum Khatun, a resident of Jagdamba camp in Sheikh Sarai, said she has not received any money in the accounts of her two daughters (ages 7 and 9 years) since April. “My two daughters study in a government school in Malviya Nagar. We received around Rs 95 in March but nothing after that. Mid-day meals were very important for us since we hardly make enough to feed them twice a day. Under the lockdown, neither my husband, a a rickshaw puller, nor I got any work,” she said.
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