The main aim of the PM Poshan scheme (formerly the mid-day meal scheme) is to address classroom hunger, improve child nutrition and ensure that no child attending a government or a government-aided school remains hungry while in school. Data uploaded on the PM Poshan central portal, however, reveals a pattern that is in sharp contrast to the stated objectives. Three out of every ten schools in the state report that fewer than 80 per cent of their enrolled students are receiving mid-day meals. Equally worrying is the state of administrative compliance. Barely 29 per cent of participating schools have uploaded the mandatory data to the scheme's Management Information System (MIS), leaving glaring gaps in monitoring and accountability.
Together, these failures in both meal distribution and record-keeping raise serious questions about the effectiveness of Goa's school nutrition programme. On paper, the scheme is adequately supported. For the 2026-27 academic year, the Centre and the State have approved an outlay of Rs35.84 crore to provide meals to more than 1.58 lakh students over 238 school days. But budgets and policy commitments lose their value when implementation cannot be properly tracked.
Of the 1,086 schools enrolled under the scheme, only 317 had uploaded their data to the central portal as of July 31. That leaves policymakers navigating in the dark. Without reliable, real-time information, it is impossible to determine why meal coverage is falling in certain areas. Is it because students are absent? Are meals arriving late or being served cold? Is food quality driving children away? Or are enrolment records themselves inaccurate? Without data, these questions remain unanswered.
The pattern of underperformance is also uneven across the state. South Goa is faring worse than the north, with more than 30 per cent of its schools reporting meal uptake below the prescribed 80 per cent benchmark. The situation is particularly alarming in Salcete, where 45.19 per cent of schools fall short, and Sattari, where the figure stands at 41.86 per cent. When nearly half the schools in a taluka are unable to achieve acceptable coverage, the problem cannot be considered as isolated lapses.
These shortcomings become even more significant against the backdrop of broader changes in the state's education landscape, with the government even considering reforms to the meal delivery system, including limiting Self-Help Groups (SHGs) to serving up a 1,500 students to maintain food quality. Add to this the periodic review of nutrition and food served. Such reforms may well improve the system, but they cannot succeed if the foundation remains weak.
Accurate and timely reporting is the backbone of any welfare programme. The Union Ministry has already cautioned that future central funding could be affected if actual meal coverage continues to fall below approved targets. If Goa's schools fail to report their performance transparently, the state risks losing financial support.
Goa can ill afford to treat digital reporting as a routine bureaucratic exercise. Uploading daily data to the MIS portal must become a non-negotiable responsibility for every participating school. At the same time, education authorities need to closely examine high-shortfall talukas to identify and address the reasons behind poor meal uptake. If the state is serious about strengthening its school system, it must ensure not only that every child receives a meal, but also that every meal served is properly accounted for.
