It is learnt that Goa’s utilisation of the funds under the midday meal program continues to be low at 20% for the academic year 2020-2021. The Management Monitoring and Evaluation (MME) funds are provided by the central government to the states to be able to evaluate implementation of the midday meal scheme in the respective states and improve the programme. The state has reportedly been found to be lax in evaluating the scheme right from the early days of its implementation from 2004-2005. As per statistics around 93,000 children at the primary level and 65,000 at the upper primary level avail the midday meal scheme every year in the state. Mid Day Meal Scheme is one of the country's national flagships feeding schemes initiated to improve the nutritional status of vulnerable children. The objective of the scheme is to improve the nutritional status of primary school children. In Goa there are several children belonging to poor families who attend primary school. They need to be provided with proper nourishment. For this to happen, the funds made available by the central government under the scheme need to be utilised to the maximum.
