Complete social audit of midday meal scheme; provide status by Dec 30: Centre
The Centre in September expanded the midday meal programme that aims to provide adequate nutrition and ensure school attendence into the Poshan scheme, and made it mandatory for all states to conduct social audits in every school.
All states and Union territories will have to update the central government by December 30 on the status of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman Yojana 2021 that aims to provide free food to schoolchildren for five years.
The Centre in September expanded the midday meal programme that aims to provide adequate nutrition and ensure school attendence into the Poshan scheme, and made it mandatory for all states to conduct social audits in every school. About 1.1 million government schools are covered under the welfare programme.
All provincial authorities had assured the education ministry that they will conduct social audits at meetings of the Programme Approval Board, the ministry said in a letter sent to the principal secretaries, education secretaries and nodal officers of all states and Union territories on Thursday.
Since schools have remained closed for the past year and a half due to the pandemic, authorities have either provided dry rations to students, or given them an allowance. The government now wants to take stock of the implementation of the programme.
“The objective of social audit is to create awareness among beneficiaries under the scheme and empower public/ beneficiaries to hold government accountable, to address problems and identify bottlenecks at the grassroots level so that bottom-up and location-specific approach may be adopted for smooth implementation of the programme or scheme,” the ministry’s letter said.
The states and Union territories may employ different agencies or departments to conduct public meetings to conduct these audits. In a social audit, the people and the government jointly monitor a scheme.
The ministry had earlier sent two letters, on August 26 and September 8, asking provincial authorities to start the social audit in each district.
Several states and Union territories have not yet started the auditing process, a ministry official said on condition of anonymity. “The states have now been asked to complete the audit and submit a status report with the ministry on or before December 30,” the official said.
