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.

School feeding in India began with the Madras Corporation in 1925; the national programme took shape as the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (1995) and became a cooked-meal entitlement after the Supreme Court's orders in PUCL v. Union of India (2001). It continues today as PM POSHAN (2021).

Twin Objectives

• Educational: raising enrolment, retention and attendance by countering classroom hunger.
• Nutritional: supplementing child nutrition — with social equalisation through common dining as an implicit third aim.

Latest Mandates

• A statutory entitlement under the National Food Security Act, 2013, with norms of 450 kcal and 12 g protein for primary and 700 kcal and 20 g protein for upper-primary children.
• Coverage extended to upper primary (2007) and, under PM POSHAN, to Balvatika pre-primary children; fortified rice, school nutrition gardens, tithi bhojan and social audits added.

Success — and Critical Gaps

• The world's largest school meal programme, covering about 11–12 crore children; studies record gains in attendance and retention, especially for girls and disadvantaged groups, and nutrition protection in drought years.
• But quality and safety lapses persist — the 2013 Saran (Bihar) tragedy killed 23 children; caste discrimination in cooking and seating, delayed fund flows and cook honoraria, and diversion of teacher time remain documented weaknesses, while NFHS-5 shows child undernutrition stubbornly high.

The scheme has delivered on schooling more clearly than on nutrition; tighter safety protocols, timely funds and convergence with Poshan 2.0 are the way forward.