Ranchi, July 24: Even after the mid-day meal scheme was launched five years ago in the state, 2 lakh students are not provided with food at government-run primary schools everyday.

Moreover, the dropout rate among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes students is still higher compared to that of students from general category, reveals a study conducted by the state human resource development department during the last session.

Not every child of 30,000 primary schools is able to get the desired nutritional value — 450kcal, as prescribed by the Union government — from the scheme either. The study said that “the state government needs to rework on its menu” so that its contents provide the minimum prescribed level of calories to the schoolchildren (see chart).

Foodgrain, kitchen sheds, drinking water facilities were also not found in adequate number in most of the schools. The study revealed that the quality of foodgrain in 30 per cent schools was reported “good”, while 60 per cent reported unsatisfactory quality.

The facts came out during the study, “An evaluation for assessing the implementation and impact of the mid-day meal programme”.

P.C. Mishra, the director (primary education), said that the study was conducted by the Ranchi University department of economics under the supervision of then state human resource development department secretary R.S. Sharma.

The mid-day meal scheme was found irregular in 63 per cent of the schools but was regular in Latehar, Ranchi, Gumla, Lohardaga and Singhbhum districts. But gross irregularities were reported in Palamau, Sahebganj, Jamtara, Pakur, Dhanbad, Chatra, Godda, Garhwa and Deoghar districts.

Besides, the quality of mid-day meal was reported to be 21 per cent good, 72 per cent satisfactory and 7 per cent bad. Seventy-two per cent of students reported that the mid-day meal was adequate. Further, the utilisation of cooking cost in 10 districts was less than 50 per cent: Jamtara (36 per cent), Pakur (35), Ranchi (51), Simdega (34), Sahebganj (23), Dhanbad (41), Hazaribagh (32), Godda (40), West Singhbhum (38), Chatra (49). At the same time, in Latehar, Bokaro and East Singhbhum districts, the utilisation was shown as 100 per cent.

The study also revealed that in some districts, the utilisation of cooking costs does not match the utilisation of foodgrain. Foodgrain utilisation is higher than the cooking cost utilisation in districts like Jamtara (100 per cent), Sahebganj (65), Palamau (65) to name a few, indicating that cash flow to the schools was not regular, and might actually lead to interruptions in the feeding programme.

“We released funds in January to construct kitchen sheds which are under process. Infrastructure facilities are also provided,” Mishra said.