| Appu GAPAK |
The State Education Department has time and again emphasized on how schools need to up its quality of mid-day meals (MDM) and has been conducting surprise visits to ensure that, just a slight probe into how the schools- which can be referred to as the actual implementing agency for the scheme- manage it gives a total different narrative.
For the Mid-Day Meal scheme, schools are provided with only rice grains on quarterly basis while the other requirements have to be borne by the school management which is then submitted to the concerned department as a convergence bill for clearance.
“We have to submit the bill as and when we get the order for the bill submission, which happens quarterly,” shared Dor Talo Camdir, MDM in-charge of Govt Upper Pry School (GUPS), Patila under Balijan circle of Papum Pare district.
And unlike the rice supply, clearance of the convergence bill is seldom done quarterly and sometimes remains pending for up to two to three years. They call it the main reason why the scheme has not been a stable one so far.
“There is no problem with the rice supply as we receive it every quarter. The problem lies with the clearance of the convergence bill,” Camdir said.
He said that the last payment for the convergence bill of his school was done for the remaining bills of the year 2019-20 on March 16 last. “Some clearance has been done for 2020-21 and now we have been asked to submit the bill for 57 days for the same year. Bills for the whole year of 2021-22 and 2022-23 are still pending,” he disclosed.
Camdir said that because of the untimely and irregular payment of the bills, few vendors have opted out from supplying items. “They don’t want to keep dragging by giving us on credit,” he said.
Raja Taku of GUPS, P-sector Itanagar said that the convergence cost of his school for the past one year hasn’t been released yet. “They don’t release funds on time and then they want us to continue serving MDM. How are we supposed to do that if we do not have the required funds?,” he quizzed.
He lamented that whenever they are asked to submit a bill, they always do it on time, but the clearance always takes time.
Tana Moni of GPS, Upper Hollongi says the same about her school’s condition. “The payment for September, October and November has been done but the previous months are delayed,” she revealed.
K Gangkak of GUPS, Police Colony, Itanagar, however sees it as a normal practice and says that the situation these days is much better than the earlier ones. “These days, bills are cleared within six months. Earlier it used to take years,” he said.
Lisa Boje of GUPS, Chimpu-1 informed that the convergence bill for 2021-22 and 2022-23 for his school is also not paid yet. He however assured that despite the fund crunch, his school tries to serve MDM on a daily basis.
To cope with the lack of funds and delay in clearance of the convergence bill, the schools here have resorted to serving MDM on alternate days, which they call ‘local adjustment’.
“The government pays Rs 4.97 per student for a mid-day meal. It is not possible to do it with that much amount. We do it with small adjustments. And since with that rate it is also not possible to feed MDMs every day, so we serve meals on alternate day basis,” explains Tana Moni.
Raja Taku says that his school has stopped serving eggs with the MDM. “We get only Rs 4.97 per child, how are we supposed to buy an egg with that amount when even an egg costs Rs 8 these days,” he pointed out, adding that the rates should be reviewed.
Another major reason for the feeble performance of this scheme can be said to be the meager payments that the cooks and helpers get. Cooks and helpers both are paid Rs 1000 as monthly honorarium, which again are not paid on a regular basis.
Deepika Kino Yeri, the lone cook for GPS, Upper Hollongi for the past six years, says she gets her payment every 2-3 months. “It would have been better if we could get our payment every month,” she states.
Chenehi Neog of GUPS, Police Colony echoes similar concerns. But unlike other cooks, she gets payment of Rs 3000 as monthly honorarium. “There are six cooks in our school, but currently only four are working and we make little adjustment with their monthly honorarium, otherwise they are not ready to work with the meager amount of only Rs 1000,” reasons K Gangkak, MDM in-charge of GUPS, Police Colony.
Gangkak says that the cook runs a small shop which makes her self-sustained, apart from the job in the school. “Others say they are better off working as daily wage labourers than working in the school. They say that way atleast they can make money on a regular basis and not have to wait for months to get their hard earned money,” he explained.
The monthly honorariums for the workers are not paid in absolute, Raja Taku reveals. “As the payment is done on 90 percent state and 10 percent on central share basis, so if the central share of 10 percent is not received by the time the payment is to be released, they only pay Rs 900. The remaining Rs 100 gets paid when the central share finally comes,” he said.
Gram Panchayat Member of Hollongi Nyishi under Balijan circle of Papum Pare district, Yeri Taha shared an incident when the MDM in-charge of GPS Upper Hollongi was transferred out of the school during 2018-19 for indulging in irregularities related to MDM scheme. “The rice supplied for MDM never used to reach the school,” he recalls.
While the schools continue to feed students despite delay in fund release, and the local public playing a vigilant role in seeing that these schemes are actually put into practice, it is now upto the government to do its part by not delaying the much needed fund which will only ensure that the scheme is a success in entirety.
(This report has been carried out under the guidance of South Asian Women in Media-India [SAWM-India].)