In a nutritious Dasara gift to government school students in Telangana, the state government is set to launch a free breakfast scheme on October 24. The scheme, called ‘Chief Minister’s Breakfast’ (Mukhyamantri Alpahara), will benefit over 23 lakh students in over 28,000 schools across the state.

The breakfast will be prepared at the school and served steaming hot to students before the morning prayer. The menu will include a variety of nutritious dishes, such as millet ‘rava khichdi’ with ‘sambar’, ‘rava pongal’ with ‘sambar’, and wheat ‘rava khichdi’ with ‘chutney’.

The scheme has been launched to address the nutritional status of schoolgoing children and alleviate the burden of working mothers. It is also expected to improve academic performance.

In addition to the free breakfast, the state government already provides free mid-day meals to government and local body school children. The meals include a variety of nutritious dishes, such as fine rice, dal, sambar, vegetable curry, legume vegetable curry, and special rice like vegetable biryani, ‘bagara’ rice, and ‘pulihora.

The government has also included eggs in the mid-day meal, which are provided to students thrice a week. The Central and State governments share the expenditure on the mid-day meal served to classes I to VIII students in 60:40 ratio. However, the State government alone bears the meal cost for classes IX and X students along with egg cost for classes I to X students.

The launch of the free breakfast scheme is a welcome move by the Telangana government. It will help to ensure that all schoolgoing children have access to nutritious food, which is essential for their physical and mental development.

Also Read…