Food provided under noon meal scheme fulfils daily calorie needs: Experts

The food provided to students under Nutritious Meal Programme in the state, meets the daily nutritional requirement of the children and is in accordance with the directives of the central government, said experts.

Under the scheme, rice, dal, vegetables, potatoes and either eggs or bananas are provided to the students with an aim to provide the required nutrition for them. This is the amount of nutrition a child should get in order to stay healthy.

According to the government, a child in the primary stage from age 6 to 9 years, requires 450 calories per day and a child in the upper primary stage, from 10 to 15 years, requires 700 calories per day.

According to the officials of the Social Welfare Department, the food supplied fulfils the daily calories required for the children. Speaking to DT Next, Manivasan, Principal Secretary of the Social Welfare Department, said that the calorie requirement per day for children of various age groups is clearly mentioned in the Food Security Act and they are providing the food according to the norms mentioned in the Act.

Though the menu of the meal differs from day to day, the stipulated amount of calorie is supplied through various dishes such as black chana(sundal) and greens.

The Nutritious Meal Programme has been operational in the state since 1982, and the government has been running it seamlessly since its inception, said Manivasan.

Meenakshi Bajaj, a nutritionist at a government hospital in Chennai, said that the nutrition requirement is fixed by the National Institute of Nutrition at Hyderabad and according to them the children in the age group of four to six and seven to nine require 1,350 and 1,700 calories per day, respectively.

When the total requirement is converted into a single meal the meal supplied by the state government meets the requirement. For adolescent children the daily requirement is around 2,200 calories for boys and 2,000 calories for girls. The meal supplied by the government to the students of upper primary stage also satisfies the norms fixed by the National Institute of Nutrition, said Meenakshi Bajaj.