A model scheme from the land of social justice

Chennai: The expansion of the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme to schools all over the State on Friday is undoubtedly a model development scheme for the entire country to follow since it basically addresses the problem of hunger, about which even the United Nations is concerned about and has set 2030 as the target year for creating a world free of hunger.

Though Tamil Nadu ranks higher than most of the States in the country on various development indices, including hunger, Chief Minister M K Stalin latest attempt at eradicating malnutrition among school going children is a commendable measure for it would go  a long way in ensuring not only a healthy State but also an educated society.

For poverty breeds illiteracy as hungry children cannot concentrate on their studies in classrooms. So by providing breakfast to children studying in Classes one to five in government schools, the Chief Minister has minimized the possibility of students dropping out of school. Otherwise, unable to bear the pangs of hunger, children just drifted away from education.

Now that a sumptuous breakfast is assured if they go to school, the children from poor homes will not miss classes and in the process educate themselves and pave the way for a better future for them. That is why the inauguration of the scheme’s expansion by the Chief Minister at a panchayat union middle school at Thirukuvalai, the birthplace of M Karunanidhi, in Nagapattinam district assumes historic significance.

For, the scheme will soon be a subject for academic research with social scientists trying to figure out the exact benefits of serving free breakfast in all government primary schools. Hitherto, the problems related to malnutrition among children were least addressed in lower income homes.

That the Chief Minister learnt about children skipping breakfast and feeling tired and worn out even as they came to school through a personal interaction with students of a Corporation school during a visit had been a good augury for the future of the State’s younger generation.

Since no amount of persuasion or health education could lead to children having breakfast at home before starting for school due to a plethora of reasons, the government did the right thing by taking up the responsibility.

For, breakfast is not part of the meal schedule in many impoverished families. One of the many reasons is that the children leave home early before the first meal is prepared. Other reasons include the mothers leaving home at the crack of dawn for work and having no time to provide breakfast for the family at that early hour.

Finally, the daily budget of most families has provisions for just two meals a day – an older day poverty index classified people having two square meals a day as those above the poverty line – or even less. So the best possible way to save the children from growing up malnourished is to serve them breakfast at school.