Syndicate : 1

1. Syndicate : 1 Legal , Administrative & Institutional Arrangement for MDMS Chair : BirajPatnaik

2. Legal Framework • MDMS should be legislated separately as an entitlement or the existing portion of the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) should be strengthened • Schedule for MDMS in the NFSB should clearly specify the following: • Calorie/ Protein norm • Use of fortified/ double fortified salt • Cost norms with inflation indexing built in

3. Legal Framework • Penal provisions for failure to provide entitlements • Time/ Distance norm for cooked food to travel to school (not more than 5kms and not more than an hour of travel time, whichever is less) to ensure that food does not go stale • The Act (in the main body) should also create an entitlement for all drought-hit districts to have meals served during vacations in accordance with SC orders

4. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • Separate directorate for MDMS • Structure at District/ Block and Village/ School level for monitoring of MDMS • Subsidiarity (what can be decided at one level should never be delegated upwards to a higher level) should be the basic institutional principle and decision making should be decentralized appropriately

5. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • Monitoring should be on quality and quantity parameters and at the three levels (District/ Block/ School). • For ensuring that adequate quantity of food is served, the size of the serving utensils should be standardised across schools in a given area. • For ensuring quality of food served the checks and the duration of the checks at different levels should be:

6. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • School level: Test for palatability by the SMC either weekly or more frequently, as appropriate • Block level: By a Block level monitoring structure led by a local Home Science College/ NGO/ Nutritionist. Laboratory testing for nutrient content (if feasible) every fornight/ month • District level: Bacteriological and nutrient content testing every month/ bi-monthly by a District level Committee.

7. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • Weekly menus should be decided at the District level or below. • Menus should be printed on the back of school text books/ notebooks to enable students to monitor themselves • Annual social audit process at the School level should be conducted at least once a year. • All information, including menus, monthly expenditure, number of students consuming meals, number of days that meals were served etc. should be put up on the website.

8. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • Weekly menus should be painted on the walls of the schools. • All the information pertaining to the , monthly expenditure, number of students consuming meals, number of days that meals were served etc. should also be prominently displayed in the school.

9. Administrative/ Institutional Framework • A comprehensive HRD policy should be developed for all staff associated with the MDMS (from Director to the Cook/ Helper) • Number of training days each year, should be fixed and regular trainings ensured for all staff cutting across levels • A dedicated cadre for MDMS must eventually be created for the MDMS. Superintendents for MDMS monitoring similar to the Maharashtra model should be considered.

10. Financial Framework • All payments for meals, suppliers etc. should be decentralized to the SMC and made by them • Cash should be directly transferred (electronically, wherever possible) to the SMC directly from the MHRD (Delhi)

11. Thank You…