Kolkata: Midday meals - a surefire way of ensuring attendance in West Bengal's state-run schools - are taking a hit due to the escalating prices of rice and vegetables. The money given by the central and state governments for it is proving grossly inadequate.

"The price spiral is making it increasingly difficult for the self-help groups engaged in cooking midday meals in our school to maintain the quality and quantity," Niren Das, headmaster of the Rajgram High School, Coochbehar district, told IANS on phone.

The midday meal is considered an effective tool for luring students from poor families to school and making the Sarva Shikhsha Abhiyan a success in villages and remote districts of India.

In West Bengal, nearly 74 lakh (7.4 million) students up to Class 5 and 35 lakh (3.5 million) students from Classes 6 to 8 have been covered under the midday meal programme.

"Midday meals have been one of the main reasons for the increase in the number of students in village primary schools. That's because most of the students come from poor families and their parents are unable to arrange two square meals a day," said Ashok Maity, general secretary of the West Bengal Headmasters' Association.

But the rising prices of essentials have made things difficult. "Earlier vegetable curry used to find its place in the menu, but due to the price increase we had to cut out vegetable curry," said Das.

West Bengal's midday meal project director, N.N. Burman, said according to midday meal norms, 100 gram rice and Rs.2.88 is allotted for each student up to Class 5. And 150 gram rice and Rs.3.81 is allotted for each student of Classes 6 to 8.

"There has been a rise in the number of students after midday meals started in school. But most of the students complain that the amount of rice given to them is not sufficient," said Das.

"There is shortage of manpower too. Only two people are engaged in cooking and serving nearly 1,000 students and that too in 25 minutes," said Das.

Burman said the government was trying to ensure that the standard of the meals was not affected by the price rise.

"Price rise is a problem. Last month when the prices of essentials spiralled, we tried our best to ensure that the quantity and quality don't suffer. But in the last few weeks as the prices of essentials have gone down a bit, the situation has improved a little. But still, the price rise remains an issue of concern," Burman said.

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