The material cost for providing midday meals to schoolchildren under the PM-POSHAN scheme has been enhanced by 9.5%, which will translate to an additional cost of ₹954 crore to be incurred by the Centre in the 2025-26 financial year, the Ministry of Education said in a statement on Thursday, April 10, 2025.
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The material cost for providing midday meals to schoolchildren under the PM-POSHAN scheme has been enhanced by 9.5%, which will translate to an additional cost of ₹954 crore to be incurred by the Centre in the 2025-26 financial year, the Ministry of Education said in a statement on Thursday (April 10, 2025).
While the existing material cost per student per day for balvatika (anganwadi) and primary school students is ₹6.19, the enhanced material cost with effect from May 1 will be ₹6.78. For upper primary students, the existing cost is ₹9.29, which has been enhanced to ₹10.17.
“The rates of material cost are the minimum mandatory rates, however, States/Union Territories are free to contribute more than their prescribed share, as some States/UTs have been contributing more than their minimum mandatory share from their own resources for providing meals with augmented nutrition under the PM POSHAN Scheme,” the Ministry of Education statement said.
As per prescribed nutritional support, balvatika and primary students need 20g of pulses, 50g of vegetables and 5g of oil, while upper primary students need 30g of pulses, 75g of vegetables and 7.5g of oil.
The Labour Bureau of the Ministry of Labour provides data on inflation for these items under the PM-POSHAN basket on the basis of Consumer Price Index – Rural Labourers (CPI-RL), the Ministry said. The CPI-RL is compiled by the Labour Bureau, Chandigarh, on the basis of monthly prices from the sample of 600 villages spread over 20 States of the country, the Ministry added.
PM-POSHAN is a Centrally sponsored scheme, under which one hot cooked meal is served to 11.20 crore students studying in balvatikas and Classes 1 to 8 in 10.36 lakh government and government-aided schools on all school days. The scheme aims at providing nutritional support and enhancing school participation of students.
In addition to the material cost, the Centre also provides about 26 lakh Metric Tonnes of food grains through the Food Corporation of India. The Centre bears 100% cost of food grains, including subsidy of approximately ₹9,000 crore per annum and 100% transportation cost of food grains from FCI depots to schools. The per meal cost after adding all components, including the cost of food grains under the scheme, comes to around ₹12.13 for balvatika and primary classes and ₹17.62 for upper primary classes, the Ministry added.
Published – April 10, 2025 10:31 pm IST