Social protection in the absence of mid-day meal scheme : a study among school children in Bengaluru

Abstract

The Mid Day Meal Scheme is the largest school-feeding programme in the world, which had to be temporarily suspended as a result of the closure of educational institutions brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. With the suspension of this social protection measure, schoolchildren had to resort to other alternative measures in order to fill the lacuna. The research aims at three objectives—to understand how social protection received by schoolchildren is affected in absence of the scheme, to ascertain the adequacy of alternative social protection measures adopted in lieu of the scheme, and to determine whether there is scope to make the scheme more resilient to shocks such as the pandemic.

In order to answer these questions, the study utilised primary and secondary data to understand the response taken by three concerned actors-government, schoolchildren, and non-governmental organisations. Concepts from the Social Risk Management Framework (Holzmann and Jorgensen 2001) have been adopted as a theoretical lens to understand the implication of responses.

The research hopes to contribute to a better understanding of how social protection for schoolchildren can be bolstered in the absence of the Mid Day Meal Scheme as well as suggest how the scheme may be made strengthened against catastrophic events in the future.

Keywords: social protection, mid day meal scheme, social risk management, alternative social protection measures