Editing Midday Meal Scheme (section)

===Initiatives by the central government===
[[File:The President, Shri Pranab Mukherjee launched the Mid-Day Meal Scheme for Nursery & KG Classes of the Kalyan Kendra School at Kalyan Kendra of Rashtrapati Bhavan, in New Delhi on February 15, 2013.jpg|thumb|President [[Pranab Mukherjee]] launching mid-day meal scheme at a Central Government-run school]]
The government of India initiated the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) on 15 August 1995.<ref name=":5" /> The objective of the scheme is to help improve the effectiveness of primary education by improving the nutritional status of primary school children. Initially, the scheme was implemented in 2,408 blocks of the country to provide food to students in classes one through five of government, government-aided and local body run schools. By 1997–98, the scheme had been implemented across the country. Under this programme, a cooked midday meal with 300 calories and 12 grams of protein is provided to all children enrolled in classes one to five. In October 2007, the scheme included students in upper primary classes of six to eight in 3,479 educationally backward blocks,<ref>{{Cite journal|title = Mid-Day Meal for the Poor, Privatised Education for the Non-Poor|date = 27 July 2013|url = http://www.epw.in/special-articles/mid-day-meal-poor-privatised-education-non-poor.html|first1 = Manisha |last1=Garg |first2=Kalyan Sankar |last2=Mandal|journal = Economic and Political Weekly|access-date = 28 July 2013|volume = 48|issue = 30|page = 155}}</ref> and the name was changed from National Programme for Nutrition Support to Primary Education to National Programme of Mid Day Meals in Schools.<ref>{{cite web|url = http://mdm.nic.in/Files/Monitoring/NSCMC/Agenda_Note_for_NSMC_meeting_21_12_12.pdf|title = Agenda note of 5th meeting of National Steering and Moitoring Committee meeting|website = Mdm.nic.in|access-date = 26 July 2013|archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20160316013011/http://mdm.nic.in/Files/Monitoring/NSCMC/Agenda_Note_for_NSMC_meeting_21_12_12.pdf|archive-date = 16 March 2016|url-status = dead}}</ref> Though cooked food was to be provided, most states (apart from those already providing cooked food) chose to provide "dry rations" to students. "Dry rations" refers to the provision of uncooked 3&nbsp;kg of wheat or rice to children with 80% attendance.