Team Goemkarponn
Panaji: As the Centre moves towards a major revamp of the Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman (PM POSHAN) scheme, earlier known as the mid-day meal programme, the Goa government has proposed conducting social audits twice a year instead of the current annual exercise to improve transparency and monitoring.
The State has also recommended an increase in the honorarium paid to cook-cum-helpers, suggesting that the additional financial burden be met through the Management, Monitoring and Evaluation (MME) component of the scheme.
For the ongoing academic year, Goa has allocated ₹2.84 crore towards honorarium payments for 2,840 cook-cum-helpers engaged under the scheme. Of this amount, ₹1.704 crore will be borne by the Central government, while the remaining ₹1.136 crore will be contributed by the State.
The Union Ministry of Education recently wrote to all States seeking inputs and recommendations as part of its exercise to restructure the PM POSHAN scheme.
According to sources, Goa has specifically proposed biannual social audits to strengthen oversight. At present, the State conducts social audits in about 40 to 50 schools each year, covering a cross-section of institutions implementing the programme.
As per existing guidelines, social audits are required to be carried out in at least 20 schools or two per cent of the total number of schools in each district, whichever figure is higher. These audits must be conducted by independent agencies with prior experience in social audit processes.
Currently, 1,597 cook-cum-helpers are engaged at the primary level and 1,243 at the upper primary level in schools across the State.
The PM POSHAN scheme provides one hot cooked meal on every working day to students enrolled in Government and Government-aided schools. During the current academic year, the programme covers approximately 1.58 lakh students in 1,224 schools, including 2,562 Bal Vatika students, 89,584 primary students and 64,801 upper primary students. The scheme is implemented over 238 working days in the academic year.
The Union Ministry has indicated that it will shortly initiate the process of extending and restructuring the PM POSHAN scheme for its next phase under the Expenditure Finance Commission to ensure uninterrupted implementation in the years ahead.
