HRD to states: include milk products in midday meals

The Human Resource Development (HRD) Ministry has asked the states to consider including milk and milk products in the midday meal menu of their schools so that these items could be procured from the cooperative milk unions or federation.

The ministry has asked the state governments to take steps in this regard following “an urgent request” from the department of animal husbandry, dairying and fisheries (ADF) under the Union agriculture ministry.

“The Indian dairy sector is presently experiencing an unprecedented crisis in the disposal of surplus milk production and thereby ensuring regular payments to the farmers,” ADF secretary Tarun Shridhar has said in an official communication to the HRD ministry.

Higher growth in milk production coupled with low export opportunity has resulted in piling up of “huge stock” of skimmed milk powder and white butter, he said.

“This coupled with the constraints of increasing domestic sale in a short period of time has aggravated the distress faced by the farmers,” he also said, urging the HRD ministry to “urgently” issue necessary direction to all states and Union Territories for inclusion of milk and milk products in the school midday meal programme.

The inclusion of milk and milk products in the midday meal programme of the HRD ministry will go a long way not only in paying “regular and remunerative” prices to the 17 million cooperative farmers but also to address the nutritional requirement of “millions of children” who face malnutrition, Shridhar added.

The ADF had taken up the issue with the school education department of the HRD ministry in December last year.

It also took up the issue with the chief secretaries of the state on December 15, 2017, requesting them to consider supplying milk and milk products through their school network under midday meal scheme of the Centre.

Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Haryana, Puducherry and Gujarat have confirmed that they are supplying milk through school network, an ADF official said.

“But, some of the states with a higher quantity of surplus stocks of milk powder like Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Punjab are yet to make a decision in this regard,” he added.