India's high food inflation leaves less in lunch boxes of poor school children

ODISHA, India — Nearly two years of elevated food inflation in India is leaving less in the lunch boxes of impoverished children, as government funded school meals suffer cutbacks because of rising prices of vegetables, fruits and pulses.

The three-decade-old programme, intended to draw poor children into school and provide them with basic nutrition, throws into sharp relief the inflationary impact of food on the nation's most needy and the widening inequality in the world's fastest growing major economy.

Reuters interviews with 21 school teachers across four states, a dozen families and researchers show schools have been forced to scrimp on key ingredients as the meal budget under the scheme has not increased for the last two years despite soaring food prices.

The programme covers an estimated 120 million children across a million government and government-aided schools up to class 8, data available on the scheme's website showed. Teachers and school administrators manage the quality of food provided.

"Budget for the mid-day meal scheme is not indexed to inflation regularly as it should be, compromising the quality of the meal," said Dipa Sinha, an independent development economist and researcher who works with the Right For Food campaign, an informal non-government network of organisations and individuals.

"While the government provides free grain for these meals, that does not compensate for a cut-back in other nutritious ingredients like vegetables, pulses, milk and eggs due to inadequate budgets," said Sinha.

A case in point is 8-year old Ranjit Nayak, who lives in Ghugudipada village, 150 kilometres from Bhubaneshwar, the capital city of the eastern Indian state of Odisha.

Ranjit's family of five survives on daily