The recent expansion of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme has once again spotlighted the start of the mid-day meal scheme, which has a history of at least 100 years in the State. The expanded breakfast scheme will benefit an estimated 1.7 million students of Classes I to V at about 31,010 government schools. It will involve an expenditure of around ₹404 crore.
When Chief Minister M.K. Stalin launched the scheme at a Madurai Corporation primary school in September last year, it covered around 1.14 lakh students at 1,545 schools. Among these schools are 417 municipal corporation schools, 163 municipality schools and 728 taluk and village panchayat-level schools. A sum of ₹33.56 crore was set apart then. According to the materials in The Hindu Archives, on November 16, 1920, the first step was taken to provide tiffin to students of a school of the Madras Corporation (now the Greater Chennai Corporation) at Thousand Lights. It was then called an experimental measure.
