For K. Devi, a mother of three, immense relief came from unexpected quarters a couple of weeks ago. Her children go to the Government Primary School at Kondathe, a tiny, largely tribal, hamlet in the Jawadhu Hills of Tiruvannamalai district. The news that the school would give her children not only lunch but also breakfast came as a pleasant surprise to Ms. Devi. It took a whole load off her rushed mornings, when she and her husband, both farmworkers, leave home early. That the school would take care of her children and spare her the trouble of giving the children something to eat, no doubt, brought her much joy. “Earlier, we sent our children to school because at least they can have a good lunch there. Now, they get breakfast, too. We are happy,” she says.
P. Palani, headmaster of the school which her children attend, is also a relieved man. “Earlier the children, particularly the 13 children in the primary sections, would complain that they were hungry or cry out of hunger or just doze off during class. Now, no one complains! In fact, they are coming to school early so that they would be in time for the breakfast,” he says.
For both Ms. Devi and Mr. Palani, the satisfaction stems from the free breakfast scheme, which was introduced by the Tamil Nadu government in 2022 at select schools and which has been extended about a year later to all primary schools in the State. Tamil Nadu is the first State to launch a free breakfast scheme for students of government primary schools, a massive public venture. In the first phase, the government inaugurated the Chief Minister’s Breakfast Scheme at 1,545 primary schools run by the government, covering 1.14 lakh children of Classes I-V. On August 15 this year, the scheme was extended to all primary schools to benefit about 17 lakh students at 31,008 schools. The budgetary allocation is ₹500-odd crore every year.
