The mid-day meal programme was launched by the Government of India in 1995, feeding children of standard I-V across Government and Government aided schools in 2408 blocks in the country. Three years after this, the programme was extended to cover all the blocks in the country as well as target children studying in EGS and AIE centres. Today, India’s mid-day meal scheme is the world’s largest school feeding programme, catering to over 114 million children.

The mid-day meal programme has only been able to grow at this rapid pace due to the increased importance and budget allocations the Government of India has provided it with. Realising the need and potential of this programme, the Government has, over the years, devoted an increasing amount of the yearly budget toward expanding this undertaking.

The increased funding in the Union Budgetary Allocation toward the mid-day meal programme from the year 2007-08 to 2013-14, is a testimony to how crucial this agenda is to the long term vision of India.

The latest budget allocation by the Government of India toward the mid-day meal in Financial Year 2013-14 is Rs 13,215 crores, which is 32 per cent of the total elementary education budget for this year. According to the mid-day meal scheme norms, the Government of India contributes 75 per cent of the total costs while the states contribute 25 per cent. In the North-Eastern states of India, this division of costs becomes 90 percent by the Government, and 10 per cent by the states.

The total mid-day meal budget is divided according to different categories like cooking costs, honorarium to cooks-cum-helpers (CCH), food grains and the remaining to transportation and monitoring, management and evaluation (MME).

An evaluation of the mid-day meal budget segmentation for the year 2011-12 shows that 53 per cent of the total budget went toward cooking costs, 20 per cent as honorarium to cooks-cum-helpers (CCH), 14 per cent to food grains and the remaining was spent on MME.

In the next section we will discuss in detail the budgetary allocations across these categories of the mid-day meal scheme.

Over the years, the Internet has gained so much significance and popularity, that it has involved with different kinds of businesses, institutions, organisations and all kinds of networks. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one such entity to have benefitted massively from the internet. The organisation uses the internet for collation of information, communication, networking, information for collaboration and partnerships, fund raising and branding. Various channels like search engine optimisation, social bookmarking, social media marketing, e-mail marketing and blogging help in creating awareness and raising donations.

The internet lets the organisation place vast information on the global map like its history, operational structure and financial data. Besides, the Internet also lets the NGO share its case studies and success stories with the world. The not-for-profit organisation which provides free mid-day meals to 1.3 million children across India has benefitted immensely from social media networking.

The advantages of social media to NGOs are phenomenal. A single ‘like’ on the Akshaya Patra Facebook page or a single ‘re-tweet’ by a famed personality on Twitter, posted on the Akshaya Patra Twitter page, has the potential to create maximum impact. It’s a platform for this organisation to engage with existing donors, volunteers and fans. It further helps in generating funds, garner supporters and in brand recognition.

The internet also helps in maintaining records, carrying out statistical analysis due to the availability of vast information and maintaining transparency, above all. A website can carry all the information that a donor, beneficiary or an employee would seek.

The Akshaya Patra Facebook page has 51,261 likes which is a 100 per cent increment from the previous quarter. Renowned personalities like Helen Clark of United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), Rajdeep Sardesai of CNN-IBN, Sonu Nigam from the entertainment industry have been following Akshaya Patra on Twitter and have also re-tweeted posts shared by the organisation. The organisation’s YouTube channel has about 111, 115 viewers. The NGO is also present on Google Plus, Pinterest and LinkedIn.