Mid-Day Meal not served? File one RTI

Parents in a UP village noticed their children coming home hungry: no mid-day meal for 6 weeks. The headmaster blamed a “grain delay,” the block office blamed the school, and nobody would put anything in writing. One parent filed a single RTI to the Block Education Officer asking for the daily meal register, the grain delivery challans and the cook honorarium record. Fifteen days later the BEO replied - and grain was issued to the school the same day. Meals resumed; the cooks' pending honorarium followed. Nothing about the law had changed. What changed is that the missing meals were about to become a dated, signed government record.

This page is the school-level guide: what your child is legally owed per day, in calories and in rupees, and how a parent or SMC member makes the school–block chain account for it. For the district-and-state supply-chain angle (DEO, State MDM Cell, FSSAI licences of centralised kitchens), see the companion guide Mid-Day Meal not served? RTI to fix it.

PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) is the renamed Mid-Day Meal Scheme: one free hot cooked meal every school day for about 11.80 crore children in 11.20 lakh government and government-aided schools, from Bal Vatika (pre-primary) to Class 8, run by the Department of School Education and Literacy, Ministry of Education.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approved the scheme on 29 September 2021 for 2021-22 to 2025-26, with ₹54,061.73 crore from the Centre and ₹31,733.17 crore from states, plus about ₹45,000 crore borne by the Centre for foodgrains - a total of ₹1,30,794.90 crore. The same approval extended meals to Bal Vatika children, encouraged Tithi Bhojan (community-sponsored special meals), promoted School Nutrition Gardens (already in over 3 lakh schools), and made social audit of the scheme mandatory in every district - a record you can demand under RTI.

Three layers of law stand behind your child's plate. Cite them and your RTI stops being a request and becomes an audit.

1. Supreme Court, PUCL v. Union of India, Writ Petition (Civil) 196 of 2001. By its interim order of 28 November 2001, the Court directed state governments to provide cooked mid-day meals in all government and government-assisted primary schools. The right to food flows from the right to life under Article 21.
2. National Food Security Act, 2013 - Section 5. Every child aged 6–14 (up to Class 8) in government and government-aided schools is statutorily entitled to one free mid-day meal every school day. Schedule II fixes the nutrition floor (table below).
3. Mid-Day Meal Rules, 2015 (notified 30 September 2015 under the NFSA). These rules give parents the sharpest tools:
   • Rule 3: every eligible child who attends school shall be provided the meal free of charge, every day except holidays.
   • Rule 7: the School Management Committee (the SMC mandated under the RTE Act, 2009) shall monitor implementation, the quality of meals, cleanliness of the cooking place and hygiene.
   • Rule 8: meals shall be evaluated and certified by an accredited government food laboratory, with samples taken at least once a month.
   • Rule 9: if the meal is not provided on any school day - no grain, no cooking cost, no fuel, cook absent, any reason - the state government must pay every affected child a food security allowance (the child's foodgrain entitlement plus the prevailing cooking cost) by the 15th of the following month.
   • Rule 9(3): if the meal is not served for 3 consecutive school days, or 5 days in a month, the state must fix responsibility on the person or agency at fault.

Nutrition per child per school day (NFSA Schedule II / PM POSHAN norms):

Money per child per school day - the “material cost” (pulses, vegetables, oil, condiments and fuel; foodgrains come separately, free, 100% Centre-funded through FCI):

These central rates are shared 60:40 between Centre and states (90:10 for North-Eastern and Himalayan states; 100% central for UTs without legislature), and many states add top-ups - eggs, fruit, milk - under their own orders. Cook-cum-helpers are paid an honorarium against a central norm of ₹1,000 per month, which several states supplement. Rates are revised against the Labour Bureau's inflation index, so confirm the figure in force on pmposhan.education.gov.in before quoting it.

The menu itself (which day is dal, which day khichdi, whether egg or banana appears) is fixed by your state's MDM/PM POSHAN directorate. That is why “menu prescribed versus menu actually served” is one of your RTI questions - the school is measured against its own state's chart, not a vague standard.

For school-level failures, the effective public authority is the education department's block office:

1. Block Education Officer (BEO) / Block MDM office - holds (or can call for) the school's daily meal register, grain receipt challans, cooking-cost releases and cook honorarium records. Address your RTI to “The Public Information Officer, Office of the Block Education Officer, [block]”. A government school is part of this public authority; the headmaster is usually not a separate PIO.
2. District Education Officer / District MDM cell - the appellate and consolidation level; the companion guide covers the DEO and State MDM Cell route in detail.
3. Government-aided private schools are also answerable: they are substantially financed public authorities under Section 2(h) - see when a private aided school must answer RTI.

If you are an SMC member, say so in the application. Rule 7 makes meal monitoring your duty, so records enabling that monitoring are plainly disclosable. Even otherwise, Section 4(1)(b)(xii) of the RTI Act requires proactive disclosure of subsidy-programme beneficiaries and expenditure - the Central Information Commission has applied exactly this to mid-day meal records (Mid-day Meal scheme records - CIC).

Step 1 - Collect three identifiers: the school's name and UDISE+ code (on the school signboard or udiseplus.gov.in), the period of missed or substandard meals, and your child's class. You do not need to name your child - RTI needs no reason (Section 6(2)).

Step 2 - Ask these seven questions (copy from the template below):

1. Daily MDM/PM POSHAN register of the school for [period]: children present, children served, menu served each day.
2. Menu prescribed by the state for each weekday versus the menu actually served.
3. Foodgrain allocation, receipt and utilisation for the school for [period], with delivery challan dates.
4. Material-cost (cooking cost) funds released to the school or cooking agency for [period], date-wise, with utilisation.
5. Names of cook-cum-helpers engaged and the months for which honorarium was paid or is pending.
6. For each day the meal was not served: the reason recorded, and whether the food security allowance under Rule 9, Mid-Day Meal Rules 2015 was paid to each affected child by the 15th of the succeeding month.
7. The most recent Rule 8 laboratory test report of the meal, and the dates and minutes of the last SMC meal-monitoring review and the last social audit covering the school.

Step 3 - File and pay Rs 10. Hand it in at the BEO office against a stamped receipt, or send by registered post, or use your state's online RTI portal. BPL applicants pay nothing (Section 7(5)). Use the AI RTI drafter to generate the application, and see how to file an RTI in India if this is your first.

Step 4 - Wait 30 days, not longer. Reply is due in 30 days (Section 7(1)); if it is late, the information becomes free (Section 7(6)). Track dates with the timeline calculator.

1. Day 31, no reply → First Appeal under Section 19(1) to the First Appellate Authority (usually the DEO/District MDM officer), within 30 days, no fee. Draft it with the First Appeal builder.
2. FAA silent or evasive → Second Appeal under Section 19(3) to your State Information Commission within 90 days, or a Section 18 complaint if the PIO refused to accept the application.
3. In parallel, work the scheme's own accountability: demand an SMC meeting (Rule 7), ask the district collector's office when the mandatory social audit last covered your block, and - if meals stopped for 3+ consecutive days - cite Rule 9(3) and ask, in writing, whose responsibility has been fixed.

1. Filing at the school headmaster. In most states the HM is not a PIO. File at the BEO; Section 6(3) covers records held elsewhere.
2. Asking about “quality” in the abstract. “Why is the food bad?” gets an opinion. Ask for the Rule 8 lab report, the state menu chart and the quantity norms - then compare.
3. Forgetting the money trail. Grain challans and date-wise cooking-cost releases show whether inputs reached the school at all.
4. Skipping the food security allowance question. It converts every missed meal into a specific unpaid statutory due with a deadline - the strongest lever in the Rules.
5. Ignoring the SMC. A lone parent is easy to stall; an SMC member citing Rule 7 is the scheme's own monitoring machinery.
6. Vague periods. Give exact dates, or the register you receive will conveniently cover a different month.

To: The Public Information Officer
Office of the Block Education Officer, [Block], [District], [State]

Subject: Application under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005 -
PM POSHAN (mid-day meal) records of [school name], UDISE+ [code].

Sir/Madam,

Under Section 6(1) of the RTI Act, 2005, please provide, for the
period [DD-MM-YYYY] to [DD-MM-YYYY]:

1. Certified copy of the daily mid-day meal register of the above
   school: children present, children served and menu served, for
   each school day.
2. The weekly menu prescribed by the State for this school, and
   the menu actually served on each day.
3. Foodgrain allocation, receipt and utilisation for the school,
   with dates of each delivery challan.
4. Material cost (cooking cost) funds released to the school or
   cooking agency, date-wise, and their utilisation.
5. Names of cook-cum-helpers engaged, and the months for which
   honorarium has been paid or remains pending.
6. For each school day on which the meal was not served: the
   reason recorded, and whether the food security allowance under
   Rule 9 of the Mid-Day Meal Rules, 2015 was paid to each
   affected child by the 15th of the succeeding month; if not,
   the reason.
7. Copy of the most recent laboratory evaluation of the meal
   under Rule 8 of the said Rules, and the record of the last
   School Management Committee review and last social audit
   covering this school.

If any of the above is held by another public authority, kindly
transfer under Section 6(3). Fee of Rs 10 enclosed by IPO
no. [number] / paid online. [I am a member of the School
Management Committee of this school. / BPL card copy enclosed -
fee exemption under Section 7(5).]

Date: [..]   Place: [..]
[Name, signature, address]

Yes. Rule 9 obliges the state to pay each affected child a food security allowance - the foodgrain entitlement plus the prevailing cooking cost - by the 15th of the following month, whatever the reason for the stoppage. Ask in your RTI whether it was paid; an unpaid allowance is a concrete statutory default to carry into appeal.

Rule 9(3) requires the state to fix responsibility on the person or agency at fault whenever the meal is not provided for 3 consecutive school days or at least 5 days in a month. Ask for the responsibility-fixing order for your school's stoppage. If none exists, that absence is itself the finding.

As of 2026: ₹6.78 per child per day for Bal Vatika and primary, ₹10.17 for upper primary (central material-cost norms in force from 1 May 2025), plus free foodgrains - 100 g and 150 g respectively - through FCI at full central cost. States may add eggs, fruit or milk from their own budgets. Check pmposhan.education.gov.in for the current circular before quoting.

Not under the central scheme - the central norms fix calories, protein and quantities, while menus and extras like eggs, bananas or milk are set by each state, and several states fund them as top-ups. That is why your RTI asks for “menu prescribed by the State versus menu actually served”: the school is accountable to its own state's chart.

PM POSHAN covers Bal Vatika (pre-primary) and Classes 1–8 in government and government-aided schools - the extension to Bal Vatika came with the September 2021 Cabinet approval. Classes 9–12 are outside the central scheme; a few states run their own school-meal schemes for higher classes, so check your state's orders.

It strengthens you. Rule 7 makes the School Management Committee the statutory monitor of meal quality, cooking-place cleanliness and hygiene. Say so in your RTI, demand the register and lab reports as monitoring records, and insist the SMC's meal review is recorded in its minutes. See also the teacher attendance RTI, which SMCs use the same way.

Yes. Aided schools are substantially financed by the government and fall within Section 2(h) of the RTI Act - and they serve PM POSHAN meals under the same rules. Details and case law: private aided schools as public authorities.

Then the records you need - FSSAI licence, hygiene audits, the state grain pipeline - sit at the district and state level. Use the companion guide Mid-Day Meal not served? RTI to fix it, which targets the DEO and the State MDM Cell.

1. Mid-Day Meal not served? RTI to the DEO and State MDM Cell
2. Mid-day Meal scheme records are proactively disclosable - CIC
3. RTI for government schools
4. Anganwadi services missing? File one RTI
5. RTE school admission RTI
6. RTI template for schools and colleges
7. RTI for beginners
8. The RTI Playbook

1. National Food Security Act, 2013 (Section 5 and Schedule II): [indiacode.nic.in](https://www.indiacode.nic.in/handle/123456789/2113)
2. Mid-Day Meal Rules, 2015 - notification, PIB, 30 September 2015: [pib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/newsite/PrintRelease.aspx?relid=128354); full text: [wbxpress.com](https://wbxpress.com/mid-day-meal-rules-2015/)
3. CCEA approval of PM POSHAN, PIB, 29 September 2021 (outlay, coverage, Bal Vatika, Tithi Bhojan, nutrition gardens, mandatory social audit): [pib.gov.in](https://www.pib.gov.in/PressReleasePage.aspx?PRID=1759255)
4. PM POSHAN material cost revision w.e.f. 1 May 2025 (₹6.78 / ₹10.17, 9.5% enhancement), Ministry of Education circular on the PM POSHAN portal: [pmposhan.education.gov.in](https://pmposhan.education.gov.in/)
5. PUCL v. Union of India, W.P. (C) 196 of 2001, interim order dated 28 November 2001: [escr-net.org case record](https://www.escr-net.org/caselaw/2006/peoples-union-civil-liberties-v-union-india-ors-supreme-court-india-civil-original/)
6. Right to Information Act, 2005 - online filing: [rtionline.gov.in](https://rtionline.gov.in)

Last reviewed: 10 July 2026.