Despite periods of high economic growth, children in India aged below 5 years are seriously undernourished, with around one-third of them stunted or underweight or both in 2019–21. In spite of the crisis of livelihoods and associated food and nutritional deprivation in the country, the general policy approach has been to reduce the involvement of the state in the provisioning of essentials and to shift it to the market or the family. This chapter discusses the role of the national mid-day meals programme in reducing child undernourishment in the context of the livelihoods crisis and wide socio-economic inequalities in India.

Although not explicitly intended to target children in disadvantaged social and economic groups, MDM disproportionately benefits such children with their relatively higher composition in eligible schools. The school meals programme, when functioning well, can therefore contribute to reducing the nutritional gaps between children in marginalised socio-economic groups and relatively advantaged children. Secure and remunerative employment for the cooks and helpers in the programme would recognise the importance of their essential work. However, the progressively lower real funds allocated to this programme hamper progress towards addressing food and nutritional deprivation associated with the livelihoods crisis and inadequate employment generation in India.