The Government of India recently increased the Mid-Day Meal budget for school children. As per the 2025–26 budget, the per-child allocation now stands at ₹6.78 for primary students and ₹10.17 for upper primary students. The announcement, wrapped in the usual fanfare of welfare triumph, claims to address malnutrition and inflation together — as if both could be solved with two coins and a prayer.
Let’s pause for a second and break this down.
In the remotest parts of India — where the Mid-Day Meal scheme is often the only guaranteed meal in a child’s day — one egg costs ₹6. That’s it. ₹6 for the cheapest, most accessible form of protein. So, if a primary school child’s entire daily meal is budgeted at ₹6.78, that means the government expects schools to serve one egg and a full meal — maybe rice, some dal, a bit of vegetable — all within 78 paise.
That’s not budgeting. That’s mythology.
And speaking of mythology — in today’s India, every debate seems to circle back to Shri Ram. Be it temples, textbooks, elections, or now, it seems, even tiffin boxes.
So the question must be asked:
Will Shri Ram provide the rest of the nutrition?
Because the budget certainly won’t.
When governments invest more in building statues than they do in feeding children, when symbolism trumps substance, and when religion becomes a dietary supplement, we’re not just misplacing our priorities — we’re actively starving our future.
Malnutrition cannot be fought with bhajans. Hunger doesn’t get full listening to speeches from Ayodhya. And a child cannot concentrate on algebra when their stomach is growling louder than the morning bell.
Feeding children is not charity. It is not culture. It is not even politics.
It is duty.
And when a nation fails in that, no amount of temple-building can redeem its soul.