Day: June 18, 2021

Race: today’s generation!

As I’m going to start this blog I would love to say everyone is perfect in their own personality, in their own perspective, in their own decisions. So it’s been a long time I had passed my school and now persuing my passion (not a course) ‘my passion’ so let me tell what is the main topic I’m talking about but firstly I’ll tell you a story which is real, so I was studying in 10th and one of my closest friend I can’t revel his name but his intrest was in painting and then he was confused that ‘bro what should I take as a stream in 11th’ so I told him what you love or in which you have your interest, but he said my father is telling me to take PCM (science, math) and he wants to take humanity but he was confused because his dad said if you’ll took humanity then there’s no future! And his dad told him take science-maths and then you cout prepare for IIT and he took science-math and just because he want to become a engineer and want to earn money! And he wasn’t happy as he wasn’t able to paint because of his studies and he wasn’t that good in studies so he was trying very hard but I said why I mean if you love to paint and you wanted to take humanity as your stream then did you took science and math just for the sake of money and even you don’t have intrest in science maths then why and he said because of my father. And this is my experience ladies and gentlemen he took science and maths he studied very hard and gave the exam for jee and he failed because he wasn’t having that intrest in PCM. And on the other hand he haven’t painted for more than a year and when he gave his exam and came back home he took his brush and painted and I’ll that art was one of the best of my friend as he hasn’t painted for a while which is more than a year but,

As i said ‘IF YOU HAVE INTREST IN A PARTICULAR FIELD, YOU’LL DEFINITELY WIN’ but if you don’t have intrest in that particular field you’ll definitely lose doesn’t matter who much you work upon it ‘HAVING INTREST IS THE TOP FACTOR’

For example, if you don’t love to cook and your mom said son just cook tonight’s dinner and you know how to cook but you hate it than Tonight’s dinner would be for the dustbin. I’m damn sure! I don’t love to paint and if you’ll say please make my sketch. Then I don’t know what I’ll make but after making that Sketch you’ll disown me I know.

But why you guys just want yurselves to put yur souls, your hard-work, your precious time and obviously money, in those things where you don’t have any Intrest in. My today’s generation just want to become a engineer, doctor, or a IAS.

Okay so, let’s take an assumption, if my friend was passed in that jee exam and he was selected in a college and becomes an engineer and was doing his job properly but what do you think he used to be happy and prosperous okay if you was at his place were you used to feel good and happy. Guys invest yourselves in those materials where you’re good at and where you’ll love your thing. Its not about that we should not listen to our parents but sometimes we should listen to ourselves too.

Rapes- deathbed for women

We live in a society where it is believed to worship Goddess or you may also say Women, as it is said that, women are like a Goddess. But as we look into today’s situation we can observe that in a society where women are believed to be Goddess are exploited, insulted, raped, discriminated against, and sexually harassed. Is this a manner in which we are worshiping a Women/Goddess? It is actually very disturbing and unacceptable. The rape cases in India are increasing at a very high rate. In 2018, 101,151 rape cases were recorded. Now here comes understanding what rape is, Rape is a type of sexual assault usually involving sexual intercourse or other forms of sexual penetration without the person’s consent.

Now the question arises, what is the major cause of Rapes in India?

Wearing short dresses which means, inviting people to take such huge steps as rape, and harassment, late-night parties, or coming late from work alone at night or even in the daytime are the major reason for Rapes in India according to the thinking of some people.

But the major reason behind this is the thinking of the people. It is just a matter of thinking and mentality of the people or the way people approach or look towards women.
It makes me disturb whenever I hear about a girl or a female suffering from this again, whether it be Dr. Priyanka Reddy Nirbhaya or any girl going through this. Now I would like to ask this question to the ones who said that Rape takes place when a girl wears short dresses, so why would a newborn baby girl or an old woman to be raped? Like seriously, the answer to this question from people’s point of view is that they were wearing appealing clothes! What is meant by this? It is how people think and their mentality.

This society is becoming a Rapist Society day-by-day with the rape culture.

There is a need to have a strong and effective law and system to eliminate this. Although the Government is taking certain measures to stop rapes, it is not enough to eliminate them. What we need is more strong, firm, and effective steps to eliminate it, and it will be a big challenge for everyone in society because it’s not that easy to stop. Eventually, it will take time. And if we didn’t start now, then it will be too late. Till then more Dr. Priyanka Reddy and Nirbhaya will be killed.

What punishment do rapists get here in India? The punishment for rape is given in section 376 of the Indian Penal Code. Except in cases provided under subsection 2 of the same section, the punishment will be rigorous imprisonment which is not less than 7 years, which may be extended to life imprisonment and fine.

A man guilty of rape in the United Kingdom is liable on conviction to life imprisonment or for a shorter term. It is a statutory offense in England and Wales, created by section 1 of the Sexual Offenses Act 2003.

Capital punishment of rape is a legal penalty in the United Arab Emirates. Under Emirati law, multiple crimes carry the death penalty, and executions are carried through either a firing squad, hanging, or stoning.

For women, rapes are like facing death. After the rape, most of the girls are killed or burned, but if left alive by any chance then she has to live with what happened to her is more difficult than death. There should be more powerful laws, and systems to stop rapes, as well as strict punishments for the culprit.

Google Word Power- Unleash Your Inner Shashi Tharoor

Want crack IELTS, CAT or any other competitive exam, or just want to improve your language skills, Google word search does all that and much more. It is not just an app, it is a gate to learning new words, expanding your vocabulary and making your vocabulary more Sashi Tharooresque and all this in a fun and engaging way.

It encourages you to explore new words in an engaging way. Perhaps it is the new Word Power Made Easy. The quiz format is especially engaging and breaks the monotony one associates with learning new words. It makes something that many feel laborious a fun experience. The interface is minimalist and user friendly which one can access through browser or via downloading the app.

Widen your mental horizon by leaning new words. Enter into a meditative state where you learn enlarge your vocabulary. Don’t be scared if you were ever left gasping for words in a conversation or an interview your Messiah is here and it is called Google Word Power. Going through Google Word Power is just like working out but in this case, you are working out with your brain. And with each passing day you learn something new.

Written by- Daniel Ayush Mehra

ON SOCIAL RESEARCH

The Nature of Social Research 

Research means a reliable systematic approach that is approved by a community of social researchers, to extend our knowledge of the outside world. It aims to create new ideas and understandings.The fact that social research involves people at both ends is what differentiates it from other kinds of research. The research object is a person(single person or a group or society) in social research, and there is an interaction between the person and the object. A proper research design(explaining the research problem) has to consider this fact carefully to be accurate. The one advantage of this fact is the researcher’s prior insight of the research object. This type of research is used in various disciplines such as psychology, sociology, history, politics, accountancy, nursing, medicine, and subjects involving people. Design is the key to systematic approach, and it has to start with a research question. Strategy and method has to be decided based on the research question. 

Research Strategy

According to Catherine Hakim, design deals with aims and plans within practical constraints such as time, money and staff availability. It is also about style(different styles that researchers prefer and each produces a different result. Two philosophies of research are positivist approach and interpretive approach. Positivist approach relies on scientific evidence and tries to emulate or copy the methods of natural sciences. It uses experiments and survey. It is scientific, hypothetico-deductive(deducing consequences from policies that can be tested), quantitative, and extensive. Interpretive approach is concerned more about language and meanings, and interpreting the world by studying humans as social animals. It does not treat beings independently rather studies human experiences and contexts. It is ethnographic, explanatory, hermeneutic(works by humans that can be interpreted), qualitative, and intensive. It uses case study, participant observation, and interviews. In real world, the research is either positivist or interpretive. However, one can collect a mixture of both data. 

Types of Research Strategies

Survey: It is collection of information in standardized form from groups of people. Here, a sample of population is studied to determine its characteristics. Then, it is inferred from the study that the population has similar characteristics. One can either select samples from known population or survey everyone on a smaller scale. Data from each individual is collected through a questionnaire or structured interview(same for all). The practice of distributing questionnaires in person or web questionairres are common methods, and however, the usage of questionairres is not compulsory. Examples include studying diet habits of teenagers, taste preference surveys etc.

Case Study: It involves complete observation of a social unit. It is usually an in depth study about a single complex object, or of a small number of related objects. It emphasizes on individual events. Robert Yin suggests that a wide range of research is best understood as case studies. It sometimes involves direct participation and study documents to relate an event to a broader issue or aspect, or social context. Examples include case study of E commerce business in India, case study investigating the process of planning and implementing a service in Primary Care Organisations etc.

Experiment: Alteration of one variable can lead to different results, and new relationships. Experimentation measures the effect of manipulating one variable on another. It is done to test hypotheses and discover new relationships. It involves selection of representative samples from known population(rare). Then, it is allocated randomly to different conditions. The next step involves introducing planned changes(manpulation of a variable like trying it with different age groups or people in different conditions), and its effect on the population is measured. Examples include employee skill evaluation, evaluating teaching methods etc.

IMPACT OF COVID-19 ON SOCIETY

Covid-19 , the world wide issue , has affected all the sections of the society.The pandemic has put negative impact on the study and education . It has largely affected our mental healths , physiological thinking , memory and social behaviour . It also has ruined both our mental and physical health . People have become emotionally weak , each and every age group is badly affected from pandemic , people are suffering from stress and undergoing depression . This epidemic has changed the state of mind . Human has started fearing of each other , this is observed first time in the universe where there is human phobia as this virus carrier is human itself . Covid -19 has made our life really challenging . Studies are transformed from classroom learning to visual teaching . Exams , vivas , projects , presentations are held online . The students have really stopped studying , they have adopt different ways of copying and getting good scores from online exams . After the survey , it was found that there was downfall in power self learning , intellectual thinking and memorising concept in students . It’s a really serious implication to be mentioned as students are the future of the country and the way they are preparing , the future of our country is really in danger .Further scientific studies revealed that instead of focusing on learning and self development , the screen time of students is increased , children are more found on social medias rather in playgrounds , the social behaviour of the children has really changed, they are irritated, frustrated and are depressed throughout the day .Initially it was found that the online mode of education is really relaxing for students but now it’s a curse for students to sit for 6-7 hours and in front of screen and study that totally lacks enjoyment , music , dancing , art and craft and other cultural activities held in school premises . It’s really very hard to listen and concentrate on screen and this method has made the students lazier . Ultimately it has lead to increased level of stress , anxiety and depression in youngsters .Education is the primary agenda that’s affected, there are many secondary things too that are badly affected due to outbreak of covid -19.There is downfall in our economy, people are suffering from unemployment , many have lost their jobs . The vacancies in both private and government sectors has dropped , people have started doing work from home as per observing the condition of work in market . Covid has badly affected the lives of children , adults and old age people . There is drop in tourism and social interaction , people started to live in their house itself as due to fear of virus .Today the world is in really tough times , everyone wants that the things get normalize and live their lives to the fullest again . Although pharmaceutical companies and doctors are working day to night to deal with mental stress , healthy management is manufacturing immunity booster every new day , government is too working hard and working on new health policies to eliminate the negative impacts due to covid -19 . So , it’s our role too to stay calm and control our minds and boost our health and have faith on government , so that we can escape through virus as we all believe is that HEALTH is WEALTH .

How Educational Psychology Help Children’s Learning?

Educational Psychology

Educational Psychology includes the investigation of how individuals master, including showing strategies, educational cycles, and individual contrasts in learning. The objective is to see how individuals learn and hold new data.

Educational Psychology draws from different fields like neuroscience and frequently includes government sanctioned testing to acquire data about youngsters’ mastering abilities.

This part of brain research includes not simply the learning cycle of youth and pre-adulthood yet incorporates the social, enthusiastic, and psychological cycles that are associated with learning all through the whole life.

Child Development

As your child grows, they go through reformist formative stages, from birth into adulthood. Natural, hereditary, and social variables would all be able to influence a youngster’s turn of events, and how rapidly they progress starting with one phase then onto the next. It’s hard for kids to clarify what they’re going through, considerably less to examine their sentiments. That is the place where kid brain science can help give you exceptionally significant and important data.

Everybody needs their children to have sound turn of events, yet it’s anything but in every case clear if a kid’s conduct is a manifestation of an ordinary stage being developed or an indication of an anomaly. Kid therapists and child psychologist can assist you with understanding the distinction. Understanding the ordinary and unusual mental examples of a youngster can assist guardians with seeing how to best impart and interface with their kid, instruct their kid methods for dealing with stress for overseeing feelings, and help their kid advance and flourish in each new formative stage.

Educational Psychology and Child development

At the point when you notice brain research the vast majority consider advising a treatment for intense subject matters, like uneasiness or sorrow… And keeping in mind that all clinicians have preparing here, our group has explicit postgraduate preparing in Educational and Developmental Psychology, which is a part of brain science zeroed in on learning and improvement.

Is educational psychology a hypothetical and applied branches at one of the parts of general brain research , which is characterized as the examination and comprehension of the standards of conduct of people in various instructive circumstances, where he is keen on investigations mental hypothesis and how to transform them right into it and commonsense strides in the instructive field bunch, ie the utilization of the laws and standards of brain science in the instructive angles, adjusted to the instructive climate wherein they identify with the viable childhood of positive and powerful, to raise the degree of capacities and capabilities, abilities and characters of the understudy bunch engaged with the cycle Altali Yeh.

Importance of educational psychology

  • The educational psychology profits by the encounters of analysts and their encounters in the field of schooling and training, to foster special hypotheses of learning and techniques, and to introduce the fundamental standards and laws for the use of these speculations.
  • So Educational Psychologists work with children to discover HOW they learn and measure data and search for approaches to improve their exhibition. What’s more, it’s difficult knowledge that influence learning results.
  • Intense subject matters, perspectives, inspiration, self-guideline, conduct and confidence all add to learning.
  • Educational clinicians acquire significant data by attempted individual appraisals with youngsters to decide what their hidden psychological cycles are meaning for their degrees of educational accomplishments.
  • It is imperative to comprehend the kid’s instructive history and whether the current concerns have been creating over the long haul. The foundation data is typically given by guardians finishing a poll, and preferably, from a survey finished by the youngster’s educator.
  • These appraisals may likewise uncover certain trouble spots like memory or passionate variables that influence learning, like uneasiness.
  • Educational Psychology offers systems and strategies that will assist the educator with understanding the understudy’s brain research and brain science through the advancement of instructive educational plans in the light of the understudies’ capacities and aptitudes so as not to over-burden them and to investigate the mental issues confronting the understudy at various age levels.

Conclusion

Alongside all the over, an educator should know about their conduct around youngsters and should be a good example for them. Kids gain so much from perception; they likewise will in general do it unwittingly. In this way now and again, it’s anything but important to really instruct the youngster but instead show them by doing it without anyone else’s help. This article concludes the importance of Educational Psychology on Children’s learning.

Should we test our Professors?

Few years ago, the human resources development ministry made an announcement that professors would be required to have a PhD degree before applying for lecturer ship from the year 2021. But are research skills equivalent to teaching skills. Is the quest to discover something new be compared to the passion to impart knowledge.In India, teachers are given at most respect but the profession itself is seemingly losing its charm. Teaching is a profession that teaches all other professions influencing generations. Naturally this huge responsibility should only be taken up by the passionate ones.

However the craze and lucrativeness of a government job has crippled the recruitment process. The herd mentality of finding a comfortable and a secured job results in unnecessary competition in the field of teaching. The eligibility to become a college professor is an entrance exam. The UGC NET exam is conducted at both National and state levels. After the candidate has qualified this exam they can apply for lecturer ship in a university of their choice. But can a mere exam judge the capability of researchers and teachers together?  In the golden age of coaching institutes ready to share their perfect strategy to crack the test. Candidates do not mind preparing for the second or third major entrance exams of their lives. 

The only outcome of these entrance tests is the pernicious coaching culture. While the real and bright students are on their way to MIT and Harvard on merit-based scholarships. Such a system undervalues the importance of skill. It fails to recognize teaching as an art. 

A very astonishing fact is that in higher education there is no need for B.Ed. or a similar course for teachers. B.Ed. is compulsory for school teachers in the country but are college students any less students. Training makes certain that professors are equipped with various teaching methods and are capable of handling students from different backgrounds. While it can be argued that a course can’t ensure a good teacher but lack of training does ensure substandard teaching. The quality of teaching depends directly on the quality of teachers. 

Thus, it is impossible to not draw a connection between the state of teaching and the state of research in our country. 

To improve the state of education it is important to take a step-by-step approach. One of the first steps is to build a strong foundation. An Important cue from the corporate world would be to set a common vision and unified purpose. To enable this a short course or training could be introduced for budding professors. Seminars and workshops by experienced educators for a few years in the start of their careers can steer them towards common good. 

It is a known fact that professors after a few years in the profession tend to become complacent. They fail to keep themselves updated with regards to their field of study or experiment with different teaching methods. 

Therefore, the next step should be to establish the culture of consistency. One way of doing this is to introduce a robust appraisal system. This would ensure competent teachers to reap the benefits of their fruitful performance and it also helps them remain motivated.

The third step would be to ensure accountability to students. Students are the consumers of the knowledge and the work done by teachers. What better evaluators than a student itself. A good anonymous feedback system will encourage students to give suggestions to their own teachers with regards to how they teach. Bais is a natural outcome of a feedback system but positive criticism can be filtered out to improve a teacher’s performance and to ultimately benefit the students. 

This sacred profession’s lost beauty can be restored if we start now. Teaching is an art driven by passion to inspire. Because inspiration and role model are what a young mind needs.

How a grassroots organization in India got a six-sigma certification

Prince Charles once wanted to meet the Mumbai dabbawalas,so he did–on a footpath.
The dabbawalas are a tiffin delivery service.They collect homemade food from houses and deliver it to the offices at lunchtime.But here’s a catch,they do not use any kind of fuel or modern technology.An organisation where average literacy standards of workers is grade 8 and probably only 15 % might have attended senior secondary school,the story of mumbai dabbawalas started more than 130 years ago.

Mumbai,then known as Bombay, took shape in the 19th century. During the latter half of this century, Bombay was a centre of cotton trade especially during the American Civil War and that created a pool of wealth among Indians. Much of this money was channelled into rebuilding the core of this city.
An increasing number of migrants had started to move to Bombay from different parts of the country. They belonged to different communities, and had different tastes that could only be satisfied by their own home-cooked meals. So, in 1890, Mahadeo Havaji Bachche started a lunch delivery service in Bombay with about a hundred men,and The dabbawalas were born.Unlike most other companies in the same field , dabbawalas have a very straight forward mission–To provide healthy homemade food to people.

Everyone in the organisation earns the same salary regardless of his job role i.e. approximately INR 12,000 per month.Currently, a minimum of 5,000 dabbawalas are involved in the business.Most of the dabbawalas come from the Varkari community of Maharashtra. They worship lord vitthal and therefore find their jobs of feeding people very spiritually fulfilling. They live simple lives,most of them reside in the slums of mumbai.

The Dabbawala got Six Sigma Certified, which means, error ratio is 1 in 16 million i.e. 1 mistake in 1,60,00,000 tiffin. In 1998, Forbes Global magazine conducted a quality assurance study on operation of dabbawala and gave a six sigma efficiency rating of 99.999999.

Here is how they operate:
The food dabbas that they carry have a shelf life of 4 -5 hours. The total delivery time is 6 hours – 3 hours from house to office and 3 hours from office to house.Each box shifts hands in transit 6 times and same in return as an empty tiffin. On a daily basis one worker covers a distance of 60 – 70 km. Since most of the dabbawalas are not educated,they use a simple code system.The dabbas are first collected from the homes of the costumes mostly on bicycles.The dabbawala then takes them to a sorting place, where he and other collecting dabbawalas sort the lunch boxes into groups. The gathered boxes are put within the coaches of trains, with markings to recognize the destination of the box . The markings incorporate the railroad station to empty the boxes and the destination building delivery address. At each station, boxes are given over to a neighborhood dabbawala, who delivers them. The purge boxes are collected after lunch or the another day and sent back to the individual houses. Speed and accuracy taking care of the boxes, timely conveyance to the correct proprietor makes a difference them keep up their benefit quality

The dabbawalas even deliver in the pouring rain or during political strikes.They have become the symbol of discipline in mumbai.However the pandemic has proved damaging for them. With no one needing their services anymore ,the dabbawalas have returned to their village.

I hope to see the annadaatas of mumbai again soon, laughing and chattering by the footpath before getting into a hurried segregation and loading of tiffins onto the bicycles.

About the mid day meal scheme

The Mid Day Meal is the world’s largest school feeding programme reaching out to about 12 crore children in over 12.65 lakh schools/EGS centres across the country.
Mid Day Meal in schools has had a long history in India. In 1925, a Mid Day Meal Programme was introduced for disadvantaged children in Madras Municipal Corporation. By the mid 1980s three States viz. Gujarat, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and the UT of Pondicherry had universalized a cooked Mid Day Meal Programme with their own resources for children studying at the primary stage. By 1990-91 the number of States implementing the mid day meal programme with their own resources on a universal or a large scale had increased to twelve states.

  1. With a view to enhancing enrollment, retention and attendance and simultaneously improving nutritional levels among children, the National Programme of Nutritional Support to Primary Education (NP-NSPE) was launched as a Centrally Sponsored Scheme on 15th August 1995, initially in 2408 blocks in the country. By the year 1997-98 the NP-NSPE was introduced in all blocks of the country. It was further extended in 2002 to cover not only children in classes I -V of Government, Government aided and local body schools, but also children studying in EGS and AIE centres. Central Assistance under the scheme consisted of free supply of food grains @ 100 grams per child per school day, and subsidy for transportation of food grains up to a maximum of Rs 50 per quintal.
  2. In September 2004 the scheme was revised to provide cooked mid day meal with 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein to all children studying in classes I – V in Government and aided schools and EGS/ AIE centres. In addition to free supply of food grains, the revised scheme provided Central Assistance for (a) Cooking cost @ Re 1 per child per school day, (b) Transport subsidy was raised from the earlier maximum of Rs 50 per quintal to Rs. 100 per quintal for special category states, and Rs 75 per quintal for other states, (c) Management, monitoring and evaluation costs @ 2% of the cost of foodgrains, transport subsidy and cooking assistance, (d) Provision of mid day meal during summer vacation in drought affected areas.
  3. In July 2006 the scheme was further revised to provide assistance for cooking cost at the rate of (a) Rs 1.80 per child/school day for States in the North Eastern Region, provided the NER States contribute Rs 0.20 per child/school day, and (b) Rs 1.50 per child/ school day for other States and UTs, provided that these States and UTs contribute Rs 0.50 per child/school day.
  4. In October 2007, the scheme has been further revised to cover children in upper primary (classes VI to VIII) initially in 3479 Educationally Backwards Blocks (EBBs). Around 1.7 crore upper primary children were included by this expansion of the scheme. From 2008-09 i.e w.e.f 1st April, 2008, the programme covers all children studying in Government, Local Body and Government-aided primary and upper primary schools and the EGS/AIE centres including Madarsa and Maqtabs supported under SSA of all areas across the country. The calorific value of a mid-day meal at upper primary stage has been fixed at a minimum of 700 calories and 20 grams of protein by providing 150 grams of food grains (rice/wheat) per child/school day.
    5.During the year 2009 the following changes have been made to improve the implementation of the scheme:-
    a) Food norms have been revised to ensure balanced and nutritious diet to children of upper primary group by increasing the quantity of pulses from 25 to 30 grams, vegetables from 65 to 75 grams and by decreasing the quantity of oil and fat from 10 grams to 7.5 grams.
    b) Cooking cost (excluding the labour and administrative charges) has been revised from Rs.1.68 to to Rs. 2.50 for primary and from Rs. 2.20 to Rs. 3.75 for upper primary children from 1.12.2009 to facilitate serving meal to eligible children in prescribed quantity and of good quality .The cooking cost for primary is Rs. 2.69 per child per day and Rs. 4.03 for upper primary children from 1.4.2010.The cooking cost will be revised by 7.5% from 1.4.2011.
    c) The honorarium for cooks and helpers was paid from the labour and other administrative charges of Rs.0.40 per child per day provided under the cooking cost. In many cases the honorarium was so little that it became very difficult to engage manpower for cooking the meal. A Separate component for Payment of honorarium @ Rs.1000 per month per cook- cum-helper was introduced from 1.12.2009.Honorarium at the above prescribed rate is being paid to cook-cum-helper. Following norms for engagement of cook-cum-helper have been made:
    (i) One cook- cum-helper for schools up to 25 students. (ii) Two cooks-cum-helpers for schools with 26 to 100 students . (iii) One additional cook-cum-helper for every addition of upto 100 students. More than 26 lakhs cook-cum-helper at present are engaged by the State/UTs during 2010-11 for preparation and serving of Mid Day Meal to Children in Elementary Classes.
    d) A common unit cost of construction of kitchen shed @ Rs.60,000 for the whole country was impractical and also inadequate .Now the cost of construction of kitchen-cum-store will be determined on the basis of plinth area norm and State Schedule of Rates. The Department of School Education and Literacy vide letter No.1-1/2009-Desk(MDM) dated 31.12.2009 had prescribed 20 sq.mt. plinth area for schools having upto 100 children. For every additional upto 100 children additional 4 sq.mt plinth area will be added. States/UTs have the flexibility to modify the Slab of 100 children depending upon the local condition.
    e) Due to difficult geographical terrain of the Special category States the transportation cost @ Rs.1.25 per quintal was not adequate to meet the actual cost of transportation of foodgrains from the FCI godowns to schools in these States. On the request of the North Eastern States the transportation assistance in the 11 Special Category States (Northern Eastern States, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir and Uttarakhand) have been made at par with the Public Distribution System (PDS) rates prevalent in these States with effect from 1.12.2009.
    f) The existing system of payment of cost of foodgrains to FCI from the Government of India is prone to delays and risk. Decentralization of payment of cost of foodgrains to the FCI at the district level from 1.4.2010 will allow officers at State and National levels to focus on detailed monitoring of the Scheme.
    8.41 cr Primary children and 3.36 cr Upper Primary children i.e a total of 11.77 cr children were estimated to be benefited from MDM Scheme during 2009-10. 11.04 Crore children were covered under MDM Scheme during 2009-10.
    During 2010-11 11.36 Cr children i.e 7.97 Cr. children in primary and 3.39 Cr. children in upper primary are expected to be covered in 12.63 lakhs institutions .
    Today, Mid day Meal scheme is serving primary and upper primary school children in entire country.