Tamil Nadu Timeline

WelfareMGR era

Nutritious Noon Meal Scheme launched

· Chennai

Nutritious Noon Meal Scheme launched
Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, GODL-India · Wikimedia Commons

MGR's government expanded the school midday meal into a universal Nutritious Noon Meal Scheme for children across Tamil Nadu.

From 1 July 1982 the Tamil Nadu government under M. G. Ramachandran launched the Chief Minister's Nutritious Noon Meal Programme. It extended free cooked meals, introduced on a smaller scale under K. Kamaraj in the 1950s, to all children in government and aided primary schools, and later to more age groups. The scheme aimed to improve nutrition and school enrolment and attendance, especially among poor families. It employed large numbers of women as cooks and helpers and became a model for India's national midday meal programme.

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  4. 1989

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  5. 1992

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