Mid day meal scheme and Universalisation of elementary education in India Dr. Rao K. P. Venugopala*, Ibrahim Farha** *Assistant Professor, Symbiosis Institute of Business Management, Hyderabad **Director, G D Securities Online published on 12 May, 2017. Abstract India provides free and compulsory elementary education to all children in the age group of 6 years to 14 years of the country. As per Article 21 and the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009, the Government is obliged to provide necessary infrastructure and ecosystem for completion of elementary education by all children in the country. Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) is one of the welfare schemes run by the government to encourage enrolments in the elementary sections in Government, Government aided, Local body schools recognized as well as unrecognized Madarsas/Maqtabs supported under Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), Education Guarantee Scheme (EGS) and Alternative & Innovative Education (AIE) centres across the country. An attempt is made to examine the enrolments in elementary schools (i.e. classes I-VIII) in India and the causality between the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) and the enrolments in the government schools for classes I to VIII for the period 2003–2015. Tools like Averages, Regression Analysis and Granger Causality Test are used to analyse the data. The analysis of the data reveals causality between the enrolments in the government elementary schools and the Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS). There is a decline in the enrolments in government schools and increase in the enrolments in private schools, pointing to the fact that though the Mid Day Meals have a significant role in the enrolments in the government elementary schools there are several factors other than the meal scheme that the parents consider during the enrolment of their child in a school. Top Keywords Mid Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), Granger Causality, Enrolment, Universalisation of Elementary Education, Elementary Schools. Top |