Revanth To Launch Meal For Inter Students on June 12

Hyderabad: Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy will officially launch the Breakfast Scheme and Lunches Scheme for intermediate students studying in government colleges in Telangana on June 12, a first-of-its-kind initiative in the country for college-level students.

On the first day, 41,250 students studying at 64 state colleges will take part in the program. The program will then be expanded to all first- and second-year intermediate students statewide by the end of June. Around 1.92 lakh students in 430 government colleges will benefit from this scheme. The state government is expected to spend around ₹180 crore annually for the implementation of the two schemes.

Until now, midday meal programs in India were largely limited to school students. No state in the country has ever implemented both breakfast and lunch for college students. With this decision, Telangana will become the first state in the country to provide both breakfast and lunch to intermediate students studying in government colleges.

Official sources said that under the breakfast programme, nutritious and freshly prepared food such as dosa, poori, millet idli, bonda, upma, chutney, sambar and mixed vegetable kurt will be served to the students. The government has designed a rotating weekly menu to ensure a balance of both taste and nutrition for students in the critical Intermediate stage of education.

The weekly breakfast menu will include dosa with chutney on the first day, millet idli with sambar on the second day, poori with mixed vegetable kurt on the third day, bonda with chutney on the fourth day, idli with chutney on the fifth day and upma with chutney or sambar on the sixth day. Students will also be given 150 ml of milk every other day.

The government said the initiative was taken after realizing the difficulties faced by Secondary School students, especially those from rural areas, tribal hamlets and economically weaker sections.

The programs are designed in accordance with recommendations from the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). Students in secondary colleges generally belong to the 15-18 age group, which is considered an important period of adolescence that requires adequate nutrition for physical and mental development. According to NIN recommendations, adolescents need approximately 1,029 kilocalories and 30 to 32 grams of protein per day. Based on these guidelines, the state government structured the breakfast and lunch menu to ensure adequate nutritional intake to students.