PM-POSHAN Scheme Update

The PM-POSHAN scheme has undergone a 9.5% increase in material costs for providing midday meals to schoolchildren, leading to an additional cost of ₹954 crore for the Centre in the 2025-26 financial year.

Revised Costs

• For balvatika (anganwadi) and primary school students: 
  • Current cost: ₹6.19 per student per day.
  • Revised cost: ₹6.78 effective from May 1, 2025.
• For upper primary students: 
  • Current cost: ₹9.29 per student per day.
  • Revised cost: ₹10.17 effective from May 1, 2025.

State Contributions

States and Union Territories have the flexibility to contribute more than the mandatory rates to enhance the nutritional content of the meals.

Nutritional Requirements

• For balvatika and primary students: 
  • 20g of pulses
  • 50g of vegetables
  • 5g of oil
• For upper primary students: 
  • 30g of pulses
  • 75g of vegetables
  • 7.5g of oil

Inflation and Pricing

The Consumer Price Index – Rural Labourers (CPI-RL) influences pricing, compiled by the Labour Bureau, Chandigarh, based on data from 600 villages across 20 states.

Scheme Coverage

The scheme benefits 11.20 crore students in 10.36 lakh government and government-aided schools, providing one hot cooked meal daily to students in balvatikas and classes 1 to 8.

Additional Support

• The Centre provides about 26 lakh Metric Tonnes of food grains annually through the Food Corporation of India.
• 100% cost of food grains and transportation from FCI depots to schools is covered by the Centre, amounting to a subsidy of approximately ₹9,000 crore per annum.

Total Meal Cost

• For balvatika and primary classes: ₹12.13 per meal.
• For upper primary classes: ₹17.62 per meal.