Newly appointed HRD Minister, Smriti Irani wants school to provide buttermilk to children as a part of the Mid-Day Meal scheme. Apart from including butter milk, Irani has proposed that separate model schools should be opened for outstanding boys and girls at the district level and Saturday should be declared as sports day in every school. The idea behind providing buttermilk is to cure rampant amoebiasis (intestinal illness) among children. She has directed the department of elementary education to calculate the cost of providing buttermilk to kids on a daily basis. 12 crore children across 12.64 lakh schools are benefitted via Mid-Day Meal (MDM) scheme. Kerala and Tamil Nadu are the two states providing milk to children under MDM. Several states give iron tablets to girls and additional health supplements.
