The intention is to empower mothers of the children covered under the programme to supervise the preparation and serving of the meal and to exercise an effective vigil.
Mothers are encouraged to take turns to oversee the feeding of the children, thus ensuring quality and regularity of the meal. For this, they need to devote only a couple of hours once or twice in a month.
This simple intervention of ‘mothers watch’, gives them a voice and a role and greater ownership of the programme.
Reports from Chattisgarh’s Baster district indicate that the involvement of mothers “MITANIN” has not only led to a significant improvement in cooking and hygiene but also a change in attitude on the part of the teachers with the decline in absenteeism.
More and more States /UTs are including mothers in supervision committee as well. In Himachal Pradesh, mothers have been involved for supervision and duty rosters are being maintained. Similar rosters have been introduced in Madhya Pradesh. In Uttrakhand mothers are appointed as Bhojan Mata and Sahayika in all primary school.
The State governments are expected to roll out a mass mobilization campaign to involve mothers.
Effective mobilization would include :