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The Impact of School Lunches on Primary School Enrollment: Evidence from India's Midday Meal Scheme

Author

Listed:
  • Rajshri Jayaraman
  • Dora Simroth

Abstract

At the end of 2001, the Indian Supreme Court issued a directive ordering states to institute school lunches – known locally as “midday meals” – in government primary schools. This paper provides a large-scale assessment of the enrollment effects of India’s midday meal scheme, which offers warm lunches, free of cost, to 120 million primary school children across India and is the largest school feeding program in the world. To isolate the causal effect of the policy, we make use of staggered implementation across Indian states in government but not private schools. Using a panel data set of almost 500,000 schools observed annually from 2002 to 2004, we find that midday meals result in substantial increases in primary school enrollment, driven by early primary school responses to the program. Our results are robust to a wide range of specification tests.

Suggested Citation

  • Rajshri Jayaraman & Dora Simroth, 2011. "The Impact of School Lunches on Primary School Enrollment: Evidence from India's Midday Meal Scheme," CESifo Working Paper Series 3679, CESifo.
    • Handle: RePEc:ces:ceswps:_3679
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    Cited by:

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    2. Matthieu BOUSSICHAS & Vincent NOSSEK, 2014. "État des lieux statistique des Objectifs du Développement Durable (ODD) dans les PMA et les autres pays vulnérables," Working Papers P114, FERDI.
    3. Singal, Nidhi, 2016. "Schooling children with disabilities: Parental perceptions and experiences," International Journal of Educational Development, Elsevier, vol. 50(C), pages 33-40.
    4. Shivani Gharge & Sayeed Unisa, 2024. "Dropout and Retention Among School Children in the Context of the Mid-Day Meal Programme in India," Margin: The Journal of Applied Economic Research, National Council of Applied Economic Research, vol. 18(3-4), pages 282-309, November.
    5. Saswati Das, 2016. "Inequality in Educational Opportunity in India: Evidence and Consequence of Social Exclusion," Child Indicators Research, Springer;The International Society of Child Indicators (ISCI), vol. 9(1), pages 51-71, March.
    6. Danilo Cavapozzi & Enrico Fornasiero & Teresa Randazzo, 2024. "The Effects of the Indian Mid-Day Meal Scheme on Cognitive and Health Outcomes of Children in Andhra Pradesh," Working Papers 2024: 14, Department of Economics, University of Venice "Ca' Foscari".
    7. Asim,Salman & Chase,Robert S. & Dar,Amit & Schmillen,Achim Daniel, 2015. "Improving education outcomes in South Asia : findings from a decade of impact evaluations," Policy Research Working Paper Series 7362, The World Bank.
    8. Abhijeet Singh & Albert Park & Stefan Dercon, 2014. "School Meals as a Safety Net: An Evaluation of the Midday Meal Scheme in India," Economic Development and Cultural Change, University of Chicago Press, vol. 62(2), pages 275-306.

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    JEL classification:

    • I20 - Health, Education, and Welfare - - Education - - - General

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