Impact of Mid-Day Meal Program on Cognitive Ability of School Going Children: with Reference to Kabirdham District of Chhattisgarh

The relation between nutritional status and cogniti on is a long established fact. The midday meal scheme is a step towards improving the nut ritional status of children in India. Hence to find out the impact of mid-day meal progra m on cognitive ability of school going girls between age ranges of 6-11 years, the p resent study was planned. The study was conducted on 80 school-going girls from Kabirdham District of Chhattisgarh, receiving the benefits of mid-day meal program. Onl y those subjects with haemoglobin level below 10 mg/dl were selected for the study. T o measure cognitive development of subjects Draw a Man test was used. The pre-post re search design was employed to find out the efficacy of mid-day meal program on cogniti ve development of selected subjects after a period of 1 year's study period. The pre-po st statistics shows that after receiving the benefits of mid-day meal program for 1 year, th e cognitive ability of the selected subjects showed significant improvement. Similarly significant improvement was also observed in haemoglobin levels of selected subjects . Hence, the present study again highlights the role of nutritional health in cognit ive development of school children.