Mid day meal supplement diet provides following nutrients?

RUHS, Jaipur, M.Sc Nursing Entrance Exam-2015

Community Health Nursing

Easy

Appeared in: RUHS, Jaipur, M.Sc Nursing Entrance Exam-2015

Explanation

The Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS), now PM-POSHAN, was established to combat malnutrition and improve the overall health of schoolchildren.
The initial guidelines, as revised in 2004, specified that for primary school children (Classes I-V), each meal must provide a minimum of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein.
This nutritional support is designed to supplement the child's home diet, providing approximately one-third of the daily energy requirement and half of the daily protein need.
This specific combination of 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein is a standard benchmark for the program's initial phase.

Option A: The calorie and protein values are too low. The scheme's minimum standard for energy was 300 calories, not 200.
Option B: The calorie value of 200 is incorrect. The scheme was designed to provide a more substantial energy supplement of at least 300 calories.
Option D: The protein range of 14-16 grams is too high for the initial guidelines for primary school children. While later revisions for upper primary students increased protein, this specific range is not a standard for primary classes.

Clinical Relevance

Nursing practice connection: This is primarily an exam-oriented knowledge point with limited direct bedside application, so retain Nutritional norms of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) / PM-POSHAN as background academic context rather than a clinical decision trigger.
Community health nurses are integral to monitoring school health programs like PM-POSHAN. They assess the nutritional status of children and ensure the program's objectives are being met.
Understanding these nutritional norms is crucial for identifying malnutrition, evaluating the program's impact, and providing health education to teachers, parents, and community members.
What if? If the question had asked for the nutritional norms for upper primary students (Classes VI-VIII), the correct answer would be 700 calories and 20 grams of protein, based on the 2007 revision of the scheme.

How to Approach the Question

First, identify the core subject of the question, which is a national health program in India (Community Health Nursing).
Recognize the keywords 'Mid day meal', which points directly to the specific scheme.
This is a factual recall question. You need to access your knowledge of the specific nutritional values (calories and protein) associated with this program.
Recall or deduce the initial, most commonly tested guidelines for primary school children.
Carefully compare the values in each option with the known standard: 300 calories and 8-12 grams of protein.
Select the option that perfectly matches these figures.

Concept Tested & Keywords

Concept Tested: Nutritional norms of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme (MDMS) / PM-POSHAN.
Stem keywords: Mid day meal, supplement diet, nutrients
Lead-in keywords: provides following

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E6 Parks TextBook of Preventive & Social Medicine part 2 — Subpart A (pp 1-232 of 464) p. 198-200