UP using cellphones to monitor mid-day meal scheme

A unique UP system to monitor scheme through cloud telephony to be replicated across the country

For the past six months, around noon every day, a cellphone rings in 1.5 lakh government schools across Uttar Pradesh. On the other end of the line is a computer-generated voice asking if the mid-day meal in the school has been cooked or not, and how many children were served.

Now make that lakhs of schools, across the country. Supercaller, Uttar Pradesh’s innovative scheme to monitor the mid-day meal scheme, has caught the attention of the Union Human Resource Development Ministry, which has asked the National Informatics Centre to develop a software so that the system can be replicated in all the states.

The information gathered through the interactive voice response system by the computer is automatically recorded on the website of the UP Mid-day Meal Authority. If the meal has not been served in a school, officials can call up, find out the reason, and take corrective action.

If the HRD is impressed, so are other states. Andhra Pradesh has contacted Gurgaon-based Knowlarity Communications, which developed the system for UP, directly and asked them to redesign it according to their needs.

The Supercaller system is based on a technology called ‘cloud telephony’. “It has helped us track the meal each day, and eliminate problems,” says Santosh Rai, Additional Director of UP’s Mid-day Meal Authority.

Last month, a meeting of the national steering-cum-monitoring committee of mid-day meal, which functions under the HRD Ministry, approved the use of this technology across the country.

Says Gaya Prasad, Director of Mid-Day Meal in the Ministry of Human Resource Development: “This is the first time that anyone has used technology to monitor mid-day meal. Cloud telephony is a new technology and UP has successfully experimented with it to mid-day meals on a daily basis through an IVRS-based telephone call to teachers. Sometime ago, when UP gave its presentation at one of the meetings, it was not only appreciated but other states were asked to adopt it as well.”

Earlier, if the gram pradhans responsible for running the scheme stopped distribution of meals at their whim, or there were other problems in the supplies reaching a school, the administration would get to know weeks later, usually from newspaper reports.

The Centre allots 2% of the mid-day meal budget for monitoring, and Prasad said UP had been told they could take the scheme further with additional assistance from the Centre.

C H Pullaiah, the Andhra Additional Director of mid-day meal, who attended the Delhi meeting, says: “The UP project impressed us. We have contacted the same organisation to prepare a proposal for us. We plan to launch it in selected districts by the end of this month.”

Pallav Pandey, co-founder and chief operating officer of Knowlarity Communication Ltd, said Orissa, Uttarakhand and West Bengal had also shown interest. While the basic technology in different states would remain the same, Pandey said, changes will be in terms of the questions asked and the pattern in which data is recorded.

In the meantime, Uttar Pradesh is taking the process a step ahead, following complaints that there was no way to verify the quality of the meal and to rule out the possibility of correct data not reaching the headquarters because of complicity between the pradhan and the teacher who provides the feedback. The matter is being discussed with Knowlarity.

Anil Sant, Secretary to the UP Chief Minister, who is handling additional charge of Basic Education Department, said they had also asked the company to reduce the cost.

“We experimented with the technology for six months and have got appreciation from various quarters, including the Government of India. We will be taking it further, but we have asked the company to reduce cost; now each call costs Rs 1.50,” said Sant.

How it works

At the beginning of the phone call, the teacher is informed that the call is being made on behalf of the Mid-day Meal Authority. It asks the teacher to punch in the number of students who were served the meal that day. If the teacher punches in zero, he is given four reasons and told to punch in the appropriate number. The reasons are: 1. The cook was absent; 2. There was no raw material for cooking; 3. Transportation problems (in case of centralised cooking for a cluster of schools); and 4. Other reason. The responses are simultaneously recorded on the website of the Mid-day Meal Authority.