CM Himanta Expands PM POSHAN for 28.97 Lakh Assam Children
Synopsis
Assam CM Himanta Biswa Sarma says PM POSHAN is reaching 28.97 lakh children in the state and announces three nutritional additions — Nutrition Gardens, Ragi Health Drinks, and two extra eggs per week — to strengthen the central school-meal programme.
Key Takeaways
28.97 lakh children in Assam are currently covered under the central PM POSHAN school-meal scheme.
The state is adding Nutrition Gardens, Ragi Health Drinks , and two extra eggs per week per child to the existing programme.
PM POSHAN was launched as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in 1995 and rebranded in September 2021 with a focus on millets and kitchen gardens.
Assam's additions mirror a broader northeastern state trend of augmenting the central framework with locally sourced nutrition since 2021.
Ragi, rich in iron and calcium, is locally grown across the northeast, making the health drink both nutritionally targeted and supply-chain practical.
No child should have to choose between a meal and a textbook — and for nearly 29 lakh schoolchildren in Assam, that choice is being actively erased. Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma announced on Tuesday, August 11, 2026, that the state is deepening its implementation of the central PM POSHAN school-meal scheme with a set of targeted nutritional additions designed to go beyond the standard hot meal.
What Assam is adding to the national meal scheme
The baseline is already significant: PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) currently reaches 28.97 lakh children across Assam's government and government-aided schools. But the state is layering three specific enhancements on top — Nutrition Gardens attached to schools, Ragi Health Drinks as a protein-and-mineral supplement, and two additional eggs every week per child. Each addition targets a distinct nutritional gap: gardens for micronutrients and fresh produce, ragi for iron and calcium, eggs for protein.
PM POSHAN's journey from midday meals to millet push
The programme's roots go back to 1995, when the national Mid-Day Meal Scheme was launched to tackle both hunger and school dropout rates simultaneously. It was extended to upper-primary classes in 2002, and then rebranded and restructured as PM POSHAN in September 2021 — with an explicit new mandate to integrate millets, kitchen gardens, and locally sourced nutrition. Assam's ragi drink fits squarely within that 2021 vision.
A northeastern pattern taking shape
Assam is not acting in isolation. Since the 2021 scheme revision, several northeastern states have augmented the central framework with eggs, millets, and school gardens — driven in part by persistent under-nutrition indicators flagged in successive National Family Health Survey (NFHS) rounds. The region's geography makes local sourcing both a logistical challenge and an opportunity: ragi and other millets grow natively across the northeast, making the ragi drink both nutritionally sound and supply-chain practical.
The political signal is equally deliberate. Sarma, who convenes the North-East Democratic Alliance (NEDA) and has positioned Assam as a model BJP-governed state in the region, is framing school nutrition as a governance deliverable — not just a welfare line item. The next test will be whether the state education department's rollout data, and the upcoming Assam assembly session's supplementary budget, back the ambition with matching funds.
Eggs and ragi drinks may sound modest. But for a child who arrives at school on an empty stomach, they are the difference between a day spent learning and a day spent hungry.
Point of View
Ragi drinks, and extra eggs onto the PM POSHAN baseline reflects a wider post-2021 strategy among BJP-governed northeastern states to convert a central welfare entitlement into a visible state-level governance achievement. By naming specific, tangible additions rather than announcing budget figures, Sarma keeps the communication grounded in outcomes rather than outlays — a deliberate contrast to the older style of scheme-launch politics. The ragi push also signals alignment with the Centre's millet-promotion agenda, doubling a nutrition intervention as a local agriculture stimulus. Whether rollout data from the state education department will validate the scale of these additions will determine whether this becomes a replicable model or a headline without infrastructure.
NationPress
11 Aug 2026
Frequently Asked Questions
What is PM POSHAN and how does it work in Assam?
PM POSHAN (Pradhan Mantri Poshan Shakti Nirman) is the central government's school-meal programme that provides hot cooked meals to children in government and government-aided schools. In Assam, it currently covers 28.97 lakh children , and the state government is supplementing it with Nutrition Gardens, Ragi Health Drinks, and two additional eggs per week.
What are the new additions to the midday meal scheme in Assam?
Assam is adding three nutritional enhancements to PM POSHAN: Nutrition Gardens at schools for fresh produce and micronutrients, Ragi Health Drinks for iron and calcium, and two extra eggs every week per child for protein.
Why is ragi being used in Assam's school nutrition programme?
Ragi (finger millet) is rich in iron and calcium and is grown natively across northeast India, making it both a nutritionally targeted supplement and a locally sourced, practical ingredient for school health drinks.
How many children does the midday meal scheme cover in Assam?
According to Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma's announcement on August 11, 2026 , PM POSHAN is reaching 28.97 lakh children across Assam.
When was the PM POSHAN scheme launched and what changed in 2021?
The scheme originated as the Mid-Day Meal Scheme in 1995 and was extended to upper-primary classes in 2002 . It was renamed and restructured as PM POSHAN in September 2021 , with an enhanced focus on millets, kitchen gardens, and locally sourced nutrition.
