# 92% of Karnataka students take midday meals, state ranks joint sixth 2026-08-17T16:12:15+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 1 independent outlet Karnataka has achieved a 92% uptake of midday meals among enrolled students, placing it joint sixth with Odisha, Sikkim, Haryana and Arunachal Pradesh, according to a report by Azim Premji University. The national average is 76.2%. Goa leads with 97%, followed by Meghalaya (96%) and Nagaland (95%). Bihar has the lowest uptake at 60%. The report, titled Realising right: A handbook of welfare in India, points to gaps between enrolment, approved coverage, and actual meal availing. Former ISEC faculty member AS Seetharamu cited reasons such as dropouts, late enrolments, and separate attendance registers for class and meals. Karnataka spends above the per-meal cost of Rs 5.37, adding Rs 6.26 per child per day for milk under Ksheera Bhagya Yojana and Rs 6 for eggs or bananas six days a week. Only 10.5% of Karnataka's schools use centralised kitchens, far behind Delhi (100%) and Goa (99%). The report also noted innovative additions in some states: Karnataka provides ragi malt with milk and jaggery, while Uttar Pradesh gives seasonal fruit and Rajasthan offers milk. ## Coverage - timesofindia.indiatimes.com This story was synthesised by AI from the source linked above. Tags: Azim Premji University, Karnataka, midday meal scheme Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/92-of-karnataka-students-take-midday-meals-state-ranks-joint-sixth/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/92-of-karnataka-students-take-midday-meals-state-ranks-joint-sixth/#story-in-brief Review state: restored archive article, accurate at time of publication, not offered to search indexes. How this brief was made: an AI model read the report linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/