Free meals for schoolchildren

It is gratifying to learn that the progressive State of Travancore has just introduced the system of giving free meals to poor school children through an entirely non-official agency. Primary education has advanced in that State further than in any other part of British India since more than 50 per cent. of the children of the school-going age are attending schools. It is natural that under these circumstances some of the poor children who attend schools located at some distance from their homes have no facilities for obtaining their midday meals. And it is encouraging to find the village people themselves are organising a scheme of supplying free meals to such of the children who would otherwise starve or go without education. It is proposed to extend the same to other villages.