Health and Nutrition Programs — Amendments

Amendment	Year	Description	Impact
NFSA Schedule II 2023	2023	Notification S.O. 403(E), dated 25 January 2023, used section 37(1) of the National Food Security Act, 2013 to substitute Schedule II’s nutritional standards. The table distinguishes age and physiological groups, meal types, energy, protein, protein quality and micronutrients. For example, its lower-primary hot cooked meal specifies 450 kcal and 15–20 g protein; the upper-primary row specifies 700 kcal and 22–25 g. These are scheme meal standards, not each child’s entire daily dietary requirement.	For health and nutrition among Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, separate the applicable meal standard from access to the service. A menu meeting a nutrient table does not demonstrate that an eligible child received it regularly or without exclusion. The revised Schedule provides a benchmark for checking food quality and group-specific provision. An implementation answer must also examine attendance, delivery interruptions and barriers to participation; the amendment itself does not establish that those inequalities have disappeared.