More nutrients, fewer parasites, better learning

By 1997 it is intended that all of India's 160 million primary-school children will be given a free daily midday meal. Since 1994 almost 3 million such children in Gujarat, already benefiting from this initiative, have been receiving, in addition, supplements of iron, iodine and vitamin A, and deworming treatment with albendazole. As a consequence there have been significant, highly cost-effective and sustainable improvements in growth rates and haemoglobin levels, and decreases in the prevalence of ocular signs of vitamin A deficiency and in intestinal parasitic infections.