Indian sugar industry plays a dominant role in accelerating industrialization processes and has been influential in bringing socio-economic changes in rural India. The sugar industry is a part of the agro – based industries in India and contributes a significant portion of the gross domestic product of the country. Over 50 million sugarcane farmers and their dependents and large mass of agricultural labourers are involved in sugarcane cultivation, harvesting and ancillary activities. It is worth mentioning that the industry employs over one lakh skilled and unskilled workers mainly from the rural area. Thus over 7.5 percent of the rural population of India is directly or indirectly dependent on the sugar industry. The sugarcane and sugar production has greatly increased over the years. The present study covers the profile of sugarcane growers with reference to farmers of selected sugar factories in South Gujarat. This present study has made an attempt to study the cane growers’ attitude towards some aspects like occupational distribution, sources of irrigation, having soil health card and Kisan Credit Card.

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Mid-day meal (MDM) Scheme was launched by the Government of India (GoI) in 1995 with an objective to encourage enrollment, increase attendance, improve retention rate, reduce the drop-out rate and most importantly, improving the nutritional status among children studying in primary (including upper primary) schools (GoI, 2017). Children enrolled in class 1 to 8 are primary school students. In fact, some states had implemented the mid-day meal scheme even before 1995. Gujarat had implemented this scheme, way back in 1984 (Government of Gujarat, 2019). Over these years, the scheme evolved from covering the children of government schools, government-aided schools and local-body schools to include children studying under the education guarantee schemes (EGS) and Alternative and Innovative Education (AIE) centres. EGS and AIE are non-formal education centres; the details could be found in Department of Elementary Education and Literacy, (2001). The nutritional needs of the children are taken care by providing them a square meal for lunch at school. As per the MDM implementation guidelines (GoI: MHRD, 2011), the meals are required to be cooked in the school premises, either by a dedicated staff employed by the school or by the members of the self-help groups (SHGs). The scheme is funded jointly by the Centre and the State in the ratio of 60:40 and 100 per cent by the Central Government for Union Territories (GoI: MHRD, 2019b). Details of MDM scheme can be found in (GoI: MHRD, 2019a).School closures following the lockdown, imposed as a measure to prevent the spread of COVID-19 pandemic, naturally led to closures of the MDM kitchens. Amid the lockdown and school closures, the results of a study by KMIC, (2020) reveal that 85 per cent of the children are deprived of the benefits to be provided in lieu of the mid-day meals, and also

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̆ƨȱતૃ સશં ોધન અƟયાસમાં ̆ાથિમક ëે́કાય½ દરિમયાન ̆ાƜત માˆહતી Ďારા “વન અિધકાર અિધિનયમ - ૨૦૦૬નાં લાભાથઓનો સામા‰જક - આિથક અƟયાસ” Ȑમાં કૌȬું‡બક લાë‡ણકતાને આધાર° અƟયાસëે́નાં ȢુȬુંબોની આિથક, સામા‰જક અને શૈë‡ણક પˆરŠƨથિતનો Ɖયાલ આƜયો છે, લાભાથઓના િશëણ સાથે તેમની વાિષક આવક અને માિસક આવક સાથેના ӕકડાશાĘીય સબં ધં ો તપાસવા આવેલ છે.