Saat rupaiyya, baraah aana

*Not* the Kishore Kumar song, but something far more substantial.

CNBC TV-18 reported today, that each school-going child in Pondicherry gets 35g of biscuits and 150 ml. of milk for breakfast each day. Trivial move, but it's led to better attendance, and better attentiveness in the classroom -- Pondicherry reportedly has 100% attendance upto Class 12.

And it costs them Rs. 7.75 per child per meal to achieve.

Of course it isn't just food that motivates students to study.

But one takes the simplistic approach here -- what if it did? What if poor parents began sending kids to school, if only to keep them from starving (one has read too many stories in Reader's Digest!)?

What if Rs. 7.75 (a little below 20 cents in USD terms today) per child, per meal could lead to a 100% literate India 15 years from now?

Loose change never achieved so much.