To the best of our knowledge, this paper provides the most rigorous evidence of the effectiveness of school meals on participation in India by conducting the analyses at the individual level and by controlling for seasonal variations in participations rates. The study by Afridi (2010) also found a significant effect on grade one girls‘ attendance rates in rural Madhya Pradesh but no effect for boys or on enrollments. However, that study used aggregate school level panel data from 64 schools and could not, therefore, account for individual level heterogeneity in unobservable characteristics that could be correlated with timing of program transition and the participation outcomes. Our results here should, therefore, be more robust.