Akshaya Patra recently tied up with the United Nations -World Food Programme to work on improving the reach and effectiveness of the mid-day meal scheme
Before the pandemic struck, Vignesh lived in a small one-room tenement in the shadows of a Bangalore locality. His mother did odd jobs in people’s homes and his father drove an auto-rickshaw – earnings of which he mostly spent on alcohol. Vignesh’s fondest memory of going to school is the hot plate of sambhar and rice served as the mid-day meal. Sometimes, that was the only meal he got to eat in a day. The promise of a full stomach may have lured the boy to school, but it was his determination that kept him going back. He remembers desperately running from pillar to post for loans to even complete his graduation. That is before he found help.
Like Vignesh, there are countless other children who were given the wings to dream.
Chandrashekar always knew he wanted to be a doctor. His father a garment factory worker and his mother a house maker, Chandrashekar lives in a rented house in Bagalkunte. He secured 95.52% in Class 10, and like Vignesh, he too received a scholarship from The Akshaya Patra Foundation for his two years of PUC. The Bengaluru-based NGO, which is endeavouring to fight classroom hunger while ensuring that children come back to school, also sponsored his coaching which helped him score 89% in his second PUC and a CET ranking of 7000. He secured a medical seat in Baghalkot and later also got a government seat at Karwar.
“The Akshaya Patra Foundation believes in the power of one hot meal. Over the years, the foundation has personally witnessed the transformation it has brought about in the lives of many children, their families and the community as a whole,” says Mr Shridhar Venkat, CEO, The Akshaya Patra Foundation.
A Class 10 student from the Zilla Parishad High School in TK pur, Telangana, Afreen Begum has a unique, very specific ambition. She aspires to become an RTO officer. According to her, people do not have civic sense and she intends to instil that in everyone.
Afreen is one of the recipients of the government scholarship aided by the National Endeavour for Student Transformation (NEST) initiative by The Akshaya Patra Foundation.
A state-level kabaddi player, she is focused and resolute to make a name for herself and make her family proud of her. She has an elder brother who does buffalo farming, an elder sister and two younger sisters. She wants to become an inspiration for them.
She regrets being unable to go for the nationals even after being selected due to some unforeseen personal reasons. She is proud to have won the scholarship and says, “This means, the hard work I have put in for my studies despite playing state-level volleyball has borne fruit and is recognised. That means I can do multiple things simultaneously and I can do them well. This will definitely help me in the future.”
Akshaya Patra was started 21 years ago with 1,500 children being fed in five schools of Bengaluru, Karnataka. “In our country, philanthropy has been practised in various forms for centuries. In fact, giving or daana is one of the social obligations and duties woven into the fabric of our tradition and culture,” adds Mr Venkat.
As the implementing partner of the Government of India’s flagship school feeding programme the Mid-Day Meal (MDM) Scheme, the NGO today reaches out to over 18,00,907 children in 60 kitchens across 14 states and 2 Union Territories, providing them with freshly cooked meal on all school days. The mid-day meal programme is implemented by the NGO in 19,039 schools of the country, with plans to increase that number to hundreds more.
“The tripartite partnership between Akshaya Patra, the state and Central Government, and benevolent philanthropists has demonstrated the power of collective compassion of humanity that when turned into collaborative action can address classroom hunger. After all, the state of a nation’s progress corresponds with the quality of life that it offers to all its citizens, especially children, for they are the flagbearers of tomorrow,” explains Mr Venkat.
Addressing malnutrition at the grassroots
Recent data from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS)-5 shows that 57.2% women between 15 and 49 years of age are anaemic in India. Food Safety and Standards Authority of India’s (FSSAI) Food Fortification Resource Centre (FFRC) has reported that over 70% of India’s population consumes less than half the daily recommended dietary allowance of micronutrients per day. These deficiencies are prevalent not only in women and children from rural areas but also affects population groups in urban India too.
Given the scope of the problem, Akshaya Patra recently tied up with the United Nations – World Food Programme (UN-WFP) to work on improving the reach and effectiveness of the mid-day meal scheme.
Both Akshaya Patra and the UN-WFP aim to bridge operational and executional gaps in food safety and hygiene projects in India. Closing these gaps will improve the overall effectiveness of the initiatives and ensure a positive impact on the nutritional status of the school children.
The foundation is also collaborating with the Centre for Society and Policy (CSP), Indian Institute of Science (IISc) to form the ‘Akshaya Patra Research Lab’ with an objective to conduct comprehensive studies in the areas of child food security, community participation for social welfare, elimination of malnutrition, policy development and advocacy for battling hunger. One of the key goals of the research lab is to assess the impact of the meals served to school children.
Views expressed are personal.
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