Akshaya Patra Serving Health and Well-Being in Schools

The major drawback in India is that children from low-income families are not entitled to proper education for lack of food. The children tend to remain hungry as their parents cannot afford them a meal. For them, a square meal is more important than acquiring education. So they accompany parents to work places. As a result, attendance has dropped down and drop-outs have increased.  It is estimated that more than 50% of Indian children drop out of the schools at primary level.  Unfortunately, India shares 34% percent of the world’s illiterate population.

Without education a child can never progress. Understanding the link between education and nutrition, Akshaya Patra serves unlimited food for education keeping their growth requirements in mind. The meals are delivered with proper nutrition; quality, prescribed calories and safety. Adequate supply of micro nutrients as iron, folic acid, zinc, fibre, essential fatty acids, calcium, carbohydrates, protein vitamin A are supplemented through the mid-day meals. During lunch servings; roti, rice, rice khichadi, curd rice, vegetable pulao, mixed vegetable curry, sambar, dhal, rasam etc. are served. The sambar and curries contain lots of vegetables which have essential nutrients that are required for the adequate growth of children. The rice and wheat served meets adequate standards as prescribed by The Government of India.  Every meal served is warm, fresh, nutritious and ready to eat. So hunger, which is an obstacle to children’s health, education and survival are tackled by the nutritious mid-day meals.

The mid-day meal solves two of the critical United Nations Millennium Development Goals. The first is to End Poverty and Hunger and second is to achieve Universal Education. Food for education solves the obstacle of hunger that is a hindrance for education and health.

Hunger hinders a child’s learning process. Let no child miss the opportunity to attend school for the lack of food.  Let us donate for the NGO so that it can reach out to more children.  Let us work together to serve children and end class room hunger. It takes just Rs. 750 to feed a child for a year! Every donation of Rs. 500 or above made to Akshaya Patra is eligible for 100% tax exemption under section 35 AC or 50% tax exemption under Section 80 G of the Indian Income Tax.

Read more »

How Akshaya Patra Feeds Over 1.5 Million Children Every Day?

Akshaya Patra started in 2001 by serving meals to around 1,500 children of five government schools in Bengaluru. The underlying thought was that children should not be deprived of education because of hunger. In 2004, when the Government of India launched its ambitious Mid-day Meal Scheme, Akshaya Patra’s expertise in the field came as an advantage. It helped the Foundation get into a public-private partnership with the Government for the implementation of this scheme.

Over the course of 15 years, Akshaya Patra has established its kitchens in 24 locations and feeds over 1.5 million children of 11,360 schools across ten states. The role of NGO is to provide hygienic food to lakhs of children across the country. The journey from 1,500 children in Bengaluru to over 1.5 million children across the country would not have been possible if it was not for (i) technology and (ii) successful partnership with governments and other stakeholders.

Role of Technology

Necessity, they say, is the mother of invention. When the time came to scale up, Akshaya Patra had to resort to technology. Until then, the process mainly revolved around manual cooking. If the Foundation was to serve 100,000 meals daily, it had to improvise existing technology … and improvise it did. Over the course of time, kitchens were designed and established across the country; most of which have the capacity to cook meals for around 100,000 children at a time.

Akshaya Patra kitchens have custom-made machines to ensure that the cooking process is a smooth sail. Also, seven of these kitchens employ the time-saving gravity-flow mechanism; namely Lucknow, Vrindavan, Bhubaneshwar, Ahmedabad, Hubballi, Ballari, and Vasanthapura. The Hubballi kitchen has been featured in Nat Geo’s Mega Kitchen series.

These kitchens are equipped with rice cauldrons, which can prepare 500 litres rice at a time, and sambhar cauldron, which can prepare 1,200 – 3,000 litres of dal at a time. Around 6,000 kg of rice, 4 – 5 tonnes of vegetables, and 6,000 litres of sambhar is prepared in just under four hours. Similarly, the roti-making machine used in kitchens in North India can dish out 40,000 rotis in an hour. The use of cauldrons with easy-tilt mechanism makes it easier to dispense food.

Of the 24 locations across the country, Baran (Rajasthan) and Nayagarh (Orissa) employ the decentralised kitchen model, as the terrain of these places make transportation of food a tough task. So what Akshaya Patra has done, is employed local women’s self-help groups (SHGs) to cook the meals. The entire process is monitored by a team appointed by Akshaya Patra to ensure hygiene and efficiency. These two units help Akshaya Patra reach out to over 36,000 children every day.

Akshaya Patra uses custom-designed insulated vehicles to deliver food from kitchens to school. So firstly, there is no spillage during transportation, and secondly, children are served fresh, hot meal every day.

Successful Partnerships

Akshaya Patra is the largest NGO in India serving mid-day meals. It has got into a partnership with the Central Government as well as the State Governments of Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, and Assam for the implementation of the Mid-day Meal Programme. The Government is the biggest donor for the organisation; may it be grants or grains.

Additionally, the Foundation works closely with various corporate houses and trusts and foundations to make the mammoth task possible. The Infosys Foundation and Jamsetji Tata Trust have helped Akshaya Patra to equip its kitchens with latest technology among other things. Similarly, Cisco has partnered with Akshaya Patra for its Global Hunger Relief campaign as a part of which the company raises funds for the Mid-day Meal Programme.

The list of partners is lengthy and includes names like the Caterpillar Foundation, The Hans Foundation, Kusuma Foundation, Give India, etc.

The Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) provision in the Companies Act 2013, which makes it mandatory for corporates to spend at least 2% of average net profits for the last three years on CSR activities, has prompted many companies to come forward to help the society. Akshaya Patra is one of the several NGOs in India that have benefited from the same.

If feeding 1.5 million children is mammoth task, feeding 5 million children is an even bigger challenge, and that’s what The Akshaya Patra Foundation is aiming for. In doing so, we intend to reach out to new locations as well. In order to achieve this, we need your help. We accept tax deductible donations under Section 35 AC or Section 80 GGA, in which case the assesse is eligible for 100% deduction. Your contribution can help us reach out to more children … nourish more dreams and smiles.

Read more »

Resolving Global Issues Surrounding Children

Millions of children across the world are denied the opportunity to enjoy childhood and are still in search of basic necessities like food, education, shelter and safety.  Child trafficking, child marriage, poverty, malnutrition and child labour are some of the main global Issues surrounding children.

Child trafficking affects millions of children across the world. Children are bought and sold for various activities including forced labour.  According to a 2012 report released by the International Labour Organization, 21 million people are trapped in forced labour across the world.  Of the total, 5.5 million are below 18 years.  Children’s Organization of Southeast Asia (COSA), Children of the Night, Called to Rescue, Love 146 and Maiti Nepal are some of the charities working to end child trafficking and exploitation across the world.

Similarly, more than 700 million women marry before turning 18 and about 250 million get into wedlock before age 15, according to a data released by the UNICEF in 2014. Though efforts to end child marriage have been going, the custom is still prevalent in several parts of India. The after effects include early pregnancy, school dropout, violence, abuse and exposure to HIV and AIDS. Some of the charitable organisations trying hard to free young children from the clutches of early marriage include Girls Not Brides, Care and Breakthrough.

Poverty is another issue we need to take care of. About 1 billion in the world live in poverty, according to UNICEF.  Poor nutrition claims 3.1 million young lives every year. In developing countries, about 100 million children are underweight and 66 million primary school children go hungry to school. Poor nutrition can damage the immune system and increase a child’s risk of contracting deadly diseases. It can also affect learning ability, cognitive and physical development of children.

Some of the organisations fighting hunger and poverty include Action against Hunger, the U.N. World Food Programme and Bread for the World Institute. In India, apart from the government, charitable organisations like The Akshaya Patra Foundation, Annamrita, No Hungry Child, Annapoorna of Adamya Chetana distribute mid-day meals in schools. Initiative taken by these charitable organisations has helped fight hunger and improve nutritional status of underprivileged children in India.

It’s also shocking to know that about 100 million children are homeless and live on streets.  The reasons differ from war or poverty to harmful diseases. Some of the children are orphans, while some live in streets to support their families. Street children, according to UNICEF, are the most difficult to protect and provide education and care.  They face risks from various sources including the police and are sometimes murdered as part of the cleaning up of the city. Charitable organisations like Youth Advocate Program International (YAP International), Consortium for Street Children (CSC), Dreamz (Mumbai), Support (Mumbai) and Railway Children have helped improve the situation and given new meanings to the lives of street children across the world.

Image Courtesy: Akshaya Patra

In addition to this, millions of children today are trapped in child labour. Children are often forced to work in several dangerous environments.  A data from UNICEF shows that about 150 million children are engaged in child labour including mining, quarrying, domestic service or agriculture.

However, the number of children who work in India has come down over the past few years.  In 2011, only 43.53 lakh children aged between five and 14 were working compared to 1.26 crore in 2001, thanks to the work of organisations like International Labour Organization, The Child Labor Coalition and Bachpan Bachao Andolan (BBA).  Apart from them, the list of charities for children also includes UNICEF, United Nations and Save the Children.

There is no doubt that these issues have made children’s lives miserable and hard. But, the situation has definitely improved than earlier, thanks to the thousands of charitable organisations across the world that have engaged in charities for children.

If the good work of charitable organisations continues at this pace, we can soon completely free our children from these issues and return their rights.

Read more »