Sri Rajnath Singh visits Akshaya Patra Lucknow Kitchen

Sri Rajnath Singh, Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, Government of India visited The Akshaya Patra Foundation’s kitchen facility in Lucknow on Sunday, December 27, 2015. Sri Ashutosh Tandon, (MLA, Lucknow East), Mr Sharda Pratap Shukla, (MLA, Sarojini Nagar) in Lucknow shared the dais on the occasion.

Akshaya Patra implements the mid-day meal programme in partnership with the Government of Uttar Pradesh and the Government of India to benefit children studying in the Government schools.

Sri Rajnath Singh also took a tour of the kitchen where he witnessed operations of the centralised kitchen facility. Speaking on the occasion, Shri Rajnath Singh commended Akshaya Patra’s noble service to society in eradicating hunger by providing nutritious mid-day meal to lakhs of school children across the country and appreciated the efficiency in reaching out to more school children.

For more details visit: http://www.akshayapatra.org/news/Honourable-Minister-of-Home-Affairs-Sri-Rajnath-Singh-visited-Lucknow-Kitchen

Idea Cellular Programme Conducted in Jaipur School

The UPS Sindhi Government School of Sanganer in Jaipur hosted an Idea Cellular Programme recently.

A team from Idea along with BEEO of Sanganer block participated in the programme. Mukul Khanna, Idea State Head was the chief guest of the occasion. Raghupati Dasa coordinated the event.

Roti making machine at Akshaya Patra Kitchen in Jaipur

The programme was kicked off with a visit to the Akshaya Patra kitchen.  During the visit, the Idea team got a live experience of the different processes involved in the making of the mid-day meal.

In the second half of the programme, the Idea team served mid-day meals to children in the UPS Sindhi School. In return, the students entertained their guests through various dance programmes. The school children also got an opportunity to exhibit their writing skills through an essay competition titled ‘sharing to society.’ The programme held by the Akshaya Patra Jaipur concluded with prize and memento distribution.

You can read more about the program at http://www.akshayapatra.org/news/idea-cellular-programme-held-in-jaipur

Meet Jagdesh-the Selfless & Dedicated Mid-day Meal Volunteer

At first glance, Jagdesh, a beneficiary of the Akshaya Patra meals may look like any other 15-year-old student of the Padua Government High School in Mangaluru.

But, in reality, he has a more important role in the school than his peers- he serves fresh and nutritious mid-day meals to everyone. Jagdesh is so generous that he will not think about himself till every student in the school is full.

From the interesting mid-day meal menu in Mangaluru, Jagdesh likes Pulao the most and couldn’t just stop while talking about it.   “It’s very tasty and the vegetables make me feel very healthy," he said.

Jagdesh has won the hearts of all in the school including Francis D'cunha, Headmaster of the Padua High School. “He is well-mannered and a very respectful child. I see a good future for him and that’s primarily because of good attitude and behaviour," D'cunha, said.

D'cunha found the Mid-day meal in Mangalore ‘a boon’ for students coming from rural areas: “The mid-day meal served by Akshaya Patra is good for nourishment and the students have become very strong and active," he added later.

Jagdesh is one of the many beneficiaries of The Akshaya Patra Foundation who has motivated and set an example to his friends. Like him, the organisation has many more NGO children stories to share with you. Just wait and follow…

Let’s Say ‘No’ to Child Labour

There is nothing worse than forcing a child to work and earn a living at a young age. Child labour, no doubt, closes doors of opportunities, fun and freedom to kids.  At a time meant to attend school, play or spend time with friends, thousands of children in India today find themselves trapped in hazardous working environments like mining, quarrying, agriculture or domestic service.

It is shocking that approximately 168 million children, aged between five and 17, are employed in these kinds of occupations in different parts of the world.  Of these, nearly 15.5 million children, the majority being girls, work in domestic service.

There has been a huge global effort to end child labour, however according to UNICEF more than 100 million children will still continue to be engaged in child labour till 2020.

In India, several acts prohibiting employing children in mines, factories or any other hazardous fields have been introduced since independence.   The Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act in 2009, made education free for underserved children.

Apart from these, efforts of several non-profit organisations like The Akshaya Patra Foundation have also helped bring change to children’s lives.

Akshaya Patra, a NGO dedicated to underserved children since 2000, supplies freshly cooked mid-day meals to over 1.4 million children across 10 states in India.  Interestingly, the initiative taken by The Akshaya Patra Foundation has helped bring a notable decline in child labour. The Mid-Day Meal Programme has also helped boost school enrolment, classroom attendance and concentration in children.

Not surprisingly, only around 43.53 lakh children aged between five and 14 are employed today compared to the 1.26 crore working children in 2001.

However, thousands of children in India still miss out school and go to work at an early age. These children will grow up as uneducated and economically backward adults and will affect the nation’s progress and development.

To end classroom hunger and child labour in India, Akshaya Patra is planning to extend its feeding reach to 5 million by 2020.

A world without child labour is not very far away.  But, each one of us has to come forward to turn it into a reality.

Education For girls— we should stand!

All these years, we have been preaching about empowering our women and saving the girl child from the clutches of gender inequality. But in reality, have we succeeded in reaching our goal?

It’s a reality- we need lots of improvement in several areas including education for girls and nutrition. 

It is disturbing to know that still many families prefer boys over girls. Birth of a boy is considered as a blessing, while a girl child is often ignored. Many parents still hesitate to send their girl children to school and marry them off at an early age.

As per the Census in the year 2011, India has only 940 females for every 1000 males.  Female literacy rates have improved over the past 25 years. However, we still have long way to go to match the male literacy rate. Only 65.46% of our females, according to the Census in 2011, were literate compared to 80% of males.

Similarly, undernutrition affects females more than males in India. According to a UNICEF report, 36% of Indian women part of the NFHS-3 (National Health Survey) was chronically undernourished and 55 % were anaemic.  About 68 % of girl children from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh in the NFHS-3 were malnourished.

We already have several schemes to help improve lives of girl children in India, including the two programmes the Government launched in January this year: ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao’ and ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY).’   Other schemes introduced for the welfare of our female population include ‘Nutrition programme for adolescent girls,’ and ‘The Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) – Sabla.’

Like the Government, efforts by some NGOs like The Akshaya Patra Foundation have also given rays of hope in women and girl children across India.

Akshaya Patra’s nutritious mid-day meals have helped numerous girl children back to school.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation has also given employment opportunities to rural women. The organisation’s decentralised kitchens are mainly run by Women Self-Help Groups (SHGs), mainly by mothers of children who are studying in the organisation’s beneficiary schools.  The employment at Akshaya Patra, no doubt, has given some kind of financial independence to these mothers.

It does seem days are getting better for the girl child, but our commitment to bridge the gap needs to be stronger and actions to bring changes much faster and then we can really see a nation where girls stand shoulder to shoulder with the boys very soon.

Writing Contest - Get Featured on Akshaya Patra Blog

On #HumanRightsDay, take part in our writing contest and get featured on our blog. Pen down your thoughts on the statement - "Effect of Human Rights Violation on children" in 200-500 words and send in your entries to sulagna.b@akshayapatra.org by 21st December. The best entry will be featured on the Akshaya Patra blog.

---

Follow us on:

 Akshaya Patra Facebook

 Akshaya Patra Twitter

 Akshaya Patra Google+

 Akshaya Patra Linkedin

  Akshaya Patra Pinterest

Chennai Flood Relief Initiative

We at The Akshaya Patra Foundation are working to alleviate the suffering that has rocked the city of Chennai in the wake of the floods of the last weeks. To this end, the Foundation has been serving fresh meals every day, with the intention to ramp up the feeding reach to 10,000 meals a day. In order to achieve this, a team of 10-30 people will be engaged in Chennai to assist in cooking, with raw material, utensils, packing material, housekeeping and fuel supplies and more being transported to the city. Once an analysis of the situation has been completed, Akshaya Patra will serve even beyond 10,000 meals a day based on the need of the hour. Donate for Chennai floods and help us to provide food for the needy. Every donation of ₹ 500 or above made to our organisation is eligible for 100 % tax exemption under section 80G.

If you want to support us please visit: Donate for Chennai Floods

Read more about our flood relief initiative @ http://blog.akshayapatra.org/chennai-flood-relief/

Role of The Akshaya Patra Foundation in Indian Education

When the British left India in 1947, India had a long way to go to overcome poverty and illiteracy.  Though it was not easy; India has made great strides in this regard since independence. However, the initiative to make changes in the society started long back before we got freedom from foreign rule and was mainly marked with the emergence of non-government organisations (NGOs) in the 19th century.   Since then, NGOs have served as backbones of our development.  Today,   India is home to more than 31 lakh NGOs and The Akshaya Patra Foundation, is one of them. The role of NGO varies from ending classroom hunger to providing education for underserved children in India. The organisation receives donation for children from different parts of the world to feed millions of students in India.

Though overall development has been the main focus, NGOs also play various roles in India, including health, child education, hunger, child labour and rural development.  However, only a few, like The Akshaya Patra Foundation has succeeded in making large strides.  The NGO started its humble efforts to fight classroom hunger in June 2000. However it was only in November 2001, the Supreme Court of India ordered all State Governments and Union Territories to start a mid-day meal scheme for school children. The organisation was soon recognised as an implementing arm of the Government. Impressed with the quality of the school lunch programme run by the NGO, many State Governments have partnered with the organization in India.

The Role of NGO  in the expansion of the Mid-Day Meal programme is really noteworthy. The NGO, which has actively volunteered and stood for the cause, at present, feeds over 1.4 million children in 10,845 Government schools and Government-aided schools  in 24 locations across  10 states in India. It is also considered to be the world’s largest NGO-run mid-day meal programme.

Apart from ending classroom hunger, the role of NGO has extended to improve school attendance, school enrolment rates, nutritional status of children and women empowerment. Over the past 15 years, people from different parts of the world have supported the initiative. No wonder, The Akshaya Patra Foundation has 24 kitchens across the country.

Here is the video of a child talking about mid day meal gives hope for his dream.

The Mid-Day Meal programme of Akshaya Patra has been running mainly through receiving donation for children.  Supporting the programme is not a costly affair and donation for children starts from ₹750 onwards. Additionally, the organisation also gives an opportunity to donate in memory of or in honour of someone you love or respect. Of them all, the most important definitely, is the tax exemption donations. Donation of ₹ 500 or above is eligible for 100% tax exemption in India.

There is no doubt in the fact that, NGOs such as Akshaya Patra has helped build a better India.  However, we want to expand our programme to 5 million children by 2020.

The situation will be far better, if each one of us come forward and participate in the programme to support the organization to feed the children for education.