Empowering Children Through Food and Education

A year ago, Naseema used to watch as other children ran off to school but she stayed home to look after her younger siblings. But, for just one nutritious meal every school day, the shy eight-year-old girl was able to fit in with the other students in the Uttar Pradesh district of the country's west. The daily meals they receive are encouraging youngsters to enrol and stay in school.

The food served at school serves as the only meal of the day for millions of kids across the nation. Without it, children go without food, run the danger of a low immunity, stop going to school and lose their best opportunity to get out of poverty.

Magic of the PM Poshan Abhiyaan

Nutrition is the foundation for the steady development of the human body and intellect. The school lunch programme or the PM Poshan Abhiyan (previously known as the Mid-Day Meal Programme) is the country’s largest school lunch programme and has as one of its main goals to improve children's nutritional profiles, which will benefit their health and academic performance.

A healthy diet during childhood increases productivity and cumulative lifelong learning capacities. As a result, funding child nutrition is regarded as one of the foundations for human development.

Children between the ages of 6 and 14 are the PM Poshan Abhiyan’s primary beneficiaries. Particularly at the peak of the adolescent growth spurt, when the nutritional requirements can be higher than the remainder of adolescence, the rapid growth associated with this age causes increased demands of healthy & nutritious meals. As a result, it's critical to address the nutritional gaps at this particular age by addressing both short and long-term hunger. Both are equally crucial for raising a child’s focus levels and improving learning outcomes.

The wholesome school meals encourage children to attend classes, giving them access to education. This is demonstrated by the increase in enrolment, attendance and retention rates across the nation's educational institutions. The same is supported by first-hand reports of parents who enrol their children in school so they can get one healthy meal a day. But it also helps to sate immediate hunger and set the groundwork to address long-term hunger and malnutrition prevention.

The PM Poshan Abhiyan or MDM programme aims to alleviate classroom hunger in the near term. The mid-day meal is frequently the first and only complete meal of the day for many of them coming from challenging socio-economic backgrounds.

The meals are unquestionably a blessing for children because when they are healthy, children are less likely to skip school due to illness as absenteeism is one of the greatest obstacles to education.
The importance of long-term exposure to a nutritional programme as an educational intervention cannot be overstated, especially in a nation like India where hunger and malnutrition still prevalent. The PM Poshan Abhiyan which guarantees that kids have access to nourishing meals every school day, creates a foundation for their physical and intellectual growth and, in doing so, paves the way for a prosperous future for the nation.

The PM Poshan Scheme
• PM POSHAN Abhiyaan was launched by Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi in Jhunjhunu, Rajasthan in March 2018.
• It targets to reduce level of under-nutrition and other related problems by ensuring convergence of various nutrition related schemes.
• It also targets stunting, under-nutrition, anaemia (among young children, women and adolescent girls) and low birth rate.
• It monitors and reviews implementation of all such schemes and utilise existing structural arrangements of line ministries wherever available.
• Its large component involves gradual scaling-up of interventions supported by on-going World Bank assisted Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Systems Strengthening and Nutrition Improvement Project (ISSNIP) to all districts in the country by 2022.

What is Akshaya Patra?

Akshaya Patra is one of oldest and largest mid-day meal NGO in India.
In 2000, it started as a philanthropic project that provided 1,500 children in Bengaluru’s five Government schools with a wholesome meal. The food was so favourably accepted that a year later, the Indian Government made it a requirement that a healthy lunch should be given in every public school. The largest implementer of Mid-Day Meal Programme in the world, Akshaya Patra, which collaborates with the federal and state governments on this initiative, served its three billionth meal this month.

To accomplish its objectives, this NGO running on a public-private partnership model, uses cutting-edge engineering, world-class logistics and effective administration. However, by purchasing grains and vegetables from nearby farmers, it also assures India's food security while preserving the variety of regional eating habits and diets.

Currently, Akshaya Patra serves daily meals to 2 million children in 20,000+ schools across 14 states and 2 union territories. Be a part of such an organization that provides unlimited meals for education of children.

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