India has established itself as one of the potential superpowers of the world but has a lot more to address on the malnutrition front. To achieve sustainable development, many ministries have lined up to achieve various goals. A few of them are listed below:
• Ministry of Education
• Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
• Ministry of Women and Child Development
• Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation
• Ministry of Finance
Over the last few decades, India is contributing rigorously to the second goal of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs); which is to tackle all forms of hunger and malnutrition. To address this issue, the Indian government came up with various concepts and provisions like Public Distribution System (PDS) for food grains – provision of subsidized food, Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) – targeted food supplementation to pregnant women nursing mothers and children, National Midday Meal Scheme – provision of a cooked meal once a day to every school child.
Role of NGOs in supporting the Government of India
NGOs play an important role in the development of a community, a state or a nation. On a broad level, the major roles of NGOs are to be:
• An Implementer
• A Catalyst
• A Partner
NGOs bridge gaps between philanthropists and beneficiaries. With online donations, contributions, in-kind donations, etc., NGOs benefit the target group in various ways. It also helps in expanding its reach to bring more beneficiaries under its umbrella.
Given the population of India, it is a humungous task to feed every single child. This is why various NGOs joined hands with the Government of India to implement the midday meal scheme on a large scale.
Role of Akshaya Patra in supporting health and nutrition of school children
The Akshaya Patra Foundation is an NGO that has taken to serving school lunch to its beneficiaries since 2000. Today, it has the distinction of being the world’s largest NGO run school lunch programme, which serves freshly cooked, nutritious mid-day meals. After the mandate of the Supreme Court of India to begin the midday meal scheme across the country, other NGOs also started providing school lunches to children.
Did you know? Before the pandemic, Akshaya Patra served mid-day meals to 1.8 million children every day.
Studies have shown that midday meals improve attendance rates of school children, reduce dropout rates, improve classroom performance, help in cognitive development and improve nutritional levels drastically.
It becomes extremely necessary to nip the buds of problems right from the beginning. Eradicating classroom hunger is one such problem. Make online donations to Akshaya Patra to feed one child for a whole academic year. You never know which child needs your support the most; your contribution can bring a million smiles. All you have to do is think of their nutritional status and act to feed them nutritious meals.
