Shridhar Venkat, CEO of Akshaya Patra, along with T.V. Mohandas Pai, a Trustee with the organisation addressed a gathering of Rotary Club members recently. Some of the dignitaries present at this gathering were Dr. João Cravinho, the Ambassador of the European Union to India; Shailesh Vishnubhai Haribhakti, Advisor at Gaja Capital Partners, Director of IDBI Capital Market Services Ltd; Sumantra Sen, CEO JSW Foundation and Madhav Das, Chief Communication Officer of Deutche Bank.

In their discussion Shridhar and Mohandas Pai spoke about the work the Foundation has undertaken in reducing hunger and poverty amongst children in India, the progress the organisation has made through its mid-day meal programme, and the distance they have yet to go.

“Our vision statement is that no child in India will be deprived of education because of hunger. India is home to 40% of the 165 million malnourished children in the world. 40% of our country’s children are malnourished and about 8.1 million children are out of school. Imagine being put in a classroom without any dinner or breakfast. Due to poverty, children drop out of school and take up menial jobs, missing out on the benefits of education. We have found that education is the most powerful factor to take an entire family out of the cycle of poverty,” says Shridhar, explaining the core focus of Akshaya Patra’s work.

Addressing a serious concern of food safety and quality while providing these nutritious meals to children, Shridhar also talked about the crucial role technology plays in Akshaya Patra’s operations model to cook food efficiently, both in terms of time and raw material. “This requires a lot of automation and the kitchens boast of conveyor belts and machines that can cook for 1,000 children in just 15 minutes. This also means the food is practically untouched by hand making it sterile and hygienic. The organisation also makes sure that the food is piping hot when delivered to the child,” he says.

“Akshaya Patra not only takes care of the hunger aspect but it also takes care of the socialisation objective. All the children, irrespective of caste, creed and religion come together and share a good meal,” Shridhar adds, giving us a glimpse into the greater role the mid-day meal programme plays in transforming society.

Mohandas Pai also expounded on how Akshaya Patra has gone above and beyond in its goal of reducing hunger in India, especially during times of disaster. “There was a cloudburst in Rajasthan, which resulted in floods. In 24 hours, we mobilized and supplied food for 50,000 people. Even in the last Nepal earthquake, we were able to send rotis (Indian flatbread) for 100,000 people in 24 hours,” he says proudly. The Foundation is even now working with the Jamsetji Tata Trust and Sipradian Sahayata Sanstha to facilitate building a field kitchen in Nepal to provide healthy food to the earthquake affected region.

Ending the discussion by urging the Rotary Club members to support Akshaya Patra’s work Mohandas Pai said, “The latest data reveals that 30% of India’s children from 0-5 years are malnourished. Some die possibly because of contaminated water and lack of toilets, but largely because of lack of food. If we can just involve ourselves and others in eliminating this kind of hunger, by setting up kitchens where expectant mothers, nursing mothers in poor areas can get food, children will not suffer from malnutrition. When the mother is well nourished, the child will be nourished. And if you do this for the first two years, the child will grow up to be okay. I feel, as a society we don’t understand the problem… I urge you all to abstain from food for two days. Feel the pain; feel what hunger is and then you will understand. And when you feel it, then you will definitely do something about it.”

Share your views on classroom hunger in India, and let us know how you would like to get involved to help us fight this issue. Leave us a comment below.

Globally we’ve made great strides in tackling the issue of hunger in the past 25 years. In 1990 the Global Hunger Index (GHI) score for developing countries was 20.6, but in 2014 it stands at 12.5 – a drop of 39 per cent. But despite this, there are still approximately 805 million people around the world who suffer from long term malnourishment.

In India too, the good news remains laced with the bad. India’s ranking on the Global Hunger Index has improved by eight places, positioned at 55th out of 76 countries in 2014. This drop has changed the classification of India’s hunger situation from ‘alarming’ to ‘serious’ according to the GHI. This improved ranking also shows how hard India has been working to solve its hunger problem. The results can be seen by the drop in the score of its underweight children by almost 13 points from 43.5 per cent in 2005-2006, to 30.7 per cent in 2013-14, as per a provisional 2014 study done by the Ministry of Women and Child Development and UNICEF.

India has managed to achieve this growth through initiatives like improving agricultural productivity, making provisions to reduce vulnerabilities of small and marginal farmers, and focusing on improving the cost efficiency, targeting and nutritional value of food-based social schemes like the Targeted Public Distribution System, Integrated Child Development Service and the Mid-Day Meal Scheme.

However, according to UNICEF, India is still home to approximately 243 million adolescents (aged 10-19 years), of which 56 per cent of girls and 30 per cent of boys suffer from anaemia – raising the crucial and often overlooked issue of hidden hunger (micro-nutrient deficiency). Also, despite the fact that India’s per capita income has increased by more than three times in the past 20 years, social inequality still remains very high. This gap between the rich and the poor in Indian society can be seen by the fact that the bottom 10 per cent of the population account for a little over 3 per cent of the total consumption expenditure, while the top 10 per cent accounts for 31 per cent.

Food wastage is another crucial aspect while analysing India’s hunger problem. An article in The Hindu reported last year that as much as 1.94 lakh metric tonnes of food grain worth crores of rupees were wasted in India between 2005 and 2013. In India food wastage occurs at several levels. Huge amounts of food are lost because of poor infrastructure at the production and processing stages. Lack of proper storage facilities like warehouses for grains, cold storage units for perishable items and unreliable stowage during transport cause huge losses to both society and the economy. At the consumption level too food waste is high, especially in the middle and upper classes of society. Perfectly edible food is discarded into dustbins across millions of households on a daily basis, while cultural norms of lavish celebrations for festivals and weddings in India have contributed to excess food wastage as well.

Hunger is a deep-rooted issue that India struggles with even today, but the tide is slowly turning. As the economy grows and infrastructure improves, literacy rates go up and access to health care expands India moves towards a zero hunger society. To achieve this goal as quickly as possible we urge each of you to try and fulfil the theme of this year’s World Hunger Day (28th May), and partner with us to ‘Do something great’! Together we can help end malnutrition and hunger in India.

How would you like to help solve India’s hunger problem? Leave us your comments below.