11th April, 2015 is a Saturday. While this is enough to make most of us happy, there is another reason to be glad. It is also National Safe Motherhood Day, a day dedicated to raise awareness on the issues and importance of women’s health especially during the times of pregnancy and beyond.

This event came into being in 1999 with the support of The White Ribbon Alliance (WRA), to ‘ensure that all women realise their right to be safe and healthy before, during and after childbirth’, and has been picking up momentum ever since.

Improving maternal health in India is an immediate need, one that has been taken up in a large way through recent years. In fact, the Maternal Mortality Ratio has been successfully reduced from 212 deaths per 100,000 live births in 2007-09, to 178 in 2010-12, and further to 167 in 2011-13 according to the The Office of the Registrar General, India – Sample Registration System (the SRS is India’s largest demographic survey). However, in order to meet the Millennium Development Goals, India has to achieve a target MMR of 140 per 100,000 live births by the end of 2015.

Therefore community participation in solving this issue is crucial. The theme chosen by WRA India for 2015 is ‘Nothing About Us Without Us’ – Citizens participation and engagement for improving women’s and children’s health. This can include framing policies, running/volunteering for programmes that improve the health of women and children, raising awareness among women of the best practices to follow, donating to institutions that support this cause and much more.

Akshaya Patra too works towards improving the health of pregnant and lactating mothers by providing meals at Anganwadis in Jaipur. Currently the Foundation feeds almost 6,000 women across 298 centers in Jaipur every day. This ensures that during this crucial period of their lives, these women have access to sufficient, nutritious food that keeps them and their new born healthy and strong.

Tell us what you think should be done to ensure safe motherhood for women? Leave us a comment below.

It’s that time of the year again. Final exams are underway and children across the country are frantically studying to move on to the next class. This is a hugely important time for children, especially those from low income families studying in Government schools. This is a chance for them to show their parents that they made the right choice in sending their children to school instead of earning money for the family.

But their success in school hasn’t come overnight. Many children attending Government schools have suffered severe malnutrition because of the hard conditions they live with at home. Often their parents barely make enough money to feed their child even one square meal a day, and the results are obvious in stunted physical growth, low energy levels, poor ability to concentrate and assimilate information, poor language and social skills, and more.

Driven by hunger and the lure of Akshaya Patra’s mid-day meal programme, many children enrol in school to enjoy at least one healthy, filling meal in the day. Over time, regular access to this nutritious food has helped the children overcome their problems to a large extent, and allowed them to start performing well in class.

The good food that all the Akshaya Patra beneficiaries enjoy when they attend school has helped over 1.4 million children across India become healthier both physically and mentally, and attend classes regularly too. This combination of good health, regular attendance in school, and personal determination has gone a long way in preparing the children to excel in their final examinations.

We’re rooting for them for their examinations and for all their success in the future too!