India has experienced significant economic development over the past two decades, yet many are still struggling to provide food for their families. For too many children in India, hunger is a barrier to education, keeping millions locked in a cycle of poverty.
13-year-old Bishnu Naik’s mother was killed by a wild elephant two years ago, while she was collecting sweet potatoes for dinner in the forest near their home in Bisra Tehsil, a small rural community in India’s north-east. Not only is he missing a mother, but food is harder to find - the family no longer enters the woods.
“We are scared for our lives now,” says Bishnu’s grandfather, Surju Naik. “It is not uncommon to see a herd of wild elephants in the area.”
After Bishnu’s mother’s death, his father and elder brother took extra jobs to feed the family, but they are still barely earning enough. His elder sister had to drop out of school to look after the household.
But Akshaya Patra’s Midday Meal Scheme has enabled Bishnu to continue his studies at primary school, providing one square meal a day. It’s enough to give him hope for the future. He wants to become an engineer.
“I will earn enough to keep everyone happy. We will have a good household and nobody will have to do labour,” he says.
Bishnu is one of around 2 million young people who are being fed by the Bengaluru-based initiative, the largest NGO-run school lunch programme in the world.
The scheme provides nutritious meals to almost 15,786 schools across 12 Indian states, giving children a reason - and the sustenance - to continue to go to school.
Akshaya Patra CEO Shridhar Venkat says they have a simple goal.
“We hope to have a positive impact on enrolment, attendance and retention rates in government and government-aided schools,” says Mr Venkat.
Despite India being one of the world’s largest food producers, the country is still home to a quarter of the world’s hungry people. More than 190 million are undernourished, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation of the United Nations.
The Scheme is run as a public-private partnership, with each meal partly funded by the government.
The NGO uses state-of-the-art technologies and modern data analytics in its kitchens, measuring productivity, scalability and cost efficiency. They can use the technology to analyse different sets of data to help improve the overall speed, security and responsiveness of the programme.
The kitchens also have top-of-the-line equipment to cook meals on a large scale. Their cauldrons can produce up to 3000 litres of dal and 500 litres of rice, while the roti-making machines produce up to 200,000 of the flatbreads at a time.
“Our mission is to serve hot and nutritious midday meals to 5 million children on every school day by 2020,” Mr. Venkat says.
“With an effective public-private partnership in place and extensive support from the government for the implementation of such a large-scale initiative, the school feeding programme can be replicated in other countries to tackle issues related to hunger on a large-scale”.
Mr Venkat believes while the Government has a critical role to play in eliminating classroom hunger, so do individuals.
“Citizens should do their bit for society - being socially responsible can be the easiest way to contribute. An individual’s engagement can merely be in the form of awareness of an issue, such as malnutrition and classroom hunger,” he says.
Bishnu’s grandfather is hoping his grandson will be able to have a career that will lift the family out of poverty. While his elder siblings had to cease their studies, Bishnu is going to school. “Thanks to these midday meals,” he says, “Bishnu’s case will be different”.
This article was written with the support of Asia New Zealand Foundation Leadership Network