Bengaluru: President Pranab Mukherjee said that by the year 2030, India will have the youngest population. To create a skilled workforce for the future, providing primary education to a child is a must.
Speaking at an event on Saturday organised to commemorate the landmark of serving two billion meals by the Akshaya Patra Foundation, he said, “By 2030, the number of working hands in India is going to be more than USA, Europe and even China. Therefore, to supply surplus labour in the job market and take advantage of the demographic dividend, we must guarantee primary education to every child.”
Lauding the efforts of the foundation, he said, “Government can do many things, but involvement of the society is needed. A voluntary organisation has served 2 billion meals to the hungry children. Let us all contribute something. ”
Praising the foundation’s social initiative, Karnataka Chief Minister Siddaramaiah said, “It shows how a good meal can enable children to attend school and attain a better life. For better health of the children, we have now added milk to the mid-day meals in schools.”
Bengaluru-based Akshaya Patra, a not-for-profit organisation, has been working on implementing the government’s mid-day meal scheme since the year 2000. The funds for the programme come from the central and 10 state governments where they operate and also from donors who believe in their work.
Talking about the journey, Madhu Pandit Das, Chairman of the Akshaya Patra Foundation said, “16 years ago, we started feeding 1500 children near our temple. We soon had a fat file with requests for us to feed one lakh students. We prepped up separate kitchen for this. A secular trust was registered by the Iskcon temple, separate from the temple trust and we looked around for donors.”
For the foundation, many came forward with open arms to donate. Recalling an incident, he said, “In Bengaluru’s D G Halli area, where we were feeding Muslim children, there were some objections that food was coming from a temple. We asked them to visit the school, and one of them offered to sponsor mid-day meals at that school.”
Philanthropists like Sudha Murty, Chairperson of the Infosys Foundation and Mohandas Pai, Trustee of the Akshaya Patra Foundation were present at the occasion.
Mr Pai said, “This is the largest programme of its kind in the world and is presently providing mid-day meals to 13,800 schools. It is often the only good meal some of the children get in that day. Drop-out numbers have lowered and the girl child has put on more height and weight compared to the boys.”
The foundation hopes to reach 5 million children by the year 2020.
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