Indian Charitable Trust and its role in Hunger-Free Nation
by Akshaya Patra NGO in India - Akshaya PatraIt is said that there is enough food to feed the entire
population of the world. Yet, millions of people across the world are suffering
from a serious issue called hunger. Below is a quick overview of the current
hunger situation across the globe and in India.
Hunger is a global crisis and it is induced due to several
reasons such as poverty, unemployment, inaccessibility, improper supply chain
and the like. So, in order to counter the hunger situation in a more focussed
and sustainable manner, the United Nations has included this issue in its list
of Sustainable Goals. The United Nations Sustainable Goal 2 seeks sustainable
solutions to end hunger in all its forms by 2030 and to achieve food security.
The aim is to ensure that everyone everywhere has enough good-quality food to
lead a healthy life. Achieving this Goal will require better access to food and
the widespread promotion of sustainable agriculture. This entails improving the
productivity and incomes of small-scale farmers by promoting equal access to
land, technology and markets, sustainable food production systems and resilient
agricultural practices. It also requires increased investments through
international cooperation to bolster the productive capacity of agriculture in
developing countries. (unstats.un.org/sdgs/report/2016/goal-02/)
Role of Charitable
Trusts
There is no doubt that ensuring availability and
accessibility of food for each person is the solution to end hunger. And, the
efforts of global organisations, charitable trusts, and philanthropic
supporters have contributed in reducing the global hunger population despite
increase in the world’s population. Yet, there is a long way to go to achieve
the ‘Zero Hunger’ status. Amidst several charitable organisations surface The
Akshaya Patra Foundation. Akshaya Patra is an Indian charitable trust actively
working towards eliminating classroom hunger and hidden hunger by providing
nutrition-rich mid-day meals to school-going children. The trust is an
implementing arm of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme, an initiative of the Government of
India to provide school lunch to children of government schools and
government-aided schools. This charitable trust has been in the service of
children since 2000 and has been recognised as the world’s largest NGO-run school
lunch programme. So far, Akshaya Patra has nourished more than 1.7 million
children across 12 states of India.
The objectives of the Mid-Day Meal Scheme are to avoid
classroom hunger, increase school enrolment and school attendance, improve
socialisation among castes, and address malnutrition, while also empowering
women through employment. These characteristics
of Mid-Day Meal Scheme addresses the hunger situation in a sustainable
manner. It has been observed that school meals act as incentives for children
to attend school. So, once children are in school, they receive both food and
education. Food takes care of their health and hunger, and education enables
them to learn new skills and subjects and prepares them for the future. This
results in creation of a generation that is healthy, abled, resourceful, and
self-dependent.
Akshaya Patra is ensuring that children receive their daily
school meals in an uninterrupted manner. The trust is working in partnership
with the Central Government, State Governments, Corporates, and individual
donors with sole aim to provide ‘unlimited food for education’ to Indian
children. Thus, as an Indian
charitable trust, Akshaya Patra is focussing on eliminating hunger,
improving nutritional levels, and improving education status at a national
level – that is in accordance with the UN Sustainable Goals of attaining ‘Zero
Hunger’ and ‘Quality Education’.
Need for a
collaborated effort
It would not be wrong to say that the Mid-Day Meal Scheme
has the potential to break the vicious cycle of hunger-poverty-illiteracy.
Simply because, this Scheme is supporting the education of children and
enabling them to provide for themselves, a factor that’s significant in
tackling the hunger situation. However, no one government or organisation can
achieve the ideal situation of ‘Zero Hunger’. It requires the concerted effort
of governments, private sectors, and the civil society to invest and create a
lasting change.
So, choose to give to charity online.
Your contributions will significantly help Akshaya Patra to expand its
operations to more locations and extend its support to more children. Change
happens when we act. So, aside from reasoning and finding solutions, it’s about
time that we actively acted to support our fellow human beings with something
as basic as food!
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Created on Jun 27th 2018 03:56. Viewed 630 times.