| India, at present, is to a large
extent self-sufficient in terms of foodgrains
stocks. However, it is a very anomalous situation
because in spite of availability of food nearly
40% of the children in this country are
malnourished. The primary reason for this is lack
of purchasing power due to dire poverty. Millions
of children go to bed hungry or at best half fed
because their parents/guardians are not able to
purchase food for them.
Under these circumstances a routine welfare
project would have just distributed food to the
children and completed their task-but not Mahadev
Madhav Nidhi Charitable Trust. It thought of linking food
to education and savings to make it a
developmental project.
Our Food for Education
programme distributes free food to poor children
if they attend any formal or non-formal
educational class. It thus combines food with
education-we now have a child who is educated and
well fed also. The programme has been very
effective in arresting the drop-out rate in
schools because children were being sent to
schools because of the free mid-day meal.
For older children-rather youth in the 14 to 23
years age group the trust has Food for
Savings-a programme which gives food to
such youth if they save a part of the money earned
by them doing odd jobs. This money is deposited in
a bank and the cumulated savings can be used
either for a social commitment or starting a
micro-business by the youth. This has another side
benefit-the youth who would have in the normal
course wasted this money on movies or even drugs
now puts it to good use.
The Food Project has been going on since
1990-19 years ago and has been appreciated by one
and all for its benefits to the poor children and
youth of Mumbai. The food is prepared centrally in
the kitchens of the trust and then distributed to
the children through networking with NGOs who work
with the poor children. Around 7000 children are
fed daily under this programme.
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