A Thought to Share on International Literacy Day

UNESCO commemorates International Literacy Day on September 8, every year. It is to bring awareness and promote the importance of education. India’s scene in term of literacy is not so desirable.

• According to a survey, India's literacy rate increases ‘lethargically’
• A 1990 study estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy
• According to the 2011 census, India had a literacy rate of 74.04 percent
• In the year 2014, the literacy rate of India increased by 10 percent

How is India looking forward to tackle the challenge?

It has to start from the root, the children. The Government of India launched ‘The Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (Hindi for Total Literacy Campaign was in 2001 to ensure that all children in the 6–14-year age-group attend school and complete eight years of schooling by 2010. The Education Guarantee Scheme and Alternative and Innovative Education are two important aspects of the campaign, meant primarily for children in areas with no formal school within a one kilometre radius.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, as an NGO runs the mid-day meal programme to provide nutritious food to the school children and promote education thus, providing substantial support to ‘Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan’. The programme has grown from feeding 1,500 children in the year 2000 to 1.4 million children in 2014. Today, this organisation feeds free mid-day meals to school children in 10,845 Government schools and Government-aided schools. The organisation currently has its presence in 24 locations across 10 states in India.

The not-for-profit organisation’s vision is—‘No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger’. To achieve this vision, Akshaya Patra provides ‘unlimited food for education’.

The programme has brought back children to schools, increase attendance, decrease drop-out rate, and promote socialisation. All will directly impact in increasing the literacy rate amongst children in India.

How can you help?

You can be a volunteer to the NGO. You can support a child with mid-day meal for year. This activity will lead to successful implementation of the mid-day meal programme eventually resulting in children getting educated.

Knowing an effective organisation like Akshaya Patra

Non-governmental organisations (NGOs) or Charities are expressions of people working for people. They are groups of ordinary citizens making efforts to change lives for the better. NGOs come in different lights with an array of activities depending on support, cause and values. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one amongst millions of NGOs in the world striving to make an impact and transform lives of millions of children in India.

Akshaya Patra operates at its best working in partnership with The Government of India and the state governments, with the help of its supporters and staff towards professional ways of working and effective, high-impact programme that provides mid-day meals to school children in government and government-aides schools. It’s effective because its cause is clear and the vision and mission are defined and imbibed by all associated with the organisation.

The organisation is able to work to its strength by mobilising the skills of its workforce. For Akshaya Patra, its impact is proportional to response to the need and the bond its builds with all involved with the cause. The trust of beneficiaries, school teachers, trustees, donors, partners and all other stakeholder is the backbone of the organisation. Its size and reach are just mere reflections to the effort.

And anyone who wants to support needs to know whether the organisation deserves it; does the cause needs it? and so on. To make the decision easy Akshaya Patra has clearly explained its vision, mission and programme it is implementing. It shares its impact study, progresses and strategies in taking the cause forward. The organisation has explained the motivation for its programme, how it works towards a positive change that is eliminating classroom hunger. The Akshaya Patra Foundation works with a strong internal system, and applies professional standards and codes of conduct to its work. And of course its ultimate judges are the beneficiaries. Akshaya Patra runs the world’s largest mid-day meal programme providing nutritious food to more than 1.4 million children in India. It’s growing, moving towards its mission of feeding 5 million by 2020.

Akshaya Patra - Not just a NGO but a Knowledge Enterprise too

In the recent past Akshaya Patra has been awarded for maintaining hygiene, cleanliness and employing food safety measures in implementing the mid-day meal programme. It has also been awarded for the various continual improvement measures like Lean, Six Sigma, Kaizen employed in all its kitchens. During the 9th CII National Food Safety and Quality Summit on 2nd December, 2014 two Akshaya Patra kitchens namely Hubli kitchen and Vasanthapura kitchen received CII National Food Safety Awards 2014. The Hubli Kitchen received the second highest award of 'Certificate of Commendation for Significant Achievement in Food Safety' and the Vasanthapura kitchen received the highest award of 'Outstanding Performance in Food Safety'. 

During the 3rd Annual Convention and Competition of Lean Six Sigma, Akshaya Patra’s Gujarat team won the Platinum award for its case study on the theme 'Lean Six Sigma for Global Competitiveness'. It was the only NGO to take part in this competition and excelled ahead of about 40 case studies that were presented by leading manufacturing companies. Participating in the 5th National Convention on Operational Excellence by Kaizen Institute of India (KII) - Indizen 2014, Akshaya Patra won in the category of 'Continued Commitment to Operational Excellence' for its case study designed around a Six Sigma Project on Optimization of Cooking Gas Cost in its Surat kitchen.

Akshaya Patra has not only employed innovative technologies but it has also conducted knowledge sharing sessions for trainee IAS officers and also for cooks who are involved with the mid-day meal scheme across India. In the recently held Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) National Knowledge Summit 2015 in Bangalore on 19th and 20th March, the Foundation received the Asian MAKE (Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise) Award from the CII. This year’s summit theme centred around establishing pathway to a ‘Digital India’. The Asian MAKE is a platform to identify organisations that are founded as well as headquartered in Asia. It identifies organisations that create or increase stakeholder value by utilising either existing or new knowledge to improve their products or services. The panel of judges who were knowledge management and intellectual of Asian-based Fortune Global 500 adjudged the winners through a three level process and ranking them against the eight knowledge performance criteria of the MAKE framework.

Of the total 68 organisations nominated, only 20 organisations were entitled as winners of the 2014 Asian Most Admired Knowledge Enterprise. With Akshaya Patra being the only non-profit organisation, some of the other winning Indian organisations were Wipro Limited, Hindustan Unilever Limited, Tata Consultancy Services and Infosys Limited. Read more about this award at Winner of Asian MAKE 2014 Award by CII.

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Snapshots of joy on a wall of hope

From the 10th to 12th of January, The Akshaya Patra Foundation hosted a photography exhibit titled ‘The Wall of Hope and Joy’ at the ‘Vismaya’ Rangoli Art Gallery, Metro Station, MG Road, Bangalore. Showcasing myriad photographs of children laughing, smiling, playing and positively bursting with exuberance, this photo exhibit was almost like the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel.