Make India a Better Place for Girls

Girls are as important as boys. But many of us are yet to completely accept the fact and in several parts of India, girls are still considered as a burden to the family and treated inferior to boys. Moreover, they are denied some basic rights of children like education, freedom and nutrition.  Changing this picture is the main aim behind observing the National Girl Child Day on January 24 every year in India.

Compared to the past, the situation has improved significantly. However, we still have a long way to go to make our nation a better place for girls. There is no doubt that we will reach our destination one day. But to achieve this faster, we have to take care of several elements mainly education for girls.

This is because education is best way to empower girl children or achieve gender equality. An educated girl is not only an asset to her family but to the whole community.  Education gives girls the confidence and skills to work, manage and run a family and help in the betterment of the society.

Interestingly, educating a girl can help avoid some issues our society is currently facing including early pregnancy, malnutrition and infant mortality. Also investing in a girl’s education can bring more returns than that of a boy.  Research shows that an extra year in schooling leads to 15 percent increase in a woman’s future earnings compared to the 11 percent in men.  

Undernutrition is another issue which affects girl children in India. Shockingly, about 47% of teenage girls in the nation are underweight. An undernourished girl child will grow up as an undernourished mother and will give birth to stunted children.

Similarly, child marriage and early pregnancy are the other two issues which haunt Indian girls today. Millions of girls are still married off before 18 and become mothers at an early age.

In an effort to solve these issues and to highlight the importance of education for girls, the Indian Government has introduced several schemes. ‘Beti bachao, beti padhao,’ ‘Sukanya Samriddhi Yojana (SSY), ‘Nutrition programme for adolescent girls,’  ‘The Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls (RGSEAG) – Sabla’ and the ‘National Scheme of Incentives to Girls for Secondary Education’ are some of them.

Also some NGOs have come forward to help girls. The Akshaya Patra Foundation is one of them. The NGO’s Mid-Day Meal Programme has helped improve girls’ education, helped bring them back to school and boost the nutritional status of girl students.

Educate Girls, Nanhi Kali, Rasta, Save a Girl Child, Plan India are some of the other charities who work for gender equality, girl’s education and welfare of girl children in India.

Despite all these efforts, India is still considered the worst country in the world for girls. On this Girl Child Day, let us change this image -join hands, fight these issues together and provide education for girls, so that India will become a dream land for girls across the whole world.

Get Ready for Outride Hunger 2016!

It’s time of the year again and Outride Hunger, the annual biking event organised by The Akshaya Patra Foundation in partnership with Wrangler, is back.  On 7 February, 2016 over 300 bike enthusiasts who have registered for Outride Hunger 16, will cover a distance of 26 kilometres from Akshaya Patra’s HK Hill kitchen to its Vasanthapura kitchen and raise awareness of Akshaya Patra’s cause. The event will conclude with a tasty lunch and photo session.

Registration is still open. If you are interested, log into our website and provide your contact details along with your T-shirt size. Join us in ending classroom hunger!

www.akshayapatra.org/out-ride-hunger

Effects of Climate Change on Children

Climate changes have been a topic of concern across the world. From Ozone depletion to melting of polar ice caps to increased levels of carbon dioxide in the air, we have plenty of reasons to worry.

A report released by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in 2001 found humans as the main culprit behind the recent global climate change and the natural calamities which follow it.

An effort to address this problem and improve the situation was initiated at the 21^st Conference of the Parties (COP21) conducted in Paris from 30 November to 12 December 2015. In the conference, all the delegates agreed to keep the ‘increase in global temperature below 2 degree Celsius’.

Here is an example of how natural calamities affected children.

Earth quake and typhoons affect everyone, but children are the most affected of them all.  Some of the effects of climate change and natural calamities include food insecurity -hunger and malnutrition in children -and emotional insecurity -loss of home or loved ones.

Additionally, education also gets severely affected. Nearly 5,000 schools were destroyed in the Nepal earthquake while hundreds got affected in the Malawi floods.  The 2013 Typhoon Haiyan in Philippines damaged around 2,500 schools.

You can read more at http://blog.akshayapatra.org/children-the-unseen-victims-of-climate-change/

Climate change can be solved with proper intervention.  However, we have to start now to protect the planet for our future generations.

Healthy Food for Children is Crucial for Development

All the major developments of the body and brain take place at childhood.  Therefore, lots of vegetables, fruits, nuts, legumes and whole grains are essential in the food for children to ensure their healthy development. However, the reality is that not all the children in India have access to proper nutrition, especially in their formative years, in fact millions still don’t. The silver lining is that the situation has become far better than what it was used to be, largely thanks to the efforts of various NGOs for children and people who donate to charity.

Healthy food for children is important for several reasons:

• Early childhood - from birth to eight years is one of the most critical periods in children’s growth. It is during this period children grow fast and acquire all their basic skills including language, socio-emotional development (attachment, sense of right and wrong); and fine (ability to hold pencils) and gross (balance, skip) motor skills. Vital nutrients in fruits and vegetables like vitamin C, vitamin A, fibre, folate, potassium, magnesium and phytochemicals help keep the body and mind healthy. This is why doctors and health experts specify on including more fruits and vegetables in food for children.
• Countless studies in the past have also highlighted importance of healthy eating during childhood.  A balanced diet has been shown to increase brain function, improve behaviour and concentration of students and improve children’s learning capacity and academic performance.  According to the World Health Organization (WHO), healthy nutrition also protects children against obesity and chronic diseases like cancer, eating disorders and cardiovascular diseases. In addition, following a healthy diet during the early stages of growth also helps one remain healthy in adulthood and at old age. 

On the other hand, chronic malnutrition has been proved to leave irreversible damage on children, both in their physical and mental development. UNICEF states that about 7.6 million children around the world die before age five. Around 200 million children manage to survive; but fail to reach full human potential due to various reasons like poor nutrition, inadequate care and lack of opportunities.  According to the experts, early intervention by giving opportunities to overcome these issues can yield promising results and help improve survival, growth, health and other areas of early development.

In India, effort to provide opportunities to underserved children was initiated through many NGO for children like The Akshaya Patra Foundation. With the help of individuals who donate to charity, Akshaya Patra has been providing nutritious food for children since 2000.

Giving children the opportunity to attend school regularly, the organisation currently delivers freshly cooked nutritious meals to over 1.4 million children every day. The NGO for children aims at providing more food for children by expanding its reach to 5 million students by 2020.

To help make this happen, join Akshaya Patra and donate to charity. Your support will ensure more children get wholesome meals every day in government and government aided schools, and get the opportunity to grow physically and mentally strong.

Support a Child and Avail 100% Income Tax Exemption

We’ve all been hungry before, but very few of us have had to go days between eating a complete meal. Millions of children across India experience debilitating hunger every day, and are forced to focus all their energy on simply earning enough money for a single meal. In a situation like this, children cannot even consider getting educated or enjoying their lives in any way.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation, a top NGO in India, has been trying hard since the year 2000 to ensure that no child in India misses an opportunity to attend school due to hunger.  The freshly cooked nutritious meals served by the NGO have helped bring over a million children back to school. Today, over 1.4 million children in 10 states in India receive mid-day meals from Akshaya Patra. Apart from improving children’s nutritional status, the mid-day meals have helped improve school enrolment, classroom attendance, concentration levels and performance.

The credit for the children’s improved nutrition and education goes primarily to people who make the charitable trust donation. In return, Akshaya Patra also gives some benefits to its well-wishers. A charitable trust donation of ₹500 or above, made to support Akshaya Patra’s Mid-Day Meal Programme gets you a 100% income tax exemption in India under Section 35 AC or 50% under section 80G of the Income Tax act.  Within 10 days of making the donation, the donor will receive an income tax exemption certificate from Akshaya Patra.

As a next step, the organisation wants to feed 5 million children by 2020 and you can help it reach its goal. Support the programme generously with charitable trust donation and fulfil children’s dreams.