Public Private Partnership (PPP) Model for mid day meal Programme: Akshaya Patra

ABSTRACT Education helps in preserving, enriching and refining intellectual systems. Government of India has taken a policy initiative for universalisation of primary education, which is known as Mid Day Meal Program. This policy initiative is helpful for those children, who belonged to poor socioeconomic background, such as those parents are engaged in farming, a Labor occupation. Within the PPP model of implementation of the Mid Day Meal Program, the largest partner of the Indian Government is the Akshaya Patra Foundation, a not-for-profit trust of ISKCON (International Society for Krishna Consciousness), Bangalore. The Akshaya Patra midday meal program started in the year 2000 in Bangalore, by serving 1500 children in 5 schools, across the city. The program soon scaled up across different states, in partnership with an invitation, from respective State Governments. The broad objective of the Akshaya Patra mission is that, “no child in India will be deprived of education, because of hunger”, the basic aim of the program is that, children should attend school. Akshaya Patra, in association with Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD), initiated trainings on food safety, quality and personal hygiene, for midday meal cooks-cum helpers. The incentive of a guaranteed meal under the Akshaya Patra midday meal program has been able to bring children back to school. This is the most significant impact of the program. As students' enrollment and attendance increase, so do their educational levels. The Akshaya Patra Program demonstrates a success story, in the field of Public Private Partnership in India's Midday Meal Scheme. It has set an example on, how a well-implemented program can effectively address the issue of hunger and malnutrition in the country.