Impact of Mid-day Meals Programme of Akshaya Patra on Children in India

The Study makes an attempt to study the impact of mid-day meals programme in a Not for Profit (NPO) of repute. The Akshaya Patra Foundation (TAPF) in India is serving mid-day meal to children who are studying in Government schools. The study covers 593children over nine centralized kitchen across six States of India. An instrument was developed covering Demographics in Part I and twenty characteristic variables in part II. The instrument was initially developed in English and was translated to five different languages, Kannada, Hindi, Gujarati, Odia and Telugu and administered to children. The sample size was determined as 551 and actual coverage turned out to be 593. The average age of children is 12.98 years. The class of study of these children is between 5th& 10th standards. The states of the children belong to are Karnataka, Telangana (AP), Orissa, Gujarat, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. The kitchen covered are in following cities: (1) Hyderabad (2) Gandhinagar (3) H K Hill, Bengaluru (4) Ballari (5) Hubballi (6) Vasanthpura, Bengaluru (7) Puri (8) Jaipur & (9) Vrindhavan.

The results of the study have led to rejection of all null hypotheses except one. Children are eating food, curds and sweets. Significant improvement in learning and personnel hygiene was noticed. There is overall improvement performance of students. The children have picked up healthy living habits such as washing hand before food, drinking clean water, washing plates before and after eating food, wearing clean clothes and combing hair every day. The results of multiple regression analysis with age as dependent variable have indicated significance of relationship between response variablesand the dependent variable. The children are sharp enough to react that they come to school not for eating food alone as their age grows.

The mid-day meals programme of TAPF is a mega experiment in mass food delivery system in India. The study has revealed some critical points to ponder over as the experiment spreads to several States & Union Territories in India. The programme is all inclusive in its approach & has made its impact on the target group. The hot food served has made positive impact on the learning, health & habits. Some areas of improvement are suggested to make the programme more effective by continuous training in distribution of food & learning of clean habits by children.