Knowledge and attitude urban and rural school children on “Akshara Dasoha Yojana” in selected Schools at Mangalore

Mid day meal programme known as Akshara Dasoha yojana in Karnataka is an ongoing school feeding programme. Despite of the success of the program, malnutrition still persists among school children. According to current statistics, India's 42.5% of the children are underweight.

To assess and compare the knowledge, attitude of rural and urban school children on “Akshara Dasoha yojana” (ADY). To assess the association between the knowledge of school children with selected demographic variables.

The study was conducted at various rural and urban schools which are served by Akshara Dasoha yojana, at Mangalore under Dakshina Kannada District and here comparative research design was used.

Purposive sampling technique was used to select schools under Mangalore. A sample size of 400 school children i.e. 200 from each rural and urban schools were selected by simple random sampling technique. Demographic information and knowledge level of school children on Akshara Dasoha yojana was assessed using structured questionnaire and rating scale was used to determine the attitude towards Akshara Dasoha yojana. Analysis was done using SPSS 16.

Majority of school children from rural (52.5%) has poor knowledge on Akshara Dasoha yojana and in urban this was (24.5%). Attitude towards Akshara Dasoha yojana was found to be neutral amongst 51.5% of rural and 58% of urban school children. Study indicated the need of educating the school children about nutritional program like Akshara Dasoha yojana and importance of developing more positive attitude towards it.