Akshay Patra File

7/29/2019 Akshay Patra File

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AKSHAYA PATRA

Group member:-

1.Patel. krupa.

2.Shilu meghna

Submitted to:- Suresh Sir

CHAUDHARY TECHNICAL INSTITUTE


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INDEX

1. Introduction

2. History

3. Objective

4. Mission

5. Vision

6. Production Process

7. Akshaya Patra: Improving Education, One Meal at

a Time

8. Conclusion

9. Experience


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1. Introduction

Akshayapatra (Sanskrit: ) meaning inexhaustible vessel, is an object from

Hindu theology. It was a wonderful vessel given to Yudhishthira by the Lord Surya,which held a never-failing supply of food to the Pandavas every day.

When the Pandavas began their exile in the forest, Yudhishtra was despondent at

his inability to feed the holy sages and others who accompanied him. At this, Dhaumya,the priest of the Pandavas, counselled him to pray to Lord Surya. Pleased with

Yudhishtira's prayers, Lord Surya blessed him with the Akshaya Patra, a vessel that

would give unlimited food every day till Draupadi finished eating.

2. History

The history of the foundation starts with a story of compassion. Looking out of a

window one day in Mayapur, a village near Calcutta, His Divine Grace A. C.

Bhaktivedanta Swami Prabhupada,saw a group of children fighting with street dogs over

scraps of food. From this simple, heartbreaking incident was born a determination that

molded the beliefs of the foundation: No child within a radius of ten miles from the

centre should go hungry.

Mohandas Pai and Abhay Jain planted the seeds of thought of starting a kitchen at

ISKCON, Bangalore that cooked food for disadvantaged children in government schools.

The program started in the year 2000 feeding 1,500 in children from a temporary kitchenin Bangalore, India; it has grown in length and breadth and to a day when they have

served over a billion meals.


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Akshaya Patra partnered with the Karnataka government in 2003 under the mid-day

meal scheme to act as one of the implementing arms of the government in many regions.

It now works with central and state governments in 10 states (Karnataka, AndhraPradesh, Assam, Chattisgarh, Gujarat, New Delhi, Orissa, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu and

Uttar Pradesh) and has set up kitchens in 20locations.

In November 28, 2001 the Supreme Court of India passed an order whichmandated that: "Cooked mid-day meal is to be provided in all the government andgovernment-aided primary schools in all the states." Akshaya Patra was called in to give

testimonies to the Supreme Court in order to implement the mandate.

By the time the Ministry of Human Resource Development (Department of SchoolHealth and Education) extended its support to this noble cause in 2003, Akshaya Patra

was already reaching out to 23,000 underprivileged children through the support of our

donors.


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With the partnership of the Government of India & various State governments, as

well as the generosity of thousands of our supporters, we have grown from a small

endeavor to a mammoth force that stretches across the country.

Now we are reaching out to 1.3 million children everyday.

For 12 years, we have been an international charity for children that has worked totransform a vision into a reality.

3. Objective

As mentioned by the Akshaya Patra mission that no child in India will be

deprived of education because of hunger, the basic aim of the programme isthat children come to school.

As per the RTE Act report of 2011, 8.1 million children are out of school in

India, largely to be able to earn a meal a day. Akshaya Patra intends to address this vicious cycle of poverty, hunger and lack

of education through its mid-day meal programme.

In the long run, the expectation is that children who attend school will have afair chance to improve their life standards.

4. Mission

To reach out to 5 million children by 2020.

5. Vision

No child in India shall be deprived of education because of hunger.


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6. Production Process

The focus of the Akshaya Patra mid-day meal programme is to ensure every childgets a hot,nutritious meal every day at lunch in school. To this end, the programme has

set in place a stream lined process that starts from the preparation of the meal in their

kitchen, to its hot and fresh delivery by Akshaya Patras trademark blue buses.

The massive effort is underpinned by a well-planned and high-tech kitchen, operated

by a team of trained kitchen staff. The Nathwara kitchen presently comprises 75 staff-members, 32 of whom are women.

Food is packed ready by 9 am in the morning, and reaches schools around 11am. Healso monitors the cleanliness and hygiene in all processes, and adds that the kitchen is

cleaned thoroughly three times a day, at 9am, 1pm and 3pm.

A flour-kneading machine prepares dough out of 75 kgs of wheat flour (atta) in nineminutes; this is then mounted on a roti-maker set up that flattens out the dough, cuts it

into round roti-shapes, and mounts it on a chulha (burner) to produce puffy rotis, 40,000

in an hour. In another section of the kitchen the rice and curries are steam cooked in hugesteel cauldrons. Mechanized processes of peeling and chopping vegetables enable huge

quantities of food to be prepared in short time.

They serves 25,000 rotis, 600 kgs of rice, 270-280 kgs of dal, and 1100 kgs of

vegetables on a daily basis. The food, as it is prepared, is immediately packed into


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specially designed Tiffin boxes, weighed, and loaded onto the Blue Buses to be sent for

delivery.

The entire food preparation and delivery process adheres to 6-sigma standards whichmeans the food gets packed at a specific temperature (not less than 90 degrees Celsius)

and is delivered at school while it is still hot (not less than 60 degrees Celsius). Route

supervisors monitor the daily delivery of meals by the trademark Blue Buses speciallydesigned for the purpose.

7. Akshaya Patra: Improving Education, One Meal at a Time

Each school day, more than a million children in 6,500 schools across sevenIndian states eagerly await the vehicle that brings their midday meal. For many of them,

the food provided by the Bangalore-based Akshaya Patra Foundation is their first, andperhaps only, meal of the day. The promise of an ample hot lunch brings them to schoolregularly. The foundation's hope is that the nutrition helps them think clearly once they

are there.

"Our program is not just about providing food," says Madhu Pandit Das, chairman of the

Akshaya Patra Foundation. "It is about providing opportunities for children fromeconomically challenged backgrounds to get a good education and thereby realize their

true potential." Akshaya Patra is the world's largest non-governmental organization

(NGO) school meal program, according to the Limca Book of Records.

An estimated 45 million children do not attend school in India because they have to fendfor themselves and their families. They typically end up with menial jobs. Without

education, they remain in poverty. Many underprivileged children who do attend school

remain impoverished because hunger and malnutrition prevent them from learning well."We want to break this vicious cycle," says the foundation's vice chairman,

Chanchalapati Das. "Our vision is that no child in India shall be deprived of education

because of hunger."

Having crossed the one million milestones last year, Akshaya Patra is working toward itsnext goal: to reach five million underprivileged children by 2020. But Madhu Pandit also

envisions a larger social role. "We want to develop Akshaya Patra as a platform that other

NGOs and social entrepreneurs can adopt and replicate." He and Chanchalapati,engineers by education, are also full-time missionaries at the International Society for

Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON), a Krishna temple in Bangalore.

In a congratulatory letter in November 2008, U.S. President Barack Obama noted that in

just a few years, Akshaya Patra had become the single largest feeding program in theworld. "Your example of using advanced technologies in central kitchens ... is an


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imaginative approach that has the potential to serve as a model for other countries," he

wrote.

Compared with other NGOs that struggle to survive, how has Akshaya Patra managed toreach so many? According to S. Nayana Tara, professor of public systems at the Indian

Institute of Management, Bangalore, the foundation's "management and operating model,the quality and delivery of services, and the commitment of the team are all key

differentiators." To reach its next goal of reaching five million children "and to become arole model, it needs to continue to build on all these fronts. It has to be a very well-

orchestrated program." Nayana Tara, who has conducted impact studies on the program,

adds that in moving ahead, Akshaya Patra needs to pay special attention to capacity-building at all levels by bringing in professionals with different strengths. And it needs to

put robust measures of service quality in place.

Says Devi Shetty, a cardiac surgeon who is founder of the Bangalore-based heart hospital

Narayana Hrudayalaya: "[Akshaya Patra's] biggest strength is that they are very

conscious of every penny that is spent and they spend it extremely judiciously. They arefulfilling a great social need." Shetty, whose hospital has made quality cardiac care

widely affordable, points out that Akshaya Patra is run like a business, even though thereis no profit motive. Shetty is a member of Akshaya Patra's board of advisers.

Akshaya Patra -- which in Sanskrit means the "inexhaustible vessel" -- began in 2000 as a

small initiative of ISKCON-Bangalore. The temple cooks meals -- called prasadam -- for

thousands of devotees on a daily basis. Mohandas Pai, director at software giant InfosysTechnologies, suggested to Madhu Pandit, chairman of ISKCON, that the temple take on

the responsibility of feeding underprivileged children in nearby schools. Pai, who later

became a program trustee, offered to bear part of the cost personally. Madhu Pandit

agreed and the temple started cooking and distributing food to 1,500 students across fiveschools in the city. Word of mouth soon led to requests pouring in from other schools.

A year later, to avoid religious overtones, Akshaya Patra registered as an independent and

secular charitable trust. In 2003, the government of Karnataka started its own middaymeal in line with a Supreme Court decree that such programs be implemented by all state

governments. The Karnataka government invited NGOs to become implementing

partners and Akshaya Patra responded. It now partners with seven state governments

Akshaya Patra Foundation has been awarded contracts to supply close to 9,73,000 mid-

day-meal to children of class 1 to 10 in government and government aided schools inseveral states all over the country. The website shows the various acts of fraud,

profiteering and other unethical practices of the Akshaya Patra foundation. The website

also documents various allegations and controversies regarding the functioning of theFoundation.

The complaints have triggered agitations against Akshaya Patra and the protests

are slowly turning into a movement. There has been debate, discussion and wide spreadshock about the complaints of fraud.
http://www.iimb.ernet.in/user/86http://www.iimb.ernet.in/user/86


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8. Conclusion

The Akshaya Patra Programme demonstrates a success story in the field of Public

Private Partnership in Indias Mid-day Meal Scheme. It has set an example how a well-

implemented programme can effectively address the issue of hunger and malnutrition in

the country. In doing so, the Akshaya Patra Programme is also reinforcing the Right toEducation Act by ensuring that children not only come to school, but more importantly

stay in school.

The unique aspect of this intervention is that the programme has been able to take amassive initiative to scale, while keeping its high quality and delivery standards integral.

In this respect it stands as a best practice, and offers value in being replicated across the

country. Furthermore, the impacts are verifiable clearly, which lends credibility to theintervention, and has definitely helped build a multi-stakeholder partnership around the

programme.

9. Experience

Akshaya Patra, through education, is literally building the future of India one meal at atime, and I find that fascinating.

The Kitchen Visit...

We were visited the Akshaya Patra kitchen in Gandhinagar early in the morning to get

an idea of the entire process of food production. What we saw astounded us. Never

before had we witnessed such an efficient and pragmatic facility dedicated entirely tomaking food. The kitchens produced the basic nutritional essentials (rice, dal, and

chapatti) for thousands of children in the span of just a few hours, utilizing hygienic

methods of cooking and transportation within the facility.

When we were going to Akshaya Patra, then we feel the food is our basic need. And

they provide very healthy food to the children. They also provide for us. That is our goodexperience.

Really thank you sir, giving us opportunity to saw the Akshaya patra.


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