Akshaya Patra
Akshaya Patra - Contributions towards a sustainable Mid-day Meal program for rural schools in Guwahati
Design for sustainability factors in three important considerations viz. the Environmental impact, the Economic impact and the Socio-ethical impact in the evaluation and development of systems that are conceived, designed and finally implemented in our society. The order of priority of the above considerations may have different weightage based on the context and the system for which it is to be designed. This study focuses on the study of practices that have social Impact. It examines the activities of Akshaya Patra Foundation, Bangalore that is engaged in providing daily mid day meals to nearly 5 million school going children across nearly 8 states in India. This module examines the contributions of Akshaya patra foundations, Guwahati to the Mid day meal program made operational through the central kitchen that daily caters to 40000 children studying in school amongst the various government schools in the vicinity of Guwahati city.
The Module examines participatory involvement among the different stakeholders including the state, civil society and corporate sector to achieve its set goals of a sustainable system that ensures that the dropout rate due to hunger of under privileged children from schools is reduced. Section two presents the outcome of a design workshop undertaken by students of Design from IIT Guwahati and NTNU, Norway who jointly focused on seeking design interventions to help improve the deliverables undertaken by Akshaya Patra Foundation, Guwahati.
