Mangalore: The Akshaya Patra Foundation released the study report conducted by the health department, Manipal University on the impact of mid-day meals on the schools students from Mangalore region on Saturday July 23.
Chief guest Dr V S Acharya, state higher education minister, released the study officially. He said that the meals served in the afternoon acts as a recharger for the rest of the day’s lessons for the children.
He also said that the food must be fresh, clean, tasty, nutritious and sumptuous and served on time to increase immunity and good health in the child which increases the immunity in them. In HRD health and education are the most important factors and Udupi and Mangalore districts are better compared to west. If there is hunger there can be no development in the child including education, he added.
Dr Ramachandra Kamath, HOD, public health department, Manipal University said that
during the preliminary study findings a team of doctors and social workers measured the height and weight of 1630 children from 10 schools in Mangalore showed that 92 percent of the children were found to be well-nourished, three percent were found to be overweight, while five percent were found to be undernourished.
A total of 78,000 children will be examined through this project and the next phase of the project will cover Mysore, Hubli-Dharwad and Bellary districts.
Karunya Sagar Dasa, president of the Mangalore unit of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, said, “We want to add more quality to our programme and make the children healthier physically, leading to mental, intellectual and ultimately spiritual health of the children. This programme is therefore meant to address the fact that there is the good care and concern of the government, institutions like ISKCON and Akshaya Patra, public, corporates etc to care for the uncared”.
Shailaja Bhat, president, Dakshina Karnataka zilla panchayat inaugurated a free ophthalmology camp for students studying in government schools organized by Akshaya Patra, Mangalore in association with K S Hegde Medical College, Derlakatte, Mangalore.
Dr Jayaram Shetty, HOD, Opthalmology, K S Hegde Medical College, Deputy secretary of zilla panchayat Shivarame Gowda and Dr Hrishikesh Amin, professor, K S Hegde Medical College were present.