Over one lakh school going children to benefit in next two years

Tata Steel has partnered with the Government of Jharkhand and ISKCON Food Relief Foundation to roll out a Mid-Day Meal Scheme for underprivileged school going children in East Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsawa districts of Jharkhand. The Foundation Stone of the project was laid here today by the Hon'ble Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Shri Arjun Munda and Mr H M Nerurkar, Managing Director of Tata Steel.

The Mid-Day Meal Programme in East Singhbhum and Saraikela-Kharsawa districts will initially benefit 65,000 children. This number is estimated to go up to 1 lakh within the next two years.

Tata Steel will provide the infrastructure that would be required for successful rollout of the Mid-Day Meal Programme while ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, an NGO that provides top-class Mid-Day Meal Services in various towns and cities across the country, will take charge of the day-to-day management of the programme.

ISKCON Food Relief Foundation has obtained ISO 9001 and Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Point certificates and ensures food safety management. It partners with many State governments and conforms to the Supreme Court stipulation of 450Kcal and 18 grams protein per child.

While delivering the welcome speech Mr. Sanjiv Paul, Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel ,assured the Govt. of Jharkhand that Tata Steel will always be there to ensure the quality of life of the communities it serve.

Mrs. Mridulla Sinha, Principal Secretary, HRD, Govt. Of Jharkhand while addressing the gathering appreciated the effort of Tata Steel.

Shri Banna Gupta, MLA, Jamshedpur, West while addressing the people appreciated this Private Public Partnership (PPP) model and suggested this PPP can be implemented in other fields also .

Speaking on the occasion, the Chief Minister of Jharkhand, Mr Arjun Munda, highly appreciated the efforts of Tata Steel for this ambitious project which is directly linked with the future of state. It will ensure that children are getting education and at the same time they are getting nutritional and healthy food. He stressed on the need to have this kind of project in all the district head quarters of Jharkhand with the help of private public partnership.

In his address, Mr H M Nerurkar, Managing Director of Tata Steel said: “Poverty deprives many underprivileged children from securing the benefits of education. Hunger obstructs education as children are forced to drop out of schools and take up menial jobs. This Mid-Day Meal Scheme has been designed to attract these underprivileged children to schools and also reduce the number of school going children who drop out due to poverty and financial distress. Education will empower them to explore their potential and earn a decent living as responsible citizens of our country”.

Others present on the occasion included senior officials of the District Administration, Mr. Venu Madhav Das, Director, ISKCON Food Relief Foundation, senior executives of Tata Steel, Heads of the Companies, officials from Tata Workers' Union and Tata Mazoor Union etc.