Odisha plans Happiness nutrition kit for school children
The kit comprises wheat, chana, turmeric powder, cardamom, peanuts and jiggery
By Swagatika Bhutia
BHUBANESWAR, FEB. 1: Odisha school and mass education department has come up with a special kit to boost the immunity of thae school students across the state.
According to state school and mass education minister Samir Ranjan Dash, the department will distribute happiness kits among the students of Class I to Class VIII to boost their immunity ahead of the opening of the schools.
The distribution of the kits will begin from the February first week. No specific date on opening of school has been announced till yet.
The happiness kit will consist of wheat, chana, turmeric powder, cardamom, peanuts and jaggery. Moreover, there will be a pen, pencil, notepad, sanitary napkin, toothpaste, iodised salt and soap.
In the first phase, these kits will be distributed among 1.83 lakh students of 1916 schools in five districts- Nayagarh, Puri, Cuttack, Khordha and Sundargarh through Akshaya Patra Foundation. Later, all schools across Odisha will be covered under this exercise.
“As the department could not provide meals to the students due to the closure of schools, we have come up with this initiative. Under this initiative, 1.83 lakh students of 5 districts will get the happiness kit in the first phase,” Mr Dash said on Monday.
“This is an effort to provide nutritious food to the students so that they can resume their physical classes with full vigour and immunity to stay safe in the Covid times,” said Prashant Patra, an official of Akshaya Patra Foundation.
Welcoming the move by the Odisha government, parents have said it will benefit the students.
“We failed to provide nutritious food to our kids during the Covid lockdown and closure of schools so we hope that this move will be helpful for us,” said Ramachandra Behera, resident of Rayagada district.
There are more than 30 lakh students at 60,000 primary schools across Odisha. As of now, the schools across the State are yet to reopen for students of class 1 to 9 and class 11 owing to the Covid-19 pandemic.
