All 1453 Sarkari schools in DK embark to set up own kitchen gardens

MANGALURU: Mid-day meals that students of 1,453 government schools in Dakshina Kannada district partake will soon bear the taste of their own labour.

Aimed at giving students a real feel of the soil and remove inhibitions in getting their hands dirty, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat has undertaken an ambitious project to start kitchen gardens in all these schools buoyed by the success of initiative taken up in few schools to start with.

A day-long workshop for head teachers of 1000 schools held on Wednesday last in this regard served as a precursor to take this project across the district. M R Ravi, chief executive officer, Dakshina Kannada Zilla Panchayat who has taken the lead in this regard told TOI that the main idea behind this project is to tell students that it is okay to get their hands dirty. "We need to give them much needed life-skills at an early age," Ravi said.

While kitchen gardens have already been set up in 407 aided and government schools in the district thus far, Ravi said this latest initiative will ensure that these gardens are there in all 1,453 sarkari schools in the district. It is in these schools that students partake Akshara Dasoha meals, Ravi said, adding vegetables grown in their respective school kitchen gardens will be used to supplement the nutritional intake for students.

Another decision which will give fillip to this initiative, Ravi said to dovetail the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee scheme job cardholders with the scheme. "We have 942 schools in rural areas where the job card holders could help in the formation of kitchen gardens," Ravi said adding in places where the numbers of job cardholders is less, the students and SDMC members could pitch in to set up the gardens.

Nearly 730 of the government schools have at least one acre of land available where these kitchen gardens can be set up, Ravi said. "We have sent a clear message to the head teachers of these schools to push this initiative in their respective schools," Ravi said, adding students will also be taught to set up bio-fence to protect the kitchen so set up. This will further instill the idea of environment consciousness among the student community, he said.