Noida: Private school in Sector 100 starts midday meal scheme for students

The management of TRS School came up with the initiative on Thursday and named it ‘Ganga Maa Ki Rasoi’. The school also launched two other schemes — computer education for the deprived section and a free stitching training centre for women.

In a first-of-its-kind initiative, a private school in Sector 100, which has over 200 underprivileged children enrolled with it, launched a midday meal scheme for the students and their parents.

TRS School launched the initiative on Thursday. (Sunil Ghosh/HT)

The management of TRS School came up with the initiative on Thursday and named it ‘Ganga Maa Ki Rasoi’. The school also launched two other schemes — computer education for the deprived section and a free stitching training centre for women.

The menu for the children will change every day, the school said. The children will be given chapatis with vegetables,pooris, porridge, rice and dal.

Rishipal Singh Awana, president of the school, said, “The parents of these children work at construction sites and factories. When they come to pick their children, the parents too can have meals at the school.”

Awana said the midday meal scheme will not only encourage parents to enrol their children in the school but also ensure that they keep sending the children to school.

The salaries of teachers are borne by Awana, a land owner who earns revenue from farming land. “We should all take the responsibility to contribute towards the welfare of the weaker sections, irrespective of religion and caste. A success of a student will be an accomplishment in my life,” Awana said.

TRS School was established in 1992 and it started providing free education to underprivileged children in 2011. The free education started after the death of Awana’s only son.

“In March 2011, my son had gone to attend a wedding ceremony in Pathankhot and there he drowned in a lake. He was 23 and a final-year MBA student at the business School of Amity University in Noida,” said Awana.

“God has been very kind. In May 2012, He blessed me with twins— Adit Rishi and Anant Rishi. They are now 5,” he said

In 1961, Awana’s father Tek Ram Singh, who was the village head of Hajipur village, had also donated 73 bighas of land to Bhawani Shanker Inter College of Gautam Budh Nagar.