Varshitha is a resident of Inole village, about 25 km from Patancheru, a small suburb in Hyderabad. A standard III student, she goes to Inole Primary School. She is actually nine years old but appears to be much younger than her age since she is under-nourished. But her mental health is as developed as that of any other child her age.

Although Inole village is one of the highly remote rural areas of Andhra Pradesh, Akshaya Patra continues to provide mid-day meals to school children here. Varshitha's mother works as a helper in a nearby college. She leaves home at 7 am and is back only by 6 pm. Varshitha's teacher, Naseema is sure that the nine-year-old and her sister, Akshaya attend school on an empty stomach every morning. Since their mother rushes to work, there is no breakfast.

The tragedy in their life is that they lost their father seven years ago when Akshaya was born. She doesn't even remember her father. However, the deep agony of their father's demise due to a road accident is still fresh in Varshitha's mind. Despite the grief and a single earning member, the family is able to sustain a normal life only because of supporting programmes like the mid-day meal scheme.

Akshaya studies along with her in the same school. She cheerfully says, "I like the Biryani provided as a part of mid-day meal." Akshaya Patra Hyderabad also encourages children with snacks like Murukku and Chikki twice a week. The children await this snack apart from the mid-day meal.

Varshitha's house is at walkable distance from the school. Sometimes, she packs some lunch from school to have it at home for dinner. The responsible and mature girl always carries her home keys in her pocket since her mother is not around when she gets back from school.

According to statistics as per UNICEF records, one in every three malnourished children lives in India. Furthermore, approximately 46 per cent of all children below three years of age are too weak for their age, 47 per cent are underweight and at least 16 per cent don't make it beyond infancy. Many of these children are severely under-fed. Help Akshaya Patra reduce the alarming malnourishment rates in our country.