Mid Day meal program

Education is the key to development not only of children but of nations. Even though primary education is a fundamental right of every child in the country, education for the girl child is not guaranteed. The Girl children belonging to lowest castes and Tribals are the ones who are made to drop out of school for lack of funds, made to help in domestic chores, married off early, and face social hazards such as sexual harassment. Prem Seva Mahila Mandal, as an NGO with its volunteers has been working to address this issue over the years, across the communities by promoting the cause of education by generating awareness, encouraging children to attend schools, initiating innovative school programmes like door to door schools for children who have never attended school or have dropped out for various reasons through our mobile school bus. The students are given a nutritious mid-day meal every day to encourage them to come to study and enhance the attendance rate as parents would rather have them work than study.

Prem Seva Mahila Mandal is actively trying to create solutions for the challenges faced by the community of poor brick kiln labourers. Prem Seva Mahila Mandal, a young institution around 15 years old, which started out as a small group of women, who had been at the receiving end of the wrong side of the stick, from the cadres of maids, domestics, widows, brick-kiln working-women and children, and who with a little help from others were able to rally around each other with the grim determination of giving their lives another chance, a chance to make it better. That, in essence, is how the Prem Seva Mahila Mandal came into existence. There has been no turning back from that moment. The Prem Seva Mahila Mandal (PSMM), (Love & Service Women's Organization) Kalyan, Thane District, Maharashtra, focuses primarily on the uplift of the downtrodden: Tribals, Women of the lower-middle-class group, Children, Widows and Domestic workers, and has been in existence since the year 2001.

The mid-day meal program wishes to accomplish the following for more than 550 children from the poor background: 1. Improves access to education/ schools. 2. Enhances performance, life skills, team spirit, and physical fitness. 3. Parents are involved since we work in partnership with parents and the community for quality education. Non Formal Education: This remains a way of developing other facets of the child such as cultural and self-awareness, improved behavior and better study habits. The staff at Prem Seva has been trained to provide guidance to these children and help them develop a better sense of self and purpose by exposing them to different ideas, concepts and ways of dealing with the world. Activities under this program are: a. Value formation. b. Celebrating the cultural programme. c. Counselling. d. Extracurricular activities: 1. Picnics 2. Talent Hunt 3. Exposure to the outside world 4. Sports 5. Health check up.