NGO will sponsor food to homeless youths

City-based NGO Butterflies will provide food at a subsidised price to the homeless and the marginalised youth across the national capital to tackle undernourishment from next month, an official said on Monday.

Under the initiative 'Chakhle Dilli', envisaged by Butterflies, meals will be hygienically prepared under expert supervision and given to the homeless at a cost of Rs.20 per meal. The NGO will start the initiative from the first week of July.

"We all are aware of the deplorable hygienic conditions, the questionable freshness of the ingredients and cooking medium in which street food is prepared and served at prices unaffordable to poor marginalized populations," said Rita Panicker, executive director, Butterflies in a statement.

According to a recent survey by the United Nations, India accounts for the highest estimated undernourished people in the world with an estimated 194.6 million -- or about one in every four such people.

The Food and Agricultual Organisation (FAO) recently said India has missed both the millennium development goal as well as the goal laid out at the World Food Summit (WFS) in 1996, when governments committed themselves to halving the absolute number of undernourished people by the starting of 2015.

An estimated 32.7 percent of the Indian population lives on less than $1.25 (Rs.78) per day.

Butterflies, under the initiative, will also train the youth in various arenas such as management, entrepreneurship and communication.

"The training would also involve teaching different cuisines, nutrition, packaging, distribution and marketing and financial management skills," Panicker said.

The two-year-old NGO addresses the challenges faced by the youth and children, mostly from the vulnerable and exploited sections of society, Panicker added. - IANS