It is said that you if educate a boy you change his destiny, but if you educate a girl you change the destiny of a family.

Malnourishment is the single biggest cause of all dreaded illnesses. Poor quality of food and imbalance in proportions, results in lack of energy, failing health and inability to fight diseases. Especially among women trying to make ends meet.

This is the story of two little girls Tukai and Swati. Poor and under nourished yet their little hands brought about a big revolution.

Students of the Ananda Ashram Balika Vidyapeeth a government aided High School in Kolkata, West Bengal, they came from economically challenged families. Everyone pitched in and yet there was never enough. The quality of food was never important as long as you got something to fill your stomach with.

Tukai’s father distributed lunches in offices while her mother worked in a factory. She, her brother and her sister were in school. Swati’s father was dead. Her mother worked unflaggingly in the little sweetshop which was behind Tukai`s school, making just enough to feed the family of four.

In such a scenario, food was an unchanging routine .Mashed potato, dal, and rice were Tukai’s and Swati’s families’ normal and regular menu. They used to take Rohu or Katla fish once in a week and chicken or mutton once or twice in a month. As they could not buy a fair amount of fish or mutton, Tukai’s and Swati’s mothers would serve most of it to their families, usually depriving themselves.

At the sweet shop, Swati’s mother served only fried ‘samosas’(cutlets) and coloured sweetmeats. Most of the times the oil was old and she would know it was bad for the children. But she neither knew any better, nor could afford anything else.

At this time Tukai and Swati were introduced by their teachers, to the training provided by the Intel Teach Program. The chapter on nutrition they were doing in class was done as a project with them.

The teacher gave them a chart where caloric values of certain food items per 100 grams (approx.) were written and asked them to check whether all of their family members were getting a balanced diet. They were required to go online and calculate how much their family members needed, after making a chart of their daily food intake and the kind of work they did.

The result revealed that 25 students in the class were below weight and many mothers were suffering from malnutrition, because they were not getting a balanced diet.

A group of these students including Swati and Tukai wanted to take their research further. With the help of their teacher, they decided to look up alternative foods for their diets. They wanted options which would not bring about a change in how much they spent but provide them with higher food values and a balanced meal.

Swati even looked up healthy options for the food her mother served because she found out that old oil if used again and again could be very harmful for children.

After two weeks of extensive research the girls were ready with diet charts for the entire family. These had low cost options but with higher food values.

They had exchanged the fish they used with small and less costly fish which are equally good in nutritive value. Small shrimps, small crabs are very rich in calories, proteins, fats and minerals. Spending the same amount of money they would now be able to take fish or shrimp or crab (one non veg. item) four days a week.

They included green vegetables, soya bean chunks, minced soya been and mushroom in their menu. Instead of taking red meat once or twice a month, they decided to have an egg or a banana for breakfast everyday.

Tulkai and Swati’s printed these programs and gave them out to their teachers. They could also be used by other families. The teachers were very impressed by their efforts.

They decided to showcase the efforts of these girls to all the students in the school and their parents. The girls would act as dieticians and give options on how to plan a meal with low cost food but with higher food value so that everyone could get a balanced diet.

The teachers distributed their programs to all families in the school and even used them at home.

Many families benefited from their work. After two months the students did a follow up and repeated the exercise of finding calorific intake. They found food value in homes (all 63 of the families who had followed it) had gone up and their intake of vitamins and minerals had increased by 36%.

Returning from school Tukai and her siblings used to take puffed rice but now they mix roasted ground nut in it. They said they feel energetic for much longer in the evening.

Tukai’s mother who used to fall sick very often is feeling much healthier. She puts it down to her changed diet. She has also learnt that the watery byproduct of whey or yoghurt has nutritive value so instead of throwing it away she consumes it for breakfast which she never had before.

Swati’s mother followed it up for her little shop also. By increasing the price of her sweetmeats by a meager 10% she was able to buy fresh oil everyday and improve the quality of her sweetmeats. This increased her clientele by 35%.

Intel had managed to touch lives in an innovative way. Not just the lives of two girls who benefited from the training , but of generations who would benefit in future.