App developed by students of VVCE helps child nutrition monitoring in mid-day meal programme

Mysore/Mysuru: In a remarkable stride towards enhancing child nutrition and combating malnutrition, students from Vidyavardhaka College of Engineering (VVCE) have unveiled the ground-breaking PoshanMeal Tracker mobile application.

This app, a first-of-its-kind, is designed to meticulously monitor child nutrition, particularly mid-day meals, within Govt. schools. The pioneering technology integrates nutritional assessment, transparent meal distribution and student feedback mechanisms to ensure the well-being of young learners.

PoshanMeal Tracker introduces a comprehensive workflow that includes school registration and authentication. Government schools are provided with unique IDs and passwords to facilitate participation. This enables efficient student registration and ongoing monitoring, fostering data-driven analysis and action.

Notably, the app’s dual functionality allows for capturing meal images for nutritional assessment and collecting valuable student feedback. To ensure data authenticity, secure fingerprint authentication has been implemented.

A data-driven approach to meal efficacy

Monthly averages derived from student feedback are automatically relayed to authorities. Employing a rule-based framework, these metrics serve as a reliable measure of the meal programme’s effectiveness. The innovative use of technology in data collection and analysis empowers decision-makers to make informed choices concerning the meal programme’s efficiency and impact. Beyond its nutritional monitoring capabilities, PoshanMeal Tracker extends its impact by providing scholarships to economically disadvantaged students based on their achievements and financial circumstances. This initiative aims to promote inclusivity and equal access to education, contributing to a brighter future for all.

Dr. M.R. Pooja, Head of the Computer Science Department at VVCE, emphasised the app’s role in merging technology and systematic data collection to address child welfare and malnutrition issues.

The app’s future development aims to involve parents through a dedicated portal, promoting transparency and encouraging feedback. Additionally, integration with health records is anticipated to enable the assessment of the long-term effects of meals on students’ overall health.

The dynamic team behind PoshanMeal Tracker comprises Dr. M.R. Pooja and Dr. H.T. Chethana as project guides, along with students K.M. Sai Tushaar, Rifah A. Khan and S. Srinidhi.

Rifah A. Khan, one of the app’s developers, underlined the core purpose of the app in ensuring meal quality and hygiene standards. The app allows students to provide real-time feedback on their mid-day meal experience, thereby fostering accountability and improvement.

Dr. B. Sadashive Gowda, Principal of VVCE, underlined the pressing need for such an app, especially considering the staggering number of malnourished children in the State. The app’s potential to integrate health records offers a promising avenue for understanding the long-term impact of meals on children’s overall health.

The institution is actively engaging with the Government to scale up the app’s implementation, furthering its potential to transform child nutrition across the region, he added.