Madhu Pandit Dasa


Madhu Pandit Dasa is the President of , Chairman of The Akshaya Patra Foundation, and Chairman of Vrindavan Chandrodaya Mandir. The Government of India has recently conferred upon him the prestigious Padma Shri Award in recognition of the distinguished service rendered by Akshaya Patra Foundation for the children of India.

Biography

Madhu Pandit Dasa was born in 1956 in Nagercoil, India. IIT Alumnus, he completed his B.Tech in Civil Engineering from IIT-Mumbai in 1980. While at university he was chosen by India's national talent search program. In 1984, he married Bhaktilata Devi Dasi. After joining ISKCON movement in 1981, he served as the President of ISKCON Trivandrum in 1984.

The Akshaya Patra Foundation

July 2000 saw the beginning of an initiative led by Madhu Pandit Dasa - the Akshaya Patra Foundation. The purpose of the Foundation was to serve underprivileged children by providing mid-day meals at Government schools of Bengaluru Rural District. To meet the requirement of preparing meals in large quantity, a centralised kitchen was designed by Madhu Pandit Dasa. He also gave the Foundation a working Governance Model, where transparency and accountability are the core values. Based on these values, Akshaya Patra has become one of the few trustworthy NGOs in the country. Demonstrating this point, Akshaya Patra has been awarded the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India ’s Gold Shield Award for Excellence in Financial Reporting consecutively five times, placing the Foundation in its Hall of Fame. Akshaya Patra has spanned 17 years and during this has grown from providing mid-day meals to 1,500 children to 1.6 million children.

Inspiration

The teachings of Srila Prabhupada, the Founder-Acharya of ISKCON and the Inspiration behind the Akshaya Patra programme has been Madhu Pandit Dasa's guiding light throughout his journey as a missionary.
Srila Prabhupada’s biography inspired Madhu Pandit Dasa to join the IInternational Society of Krishna Consciousness.

Honors and recognition