Luke Coutinho, India’s foremost integrative lifestyle expert and a Fit India Ambassador appointed by prime minister Narendra Modi, recently launched the Bharat School Menu and Lifestyle Plan. Primarily targeting children aged 3 to 14 years across the country, the Bharat School Menu and Lifestyle Plan will be released on the first day of every month for a year. The plan will be free of cost, for schools, parents, principals and teachers, and communities to use. It will offer simple adaptations for vegetarian, non-vegetarian options, depending on the cultural and regional preferences across India.

The initiative was inspired by Coutinho’s recent visit to anganwadi centres in New Delhi under the Ministry of Women and Child Development, as part of the Government’s Poshan Abhiyaan and Saksham Anganwadi initiative. He was moved to witness first-hand the commitment to improving early childhood nutrition, real-time tracking of services through the Poshan Tracker, and the focus on local, indigenous solutions. It became clear to him that to build a healthier Bharat, true change had to begin at the grassroots level—with the country’s children. 

Thus, the Bharat School Menu and Lifestyle Plan was born, reflecting his deep concern for the health of the country’s future generation. Conditions such as insulin resistance, obesity, hormonal issues, and poor gut health are now affecting children much earlier than ever before. Children across cities and villages struggling with obesity, early hormonal imbalances, delayed growth, poor immunity, cognitive challenges, and attention disorders. As a lifestyle medicine and holistic health practitioner, Coutinho knows all too well that if the foundations of food and lifestyle are laid early, they can change the trajectory of a child’s life. 

The Bharat School Menu is thus designed to give every child access to simple, balanced nutrition that supports real growth, resilience, and emotional strength. It is paired with simple, actionable lifestyle guidelines that are age-appropriate, and easy to implement at school and at home. The goals of the menu are to address the protein gap early, minimise oil intake, encourage the use of local, seasonal, and traditional foods, and to build balanced plates that support growth, digestion, immunity, and mental focus. At the same time, it will empower families and schools to move away from an over-reliance on packaged junk foods, while creating create simple, sustainable eating habits for children. 

Speaking about the groundbreaking initiative, Coutinho said, “On a broader scale, our menu upholds the honourable prime minister’s vision of being Vocal for Local and his Made in India, Heal in India mission, by highlighting indigenous foods and farming traditions. In many ways, the Bharat School menu is akin to a living classroom, teaching the next generation to eat better and honour the need to fulfil one of our body’s primary requirements – balanced nutrition. Our vision is to address the nutrition gap and demonstrate that superfoods don’t need to be imported – they’re already available in our soil, our kitchens, and our history. The reason we are focusing on children’s meals is that our country is dealing with foundational two issues today – malnutrition (undernutrition) and overnutrition. Children are eating too much of the wrong foods and ending up with serious nutrient deficiencies. This form of hidden hunger is one of the biggest challenges we face today—and one we must address early, through balanced meals and supportive lifestyle habits.”

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