BBC News, by Zubair Ahmed
Eighty-year-old
Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat defies her age.
She seems more agile and active than her
grandchildren.
"I don't want to stop working,"
she says with youthful determination.
Mrs Popat is the only survivor of a group
of semi-literate Gujarati housewives who founded Lijjat Papad 50 years ago.
She will be celebrating the Lijjat golden
jubilee on 15 March with 45,000 other women who are part of the women-only
co-operative.
Mrs Popat cannot believe that what started
as a desperate move to "supplement the family income" 50 years ago
has come so far.
She says after taking a deep breath:
"I feel I am living in a dream world. When we started our business it was
not meant to become so big."
'Seven sisters'
It is indeed a big business today, with an
annual turnover of nearly $100m and a flourishing exports account to boot.
Papads, or poppadoms, are the traditional
restaurant starter and go with dips and chutneys. They are a thin wafer of
lentil, chickpeas, black gram, salt and oil. Various types of seasonings are
added.
The Lijjat trade began when seven Gujarati
housewives decided to exploit the only skill they knew - cooking.
Mrs Popat says: "We were semi-literate
which restricted our chances to get jobs. But we realised our papad-making
expertise could be used to earn small amounts of money to help our husbands
reduce their financial responsibility."
On 15 March 1959, they gathered on the
terrace of an old building in a crowded
The "seven sisters", as they are
fondly remembered, started production with the princely sum of 80 rupees (now
$1.50), borrowed from a good Samaritan, Chaganlal Karamsi Parekh, a social
worker with entrepreneurial brains.
Mrs Popat pays handsome tribute to Mr
Parekh's contribution to their success story.
"He advised us that if we wanted to
experience success, never accept donations. We have never ignored his
advice."
Soon the entrepreneurship expanded in
Mumbai's overcrowded and poverty-stricken shanty towns.
Three months later the business had 25
women. Word quickly spread about the quality and taste of the poppadoms.
The trade began to expand as a
co-operative. In a few years they had branches all over Mumbai and in
subsequent years all across
Foreign dignitaries visited their
factories. The women received one award after another. Exports flourished. They
were on a roll - from poppadoms they branched out into soaps, savouries,
chutneys and pickles.
Sustainable model
But apart from following the advice of Mr
Parekh, what is the secret of Lijjat's success? After all there are other
poppadom makers all across the country.
“These women work here to help raise
their children and be financially independent ”
Jyoti Naik, Lajjit head office Mumbai-based
businessman and entrepreneur Sushil Jwarijka explains: "Lijjat papads are
a perfect example of how a sustainable business can be built, providing
large-scale employment to rural women, who are illiterate but skilled.
"And when such skills are given an
organisational structure on a co-operative basis a long term sustainable model
assures success."
Jyoti Naik, who runs Lijjat's head office
in a Mumbai suburb, joined the co-operative 40 years ago.
She says it is the women's sense of
financial independence that has made a small enterprise into a big business.
"These women work here to help raise
their children and be financially independent," Ms Naik says.
Priyanka Redkar, 35, was just nine when she
began rolling out poppadoms alongside her mother.
A deeply family-oriented mother of two
children, Priyanka exudes the confidence of a woman who knows her place in
society.
"Today I can say I am financially
independent. If my husband doesn't give me any money I can support myself and
children. I don't need to beg and borrow."
Ranjana Khandare was born into the Lijjat
family. Hardships and extreme poverty meant she began helping her mother when
she was barely a few years old.
She has no regrets: "All my life I
have worked here. I know no other skills. But papad-making has made me
independent. I pay tuition fees for my three children and my husband runs the
kitchen."
Financial independence for these women
translates into empowerment.
Most of the 45,000-strong female work-force
live in slums or one-room hutments, with communal bathrooms and toilets.
They are still part of what is known as the
working class. But working for Lijjat Papads gives them financial security.
They are now capable of taking decisions,
sending their children to schools and keeping their men on the straight and
narrow.
Mr Jwarijka says it has done their
self-esteem the world of good.
Indeed the Lijjat women seem to have proved
that success does not necessarily need money and infrastructure, as long as
there is determination.
Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/1/hi/world/south_asia/7932979.stm
Published: 2009/03/11 12:24:54 GMT
© BBC MMIX
BBC News, Mumbai