Lajat Papad: How a Homemade Breakfast Brand Empowered Thousands of Women in India

On a chilly December morning, a group of women draped in colorful saris, warm shawls and woolen caps file outside a three-story building in a busy Delhi neighborhood.

Within the walls of the building ran a unit of one of India’s oldest social enterprises, owned and run by women.

The cooperative – now called Shree Mahila Griha Sanadya Lajat Papad – was started in 1959 by seven housewives in Mumbai (then Bombay) who made the humble papad or pappadams, a crisp, savory snack that is a staple of Indian cuisine. is

Sixty-five years later, the cooperative – headquartered in Mumbai – has spread across India with over 45,000 women members. It has an annual turnover of 16bn rupees ($186m; £150m) and exports products to countries including the UK and the US.

Working mostly from home, the women in this cooperative produce items including detergents, spices and chapati (flatbread), but their most popular product is the Lajat brand of papadums.

“Lajjat ​​is a temple for us. It helps us earn money and feed our families,” says Lakshmi, 70, who manages the center in Delhi.

Ms Lakshmi, who uses only one name, joined the cooperative after her husband’s death nearly four decades ago, forcing her to look for work.

“I hadn’t completed my studies and didn’t know what else to do. That’s when my neighbor told me about Lajat,” she says. Told,” she says.

She says her decision to join a women’s cooperative changed her life. Now she manages 150 women at the center.

For women like Ms. Lakshmi, the cooperative provides an opportunity to earn a decent income while balancing her work at home.

Every morning, women members go to the nearest Lajat center in a bus hired by the cooperative. There, they collect pre-mixed dough made with lentils and spices, which they take home to roll into papadoms.

“I used to go home with this flour and do all the housework, feed my children and sit with my uncle. [a flat wooden board] And a balloon [rolling pin] to make small round thin papads in the afternoon,” says Ms. Lakshmi.

Initially, it took her four to five hours to make 1 kg of dry dal papad, but she says that now she can make the same amount in just half an hour.

The head office in Mumbai buys raw materials like pulses, spices and oil in bulk, mixes the flour and sends it to Lajit offices across the country.

Once the women make and dry the papidoms at home, they take them back to the center for packing. Lajit’s distributor network then delivers the products to retail shops.

The enterprise has come a long way since its inception.

In the 1950s, a newly independent India was focusing on rebuilding itself, trying to strike a balance between promoting small-scale, rural industries and pushing large urban factories.

It was also a time when most of the factories in the country were owned by the government. Life was particularly challenging for women as they had to negotiate a deeply conservative and patriarchal society in order to study and work.

The group of women who founded Lajat – Jaswanti Ben Jumna Das Papit, Parvati Ben Ramdas Thodani, Ajam Ben Narandas Kandalia, Banuben N Tanna, Lagobin Amrit Lal Gokani, Jaya Ben V Vithlani and Diwali Ben Loka – are in their 20s and 30s. She lived in a slum in Mumbai in the decade. Looking for ways to support their families.

Their idea was simple – work from home and earn money using the cooking skills that have been passed down to them through generations of women.

But he did not have money to buy the ingredients and sought financial help from a social worker Chhaganlal Karamshi Parekh.

He offered them a loan of 80 rupees ($0.93; £0.75 at today’s rates), which at the time was enough to get them started.

But the women soon realized that there were no takers for their papidoms. Swati Pradkar, the current president of the cooperative, narrates the story, saying that the women had to go back to Parekh for help.

He again lent them Rs 80 but this time with the condition that they would pay him back Rs 200. Parekh – whom the women called bipa (meaning father) – and other social workers took the papadoom to local shopkeepers, who agreed to stock them only if they could pay after selling the product.

Only one shopkeeper agreed to pay the women immediately. “He started buying four to six packets a day and gradually papadums became quite popular,” says Ms Pradkar.

As the business grew, more women joined the cooperative—not as employees, but as co-owners with a say in decision-making. Women call each other. Ben Or sister in Gujarati.

“We are like a cooperative and not a company. Although I am the president, I am not the owner. We are all co-owners and have equal rights. We all have profits and losses,” says Ms Pradkar. She says “I think that’s the secret to our success.”

For decades, the cooperative produced its own papadums without the famous Lajat brand name.

In 1966, the Khadi Development and Village Industries Commission, a government body to promote small rural industries, suggested that they come up with a brand name.

The cooperative placed an advertisement in newspapers calling for proposals. “We received a lot of entries but one of our own sisters suggested Lajat. We changed it to Lajat, which means taste in Gujarati,” says Ms Pradkar.

Over the decades, cooperatives have allowed generations of women to achieve financial independence.

“Today I have enrolled my children in school, built a house and got them married,” says Ms. Lakshmi.

“Working here, I have not only received income but respect.”

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