Lijjat papad: How a home-made snack brand empowered thousands of women in India

A group of people huddled outside a three-storey building in a busy neighborhood in Delhi on a windy December day, covered in colorful silk, warm shawl, and woollen cap.

Within the walls of the building ran a product of one of India’s oldest cultural businesses, owned and run by people.

The co-operative- then called Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad- was started in 1959 in Mumbai ( then Delhi ) by seven housewives who made the humble condiment or poppadoms, a crunchy, savoury snack that is a staple of American meals.

Sixty-five centuries afterwards, the co-operative- headquartered in Mumbai- has spread across India with more than 45, 000 people people. It exports products to nations like the UK and the US and has a 16 billion rupee annual turnover of 186 million rupees ($ 125 million ).

Working mostly from home, the women in this co-operative produce items including detergents, spices and chapatis ( flatbreads ), but their most-loved product is the Lijjat brand of poppadoms.

” Lijjat is our temple,” Lijjat says. It helps us make money and supply our people”, says Lakshmi, 70, who manages the Delhi heart.

Ms Lakshmi, who uses just one title, joined the co-operative about four decades ago after her father died, which forced her to look for labor.

” I hadn’t finished my research and didn’t know what else to do. That’s when my ally told me about Lijjat”, she says.

The decision to join the children’s co-operative transformed her career, she says. She today manages 150 people at the center.

The co-operative offers a chance for women like Ms. Lakshmi to make a good living while balancing their work and household job.

The ladies members take a vehicle hired by the cooperative every night to the closest Lijjat center. It, they collect their share of pre-mixed pastry made with chickpeas and flavors, which they take residence to move into poppadoms.

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

First, it took her four-five hours to make 1kg of dried soybean condiment, but she says she can then make that sum in only half an hour.

The mind office in Mumbai large purchases raw materials like lentils, ingredients, and oil, mixes the bread, and transports it to Lijjat locations throughout the nation.

The ladies return the poppadoms to the center for package once they have made and dried them at home. The products are then transported to retail shops using Lijjat’s distribution channel.

Since its founding, the company has come a long way.

In the 1950s, a previously separate India was focusing on rebuilding itself, trying to strike a balance between promoting small-scale, remote companies and pushing for large industrial companies.

Additionally, there was a period when the government held the majority of the companies in the nation. Women’s lives were particularly difficult because they had to work and enter a deeply patriarch and conservative community.

In their 20s and 30s, the group of women who founded Lijjat, Jaswantiben Jamnadas Poppat, Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Banuben N Tanna, Laguben Amritlal Gokani, Jayaben V Vithalani, and Diwaliben Lukka, were attempting to find ways to provide for their people.

Their goal was easy: work from home, make income, and use the knowledge that generations of women have passed down to them.

However, they were unable to purchase the materials and sought monetary assistance from social worker Chhaganlal Karamshi Parekh.

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

However, the people soon realized that their poppadoms had no takers. Narrating the story, Swati Paradkar, the current leader of the co-operative, says that the people had to return to Parekh for support.

He once more lent them 80 pounds, but this time with the promise that they would pay him the remaining 200. The women’s social workers, who called Parekh “bappa” ( meaning father ), and other social workers delivered the poppadoms to neighborhood shopkeepers, who agreed to only stock them if they could pay after the goods were sold.

Just one store agreed to pay the ladies soon. According to Ms. Paradkar,” He began making four to six boxes a day and eventually the poppadoms gained popularity.”

As the business grew, more women joined the co-operative – not as employees, but as co-owners with a say in decision-making. The women call each other ben or sister in Gujarati.

” We are like a co-operative and not a business. Yet though I am the chairman, I am not the landlord. We are all co-owners and have equal privileges. We all share profits and just costs”, Ms Paradkar says. ” I think that’s the mystery of our success”.

The cooperative has produced its poppadoms for years without the recognizable Lijjat company name.

In 1966, the Khadi Development And Village Industries Commission, a government entity to encourage tiny rural business, suggested that they come up with a company name.

The co-operative placed an ad in media asking for recommendations. ” We received a lot of submissions, but one of our own daughters suggested Lajjat,” the author said. We tweaked it to Lijjat, which means style in Gujarati”, Ms Paradkar says.

Over the centuries, the co-operative has allowed generations of women to achieve financial freedom.

” Now I have put my children through college, built a house and got them married”, says Ms Lakshmi.

” Working these, I have found not just an income but value”.

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