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| Kudumbashree-6 |
The Feminine Fame in Taste Blends
(From Kavanattinkara to Delhi)
There is a hotel in Kavanattinkara in Kumarakom, the famous tourist centre. The name of the hotel is ‘Samruddhi Nadan Bhakshanashala’(Ethnic Food Restaurant). Standing close beside star hotels Hotel Taj Vivanda and the Coconut Lagoon, this hotel in no way looks the less magnified. Because the common people who reach Kumarakom find Samruddhi their favorite as it does not tear off their pockets as the star hotels do.
It is ten Kudumbashree women who run this hotel. Soudamini is the President of the group and the other members are Geetha Sahadevan, Shaila Shaji, Raji Rajan, Sheela Manoharan, Vijayamma Saralappan, Shiny Bijumon, Kavitha Binu, Rajani Suresh and Ponnamma.
Ethnic food, less costly, too
As the name suggests it is the typical Kerala food that is served here for guests. It is just Rs.40 for a meal. Tapioca, beef and duck curry, ‘Karimeen’ (Pearl-spot Fish) curry, oyster fry etc. are served. Thus, says Soudamini, we are preparing Kumarakom special homely food for those who reach here.
They get up to rupees 2.5 lakhs per month from the sales, the turnover fluctuating according to the tourist seasons. There is also a catering service. It is Samruddhi which gets catering orders for all the government departmental programs that commonly take place in Kumarakom. Catering for marriage, memorial services etc. are also undertaken. Samruddhi members who are expert cooks go for food fests organized in various parts of the state, too.
The Department of Tourism (KTDC) had a hotel in Kavanattinkara which lay locked for two years. When the Department of Tourism announced ‘Responsible Tourism’ program in 2008, Kudumbashree began its hotel venture in the locked up KTDC hotel. This was also a move to find market for Kudumbashree products, connecting it to the ‘responsible tourism’ project and to cash possibilities related with tourism market. Similar ventures have been made in Panchayaths of Vizhinjam, Kumaly, and in Wayanad.
Cafe Kudumbashree catering to your tastes
The ‘Café Kudumbashree’ hotel-canteen-catering service is a project successfully carried out by Kudumbashree cashing in on the popularity of traditional delicacies and the acceptance for rural products among people. It is a venture in which those who have no bread for the day serve food to others and earns a good living.
There are 210 units operating in this field today. Each unit is a team of five to ten women. That means a total of around one thousand five hundred people earn their living by preparing and serving meals to others. Among the 600 meal-centre, there are single room canteens to mobile wayside food shops. There are also those who have taken up the running of the canteen of government and private institutions.
Mobile teams with taste combinations
Food fests, a rising fancy of the times, too are becoming stage of action for Kudumbashree women. There are twenty-two units under Kudumbashree just for the purpose of participating in food fests conducted across the State. That means over 150 women are there as food fest specialists.
They who offer rural cuisines with homely tastes are very welcome to the urban people living in the midst of a fast-food culture, fondling nostalgic memories. In a food fest in Thiruvananthapuram recently sales turnover from Kudumbashree food items alone was more than half a crore. More than four crores were collected by them from the twenty food fests in the last three years.
For the food-fest of each district, Kudumbashree workers bring items that are special and unique to their own villages. Thankassery prawn roast, Tapioca biriyani, Wayanad Komban biriyani, Chippy biriyani, Ramanthali beef curry, Naalukettu chicken curry… there are also other items - varieties of ‘Pathiris, idlis, dosas and payasams’. Just a glance through the menu will make your mouth water: it’s no surprise the sales bloom.
Dazzle even at Delhi
The latest dazzle of the mobile team was far away in the national capital, New Delhi. In the recent trade-fair at Pragati maidan, the Kudumbashree team won the gold medal for the best food preparation. It was the members of the ‘Neighbourhood groups’ of Kasargod Shipha, Thalassrey Venma and Thiruvananthapuram Shreebhadra who prepared different varities of biriyanis, vegetable and meat preparations - a vegetable preparation called Bird nest, Herbal chicken etc. The sales turnover from the fortnight-long fair was around eight lakhs.
These taste blends had brought even the offer for doing catering service in planes to the Kudumbashree workers.
‘We too are APL now! ’
Though in uniform, Mrs. Bhageerathi had the looks of a company chief executive. As we stood amazed by the office set-up with the sofa set, glass –top tables and computer she said: “We too are APL now sir…, gone are the days of BPL (below poverty line)”
One can’t help agreeing with them. Five women who have bidden farewell to their miserable life work in Ammu Foods. As salary they take Rs. 10,000 every month. An amount, not less than Rs. 15000 comes as bonus annually. Two vehicles, concrete roofed houses for all, the company building and machines worth lakhs are all their own. It is another evidence of the empowerment of women through Kudumbashree.
Ammu Foods is one of the unit working under the Central Government programme THRS (Take Home Ration Strategy) which prepares ‘Amrutham, Saphala’, nutritive products for children and adolescents. The unit is at Kallekkad road in Kodunthirappully, Pirayiri Panchayath in Palakkad district. Along with Bhageerathi, there are Indira, Karthika, Sudha and Shantha as well as the permanent workers Valsala and Khadeeja. For these members of Akshaya NHG, this unit is their bread. This unit is a women’s model enterprise which has attained the dazzle of a private limited company within years.
Bhageerathy, a super-leader
M.V. Bhageerathy who was struggling to earn her living by selling bakery items on a small scale came into the NHG in 2007. Once Kudumbashree introduced the Nutrimix project she became an entrepreneur. Today 145 women in 23 units are Nutrimix entrepreneurs in Palakkad district alone. Bhageerathi is the convener of the consortium of these 23 units. She is also a member of the State Executive.
Great is Bhageerathi’s success story! Even in the midst of her poor circumstances she had got her post-graduate degree. While Ammu Foods was growing fast she did her MBA. She also did PGDCA, and learned Tally so that she could work well on the computer also. Now she has registered for MA Sociology. She explains that to do things well and to be a good leader one must be equipped with education.
Production too High-tech!
Ammu Foods started making flours in the traditional way but today machines are used for everything - from specially designed steel blender to roaster and pulvariser. The floor is tiled to ensure cleanliness. Uniform is compulsory for the workers and instructions on hygiene are strictly followed.
There is work in the unit on all the days of the week except Sunday. Ten tons of Amrutha and ten tons of Saphala are made in the first twenty days of the month. Five days are used for making other products. Three hundred kilogram of rice flour is made every month. Even if the government stops the Nutrimix project there is something to depend on, says Bhageerathi, explaining the need for diversification.
Bhageerathy claims that all those in the venture are contented; she has a piece of advice also to share. If one is ready to work hard any Kudumbashree venture is enough to live comfortably.
Amrutham In the Small Mouths
Amrutham is the nutritive food supplement given by the Social Welfare department to the children in the Anganvadis (Govt. aided pre-schools). A blend of wheat soya, ground nut, cashew-nut and sugar, this product has been developed by Kasargod CPCRI. Today it is a Kudumbashree product. Three kilograms of Amrutham is given free of charge to each child aged from six months to three years per month. The price is Rs. 56 for one kilogram.
The production and distribution of this food supplement supplied through Anganvadis were taken up by Kudmbashree and entrusted to their women entrepreneurs. Earlier companies in other states were distributing such food supplements here on contract.
Nutrimix Project General Manager Mrs. Jasmi Beegum says that today there are 398 such venture communities engaged in Amrutham Production. In groups of 5 to 15, two thousand women are finding their living through Nutrimix.
Instructions given for maintaining the standard of hygiene are strictly followed before supplying the product for children. The quality of the ingredients is checked before they are bought at the district level. Those in the production department are given proper training. The products are sent to regional laboratories and to Chennai for quality checking at regular intervals.
Jasmin Begum says that through seven years of excellent work they have gained credibility.
‘Saphala’ is the product prepared under the Nutrimix project for those aged 13 to 17. For the tribal villages in Attappadi specially made Amrutham-1 and Amrutham-2 are manufactured and distributed. They are made with some changes in the ingredients according to the tribal taste.
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