A rural women-led enterprise in India that is bringing nutritious meals to the sick

It is still dark at 4 am as Leela Devi wakes up in her home in Baghmanjhua village, in the eastern Indian state of Bihar. As the sun rises, she busies herself with making breakfast and lunch for her family and readying her children for school. She has a busy day ahead as the mother of three leaves for the Koielwar Mental Asylum Hospital in Bhojpur district, seven kilometers away from her home, where she works in the kitchen of the Didi ki Rasoi.

Dressed in a traditional saree from home, at the hospital Leela Devi dons a white coat over the saree, a protective transparent cap on her head and adjusts her brown apron. Her day at the kitchen or rasoi starts at 6.30 am as she goes over the menu for the day and starts the prep work for making breakfast and lunch for the patients and staff at the hospital.

“My husband works in a grocery store, and it has not been easy to support our family just on his salary,” says Leela Devi. “In 2022, when someone from my village self-help group told me about the Didi ki Rasoi, I was hesitant at first. I didn’t know anything about working in a canteen or restaurant or with customers. But with support from my family, I thought I will give it a try.”

Leela Devi takes turns working with the other women in the Didi ki Rasoi kitchen and canteen which serves over 250 people every day. This canteen is serviced by 26 women who work in two shifts as they prepare meals for the patients, their attendant, staff, and walk-in customers of the canteen.

“Before I joined Didi ki Rasoi, I was just an ordinary woman; I had no real sense of identity or uniqueness. Didi ki Rasoi has given me a sense of self-respect as I don’t have to ask my husband for money any more,” she smiles. Leela Devi, who has studied till eighth grade, now earns a salary of Rs 8,000-10,000 each month.

Setting up the enterprise

Inspired by Café Kudumbashree model from Kerala, Didi ki Rasoi was first started in 2018 as part of the World Banksupported Bihar Transformative Development Project (BTDP). This initiative is being implemented by the Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society (also known as JEEViKA) to establish and operate food service counters in all district and block hospitals in the state. The first enterprise was established in Vaishali district of Bihar, following which this was scaled up across all 38 districts of Bihar. Currently, more than 83 such enterprises operate in Bihar across government hospitals, medical colleges, schools, banks, and other institutions. They involve more than 1,200 women entrepreneurs and 150 full-time employees, who are supported by 20 consultants who are experienced in hotel management and catering.

JEEViKA provides the seed capital to establish each enterprise, while the Cluster Level Federations (CLFs) are responsible for procuring equipment and utensils. The CLFs identify women from the local self-help groups, who undergo a seven-day training program on technical and managerial aspects like hygiene, bookkeeping, and customer service.

Customers in government hospitals, medical colleges, schools, banks, and other institutions get 'home-cooked' meals that are affordable, nutritious, and wholesome. A standard meal platter includes eggs, fruit, and milk for breakfast; rice, roti, dal, seasonal vegetables for lunch and dinner; and tea and biscuits for the evening snack. The menu for the walk-in canteens is more populist, with local snacks like litti and kachori. Most raw material is purchased from local farmers and producer groups promoted by Jeevika.

Dr Jitendera Nath, Civil Surgeon at the Buxar District Hospital, who oversaw the establishment of the Didi ki Rasoi in his hospital, is proud of this achievement. “We have ensured the timely construction of the Didi ki Rasoi here and are happy with the feedback that we receive from the patients and customers. The women or the didis are at the heart of this enterprise that provides a taste of home away from home.”

The Didi ki Rasois in district hospitals, where footfalls are around 350 per day, usually earn an average monthly revenue of Rs 2.5 lakh, with a net profit margin of about 15 percent.

Thirty-two-year-old Priyanka Devi lives in Pandit Pur village, about 10 kilometers from the Buxar District Hospital in Bihar. She has been working in the Didi ki Rasoi at the hospital since 2019 and is proud of the contribution her salary from the enterprise makes towards the education of her three children.

When I joined the Rasoi, I was nervous about working with large quantities of food. We are a small family of five, and I was not used to cooking such huge quantities. But with time, and with encouragement from other didis, I was able to learn quickly. Now, cooking and managing the canteen serving more than 250 people at a time, three times a day, is a breeze and I enjoy it greatly.

Looking forward

Working in Didi ki Rasoi has also taken Priyanka Devi out of her village to different towns and states. When she first travelled to the nearby state of Odisha to participate in the Saras mela or fete there, she remembers being terrified as she had never stepped out of her village before. “I kept imagining the worst that could happen. But then I realised that if you treat people as family, they also respond the same way. Working with the Didi ki Rasoi has given me the courage and confidence to step out of my comfort zone.”

Apart from the Saras mela where she and other women from the Rasoi put up food stalls to sell food to customers attending the mela, Priyanka Devi and her team also cater lunch at the District Magistrate’s collectorate during important meetings. They have also prepared and served food for hundreds of people during local elections, and during the COVID-19 lockdowns when people were quarantined.

JEEViKA has also set up high-end food enterprises in the Patna branch of the State Bank of India and Reserve Bank of India and is now piloting other marketing models such as kiosks at high footfall areas. Several older enterprises have also ventured into catering for government and private institutions like CARE and UNICEF and exploring tie-ups with food delivery apps. Inspired by the success of these Rasois, many other states too have adopted the model, which are being financed by the National Rural Economic Transformation Project, the World Bank’s flagship rural livelihoods program with the Ministry of Rural Development.

Didi ki Rasoi is one of the many enterprise promotion initiatives undertaken by JEEViKA under the $290 million Bihar Transformative Development Project. Besides a plethora of farm-based and nutrition-related interventions, the project is supporting women-owned enterprises across other growth sectors like ‘Grameen Bazaar’ in the retail sector, ‘Shilpgram’ in the arts and crafts sector, and ‘Madhugram’ in the beekeeping sector.