Indian meal starter lasts 50 years

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.

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.

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 India.

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.

Financial independence for these women translates into empowerment.
Most of the 45,000-strong female workforce 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.