Lijjat Papad Company – an Inspiring Story of Mass Entrepreneurship and Women Empowerment

Mumbai: The ball started to roll some decades ago, in 1959, when 7 women from South Mumbai made a few packets of Papads with utter faith. In fact, they had to collect the primary operational cost by borrowing from people; and with the first lot, they earned a profit of 50 paise.

Well, don’t get disheartened as this was just the starting. Soon, the group started witnessing better revenues, which called for including more manpower to the business, who were, however, all women.

And today, in the era of women empowerment, people astonishingly talk about the time when the ‘Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad’ had shown the path.

Presently, the group manufactures various products like Papad, Masala, Appalam, Gehu Atta and Chapati, SASA Detergent Cake (Sabun ki Tikia), SASA Detergent Powder, SASA Liquid Detergent. The women working for the company are called ‘Lijjat Sisters’. The membership has expanded vastly since the initial period, there are around 43,000 Lijjat Sisters across the states in India.

The company never had an owner; instead of a particular owner, they went for a ‘cooperative movement’ making everyone an owner. A ‘cooperative movement’ means whether there is a profit or a loss, it will be for everyone who works together. Lijjat Papad Company has always motivated housewives from remote areas and disadvantaged backgrounds to utilize their cooking skills, which led them towards a commendable scale of women empowerment.