Authors: Mr. Rajendra Joshi, Managing Trustee, Ms. Chinmayi Desai, Director-urban Programs and Mr. Manish Kumar Mishra-R&D Manager- Saath Charitable Trust

Food is the most important basic need for human existence and has a powerful influence on world history. Food preferences emerge in early childhood. Children in low-income urban geographies cannot resist the temptation of tasty, cheap and easily accessible packaged food/ junk food. Junk food contributes more calories than nutrients and is high in fat, sugar and salt. Continuous consumption of ready-to-eat packaged food can negatively impact growth, decay teeth, promote obesity and ultimately lead to malnutrition. Food containing low nutritional value reduces the intelligence of children, thus constraining their future learning capacity and ultimately impacting the economy negatively. At present, in India, the health and nutrition indicators of children in urban areas are as bad as those of their rural counterparts much of which can be attributed to the consumption of packaged ready-to-eat food. The urban population in India is projected to double from 410 million in 2014 to 814 million by 2050, making it imperative to address the issue urgently. Opportunities exist in the promotion of market-based interventions on nutritious food and women-led microenterprises have a great role to play in nutritious ready-to-eat food/ snack foods. The size of the snacks market in India is estimated to be worth Rs. 44,000 crores with an annual growth of 25%. As Saath has realized, the barriers to scale for nutritious food, women-led microenterprises remain – (i) Poor recognition of business opportunities; (ii) Domains like hygiene, preservation, operational efficiency and unit cost optimization require more attention; (iii) Support system of mentors and advisors need strengthening; (iv) Averseness on debt and scepticism to start out on their own; (v) Lack of ecosystem approach – NGO, MFI/ Banks and Entrepreneurs

Thus, Saath in collaboration with WIN Foundation started working towards nurturing women microenterprises on nutritious snacks. The interventions are designed on the twin strategies of (i) pull or demand creation and (ii) push or supply generation. Through this project, twenty-five women micro-entrepreneurs have been trained by Saath on product development, market research, production, marketing, customer feedback, repeat orders, team development and financial management. Trained entrepreneurs have come out with two to three nutritive products each, have clearly identified customer segments and are generating significant physical volumes, sales value, repeat orders, and profit and seeing it as a viable employment opportunity. They have started to build partnerships with sales channels and raw material supply chains. The subsequent discussions elaborate on our experiences during the entire process.

Vasna a low-income neighbourhood was chosen for the project. It is located between the old city and new Ahmedabad and is home to various communities including Marwadi, Harijan, Vanjara, Rabbari, Vankar and Darbar. These communities are largely patriarchal and women prefer home-based livelihoods. However to make both ends meet, some women have started venturing out for work as housemaids. Women are often sole breadwinners and support a family of four to five dependents often struggling to make ends meet. Hence monetary shortage is persistent and the need for women-centred income-generating activities is a priority. Therefore, Vasna was a natural choice for this project.

The concept seeding was done in group meetings with 10-15 women, where the project concept was introduced. Selection of women was also done in this group by asking questions like: “Who are interested in Cooking? What do you know about cooking? Have you worked previously in cooking at others’ homes? Can you cook something different? What can you cook which is liked by everyone? Are they interested in enterprise or in Job?” Fifteen such concept seeding meetings were conducted with around 250 women. The Saath team listed names of women who expressed interest and had commensurate skills. The shortlisted women were later called to the Vasna Saath Centre to register themselves.

Although everyone listened attentively during the concept seeding meetings, showed interest and explicitly agreed to come to the centre for registration, however, only twenty-five turned up and among them, six women quit even before the training began. The Saath team learnt that out of every four women contacted initially only one would become an active participant. Out of twenty-five women who had agreed to join the training, six women joined a similar program organized by the government in the lure of utensils and travel reimbursement. However, a majority of women decided to attend the Saath program as it had handholding services.

The technical training of dry snacks was a weeklong program with one session on life skills and motivation. Information about ingredients was shared after which the trainer demonstrated the cooking process. Thereafter participants were asked to repeat the process, to ensure effective learning. Participants are also allowed to showcase their skills in traditional food preparation in which they were confident to facilitate co-learning between group members. The training focused on nutritious food only and included limited products like Ragi ni Sukdi, Tal ni Sukdi, Khajoor roll and Nachos. Saath Team is also working on identifying new products which can be taken to scale and has a high shelf life.

Advanced business training focused on establishing the microenterprise, finalizing the product, costing, packaging, marketing, and margins along with clear product uniqueness. The process of the training included lectures followed by practical demonstrations, packing products, going to shops and making sales pitch. Also, participants were asked to prepare and try selling their own products to add to the experience.

Preparation of snacks in the advanced business training is a central group-based activity. The group consisted of three women. Raw materials were supplied by Saath and snacks were produced, packed and marketed by this group. Saath has learnt that the business must compete with regular ready-to-eat packaged food. Thus, Saath is working to improve the retailer margins, increase shelf life, decrease product price, and increase taste and visual appeal. As the products are reaching the market Saath is connecting to the market for regular feedback on competition practices, cost structure, price spread, customer segments and preferences.

Training on Whatsapp Business Catalogue

This training discussed the benefits of the Whatsapp business App and trained participants on the process of creating a profile and catalogue. It included perfecting the art of clicking a food picture, typing messages, replies and sending links. This training spanned over nine days and is conducted twice weekly. The initial training was given by a third-party expert who understands the context of women-led food microenterprises. This training was conducted online with the objective to train the Saath team also. The Saath team thereafter closely worked with women entrepreneurs to develop the catalogues. These sessions were organized at the centre. It was essential that participants have smartphones and dual-sim activated. Saath also played a significant role in mobilizing smartphones for entrepreneurs.

Present Impact of the Programme:

Eight women have started business since May 2022 generating gross revenue of Rs. 1.11 Lakh and profit of Rs. 0.35 Lakh. Twenty participants are in the process to start a business, six participants have been linked to a job and two women have left the program. Women entrepreneurs require assistance in getting orders and a subsidized loan of around Rs. 50,000 to strengthen their enterprise. To create a physical presence in the mind of customers, Saath is also planning to participate in food festivals which will also go a long way to establishing the business.

Thoughts for the Future:

As discussed, the idea of nutritious snacks is timely. However, it requires patience, hard work and regular investment in market research, technology and standardizing operational processes. Post-COVID-19 the upper middle class is sensitized towards such products and is an easy market. However, reaching these nutritious products to low-income households will require addressing issues of affordability and ease of access for the population who is under the constant squeeze of time and money.

Source: https://fmtmagazine.in/overview-of-snacks-market-in-india/

____________________________________________________________________________________________

If you are keen to introduce micro-entrepreneurship training in your area or village for local communities and want to know more about our work, feel free to reach out to us at info@winfoundations.org