“Never let your success get to your head and never let your failures get to your heart.”

This is not another rags to riches story, as it not achieved by “the one”, but each and everyone of 45000 lizzat sisters.

India, 1959 when women were supposed to be only looking after the household chores and raising children, 7 women thought they could do something with limited access and change their lives. 

My female readers would agree that the thought process of the patriarchal society has not changed much since then but let's be optimistic and assume that it's changing, though I strongly disagree.

Back to the original story, so the 7 women in March 1959, led by Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, thought that if by any means they found a way to support their families without leaving home, that would be revolutionary. They used what they had and made what they thought was best, papad or papadums. Originally they sold it to a merchant for a throwaway price, but the prices for the next lot increased substantially. This gave them hope, they took credit of Rs 80 from a member of Servants of India Society and scaled up the production.

Lizzat Papad originally known as “Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad” has two USPs (Unique Selling Proposition) associated with it and not many trillion-dollar companies can boast about such a feat. The two feats are, to stick to its mission of women empowerment and to run the business with quality at the helm.

Boring but important stuff

The process involved in the making of wafer-thin snacks or papad is simple, made even simpler by Lijjat. All the raw materials are procured in Mumbai for quality purposes and then shipped all over the country. The Lijjat sisters or shareholders collect the freshly prepared lentil dough from the branch office, head home, then stretch and roll out the dough, add cumin seeds and black pepper and then lay it out to dry. Then they collect the bunch and deliver it back to the branch office where the quality of each lot is tested and if it qualifies the standard, it goes to the distributor, to the retailer and then to you.

Learnings from the boring part

1. What the above-mentioned process does is, maintain quality as all the raw materials are procured centrally.
2. Secondly, it reduces the overhead costs and investment of the institution as the homes of Lizzat Sisters or bens are used as factories.
3. Furthermore, each sister is a shareholder, this means they are equally responsible and care for the quality, profits and loss.
4. Each distributor is asked for upfront payment before procurement of papads, so they do not overstack and that reduces wastage.
5. Lastly, Lizzat has tied up with Merchant Exporters, who export other food items as well, which reduces their combined cost, but again Lizzat asks for upfront payment, so the money reaches Lizzat Sisters timely.

Some data that is awesome for reference

1. Lizzat Institution is governed by 21 Members Committee (all female) and they are known as sanchalikas. Degree, caste, color, religion is not taken into consideration for being on the committee, all they need to know is how to make papad.
2. Each decision major or minor is made by the committee and can be vetoed by any of the 21 members. Any decision before being implemented has to be unanimously passed.
3. The pay structure and the loss bearing (when the company is making a loss) are dependent on production capacity and role in the organization.
4. Quality supersedes everything, for example even if salt is a little less or a little more the whole batch is asked to be destroyed, the cost does not matter.
5. Men are only hired as Shop assistants, drivers and errand boys.
6. Any female can be part of the organization but the cleanliness of the area designated to make and dry papads are thoroughly examined and routine checks are done.
7. The female labor participation in India has fallen to 20.3% in 2019 compared to 26% in 2005 (hence the above-mentioned Italicized thought).
8. No one was laid off even in the pandemic as there are no employees, only shareholders even when the company earned a fifth of what it used to.

So, your degree, your status, your resources can either be used positively for you and the society/country in general or can be used as excuses, choice is always yours. If 7 uneducated women with no backing and no resources and no education can build a 1600 crore empire, so can you, believe in what you want to do, believe in your dreams.

 Remember, quote, “Success is not final; failure is not fatal; it is the courage to continue that counts.”