It’s A Feeling Of Immense Satisfaction And Pride To See Rural Women Stepping Out Of Their Traditional Roles: IAS Rahul Kumar

JEEViKA an initiative to promote women entrepreneurs in Bihar!

Rahul Kumar an Indian Administrative Officer (IAS) from the 2011 batch, CEO JEEViKA (Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society), Commissioner MGNREGA, Mission Director Jal-Jeevan-Hariyali, MD SBM(G). During the conversation with the IAS Officer a few questions were asked about the JEEViKA and the working process behind this initiative. 

Knowing about JEEViKA, it is India’s largest state-level women’s socio-economic empowerment program, working directly with over 1.28 Crore families in rural Bihar, and is one of the flagship programs for poverty alleviation by the Government of Bihar.  The program involves the mobilization of women into affinity-based Self-Help Groups, commodity-specific producer groups, and higher federations. These community institutions enable collective capacity building, improved access to finance and public services, and direct linkage to markets. 

It was questioned, what was the idea behind the JEEViKA initiative?

 IAS Officer, Rahul Kumar gave an overview of the idea behind JEEViKA: The Government of Bihar with the financial assistance of the World Bank launched an ambitious poverty alleviation project on 2nd October 2006. “Bihar Rural Livelihoods Promotion Society” popularly known as “JEEViKA” was constituted to function under the aegis of the Finance Department, initially and presently under the Rural Development Department of the Government of Bihar. 

The program aimed at economic and social upliftment of the rural poor and facilitating them to emerge self-reliant. The objective of the program is to diversify and enhance household-level incomes and improve access to and use of nutrition and sanitation services among rural households. 

Currently, JEEViKA operates in 34,656 villages across 534 blocks and 38 districts of Bihar. Under the program, Bihar has the highest number of SHGs nationally, 10.31 lakh Self-Help Groups, further federated into 67,123 Village Organisations and 1324 Cluster Level Federations.

What is ‘DIDI KI RASOI’ (DKR)?

Knowing more about DKR – Providing quality and hygienic food to the indoor patients in district hospitals and the school children in the residential schools in scale had been a challenge for the government. There are many players in the supply chain and the procurement of goods by public institutions is regulated by institutional policies. The way hospital food is sourced, procured, prepared, and delivered continues to be an area of rigorous monitoring due to constant changes in suppliers. 

Additionally, The Health and SC/ST Welfare department of the Government of Bihar followed the tender procurement process based on the lowest quotation for hiring vendors to run the canteens in the hospitals and schools. Ensuring timely, hygienic food as per the prescribed menu was a challenge and involved administrative costs and time in vendor management processes. The lower budget compels compromise on quality and hygiene factors. Financial discrepancies wherein third-party vendors are involved also crept in. 

While the poor-rural women organized into Self- Help Groups-SHGs by JEEViKA were in dire need of sustainable and scalable livelihood options. Solutions to both the challenges were sought in amalgam and thus Didi Ki Rasoi (DKR) was conceptualized. 

A community-managed and community-owned canteen was conceptualized wherein rural poor women from SHGs were involved and trained to run high-quality hygienic food canteens on the institution premises. Didi ki Rasoi (DKR) is a unique initiative that has enhanced the delivery mechanism of provision of hygienic food to the indoor patients and students as per the prescribed menu in public hospitals and residential schools by initiating the Institutional Canteen Model.

It was asked about the selection procedure for Didi Ki Rasoi (JEEViKA) and also, many of them might not be aware of certain habits. Does JEEViKA provide training for cleanliness / serving meals etc?

Replying to the question, he said: JEEViKA leans on its organized Community-Based Organisations (CBOs) to implement DKR, which lend support to key functions such as mobilization at the community level, identification, and selection of potential entrepreneurs, training of potential entrepreneurs, initial asset procurement, and routing of funds to the DKR firms.

Further, he elaborated on the process the potential entrepreneurs are screened through a careful and rigorous process which includes the necessity of the candidate to be a member of the SHG, Possession of a prescribed level of literacy, her willingness to invest the seed money, willingness for mobility to attend training/exposure programs and Her household is situated within a radius of five km from the DKR. 

Usually, there are 35 participants from a district in a batch. At the end of the training, a score is provided to all the participants. Based on the score, final entrepreneurs are selected to operate the DKR. 

JEEViKA has partnered with Kudumbashree which provides hand-holding support for a month in the form of on-job training. This technical partner is credited for instituting food quality management systems in DKR. 

Whereas an advanced training by the Institute of Hotel Management (IHM), Hajipur on hospitality, hygiene, and baking items is also a part of the technical training.

What is the response of JEEViKA’s DKR, and in terms of the future, what are the further goals related to it?

Rahul Kumar, CEO of JEEViKA said the first DKR was initiated in 2019 in the district hospital of Vaishali and to date, a total of 68 DKRs are operational in the hospitals, residential schools, and public offices- RBI, SBI across 37 out of 38 districts of Bihar serving 7800 in-patients and their attendants, students, employees, and visitors daily. 

It has promoted over 704 rural women entrepreneurs who have enhanced their income, acquired self-confidence, and professional skills, and are recognized as role models. 

Each of these women entrepreneurs has been able to enhance their annual income by Rs1.20lakhs on an average and they collectively manage a business turnover of over Rs 6.15Crores.

What is the salary procedure? Does that depend on the net profit of JEEViKA?

He said: that DKR is a community-owned and community-managed initiative wherein the Cluster Level Federations (CLF) promoted by JEEViKA manage the brand Didi Ki Rasoi. An initial grant is provided from JEEViKA’s Program fund to run the business.

Whereas those involved women are getting paid with a salary of Rs7000/-per month and are also provided food from the canteen daily which is paid from the grant in the initial 2 years. 

Explaining the procedure An IAS officer said, the net- profit of the DKRs is distributed as a dividend to the women engaged in the DKR. Also, the business plan is so designed that each DKR would be able to pay the salaries from its net profit within 2years of its initiation.  

What is the reason behind selecting “only women” for Didi Ki Rasoi (DKR)?

As JEEViKA exclusively works with the rural women and has created a vast network of Community-Based Organisations of women in Rural Bihar who have been nurtured on institutional discipline, books of records, financial transactions within and across various financial institutions, and on-time loan repayment, health and hygiene, and business development acumen, women were always the first choice for “ DiDi Ki Rasoi”. This is also an initiative to promote women entrepreneurs in Bihar. 

How is the feeling when you see people getting employed? 

Rahul Kumar replying to the question stated that It’s a feeling of immense satisfaction and pride to see the rural women stepping out of their traditional roles and entering into the sphere of entrepreneurship and Start-Ups. JEEViKA didis have always amazed us with their strong determination and innate capabilities. They have taken up new challenges and contributed positively to the nation-building processes. 

JEEViKA didis entrepreneurial efforts have ensured hygienic and quality food on time as per the prescribed menu to the in-patients, students, bystanders, visitors, and officials of public institutions. A news story of Doordarshan National (July 14, 2020), termed this effort as ‘Aatmanirbharta ki misaal’ meaning an example of self-reliance.

DKR has not only given a consistent means of income to the didis, it has also generated employment opportunities for many other employees and other workers who work in these canteens. Currently, there are more than 70 service providers and vendors who are associated with DKR. Thus, the DKRs have become a source of direct and indirect employment for a large number of people.

Being an IAS, what more do you wish to implement and bring about a massive change in Bihar state?

He said: Well-planned and well-strategized efforts have begun to yield desirable results. As opined by didis themselves’; this is just the beginning. The scenario will be even better with many more such units at the place and many more didis joining this undeclared campaign of their socio-economic empowerment. 

With this orientation and dedication, the DKRs will be contributing toward many goals of Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) under the ‘2030 Agenda20 for Sustainable Development adopted by United Nations member countries. ‘No poverty’, ‘Zero Hunger ', ‘Gender Equality ', ‘Decent Work & Economic Growth’ and ‘Reduced Inequality’ are such goals being addressed by DKRs at their level. The series of changes brought about by DKRs and the didis make them the real ‘harbingers of change’.

The success of the enterprise has led to a scope of scalability and sustainability. This implies a bright possibility of replication of the model in many other places JEEViKA’s efforts to change the lives of the poor women through a sustainable means of livelihood like DKR. 

The story of origin and growth tells that the analysis of various options was done by didis themselves, and the action of initiating the DKR was also taken by themselves. They chose, took up, and are now sustaining their enterprise which is very likely to become a means of their sustainable livelihoods. The decisions taken collectively reflect decentralization and democracy while the works accomplished as per one’s competence and interest speak of the diversity in the strategy. 

Channelising and capitalizing on the network of Community Institutions promoted by JEEViKA for entrepreneurship development and sustainable livelihood promotion is the key to development and community-owned and community-managed initiatives would sustain the development of the scenario of Bihar.