Raw deal for Papad staff

Papad- The traditional crispy wafer without which any Indian meal is complete, specially a South Indian meal, is the basis for providing livelihood to thousands of women across the nation. Commonly referred to as papad, appalam and papadam across the country, the production of it, is the centre of many self help groups’ activities.

Tamil Nadu is the ‘Sambar Capital’ of the country, which boasts of perhaps some of the best South Indian food. In such a scenario, no kitchen can call itself complete without the presence of this delicious crunchy food item. It is a fact that not many spare a thought for the people who work hard day and night, irrespective of the season, to make them.

According to the President of the Appalam Co-operative society P.R.Chandra, there are more than 100 branded papad making units and over 1000 unbranded papap making units. Ninety per cent of this industry is composed of women and ten per cent are emerging entrepreneurs usually bachelors from Kerala. According to Mr Chandra, this unorganised sector employs more than one lakh people. Most of these unbranded appalams go to the district of Kancheepuram.

One very popular brand name in this industry, which every papad lover must have heard of is Lijjat Papad which is run and owned by women who make the papads. It is perhaps one of the most popular self help groups (SHG) where every woman who is a member of Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad is the owner and beneficiary too. The Chennai branch of this popular SHG is based in Kilpauk and employs more than 250 women who earn anywhere between Rs 100 and Rs 150 per day. According to C.Pushpa, President of this SHG, these women take home the papad dough weighing anywhere between five to six kilograms and make close to 500 papads. Most of the women are from the low income group households often supplementing their jobs as domestic workers, maids etc with this profitable venture.
Though, papad production is a very enterprising venture, the fact remains that the conditions under which these women work are laborious and very demanding. They work for over 10 hours, kneading the flour and required ingredients into a dough, which then has to be flattened into circles and dried in the sun. All this is very time consuming and requires long hours of gruelling work which often affects the back and arms of the women. This is so especially in the case of the unbranded papad making units.
Take the case of Mr. Ashokan’s unit in Vadapalni. Mr Ashokan runs an unbranded papad making unit employing three families. There are a total of 4 women in this unit, each women making anywhere between 2000-2500 papads per day. They are paid per piece and on a weekly basis. These women work for over 12 hours per day making them. According to Sujatha (name changed), who works at this unit, the job is not a simple one and requires lot of patience and stamina. “ There are days when I wish I could just give up this job. It’s back breaking work and often at the end of the day I am very tired,” she says.
There is a sharp contrast in the working conditions of the women employed in SHG’s like the Lijjat papad and unregistered, unbranded units like the one run by Mr. Ashokan. According to C.Pushpa, if a member falls ill, she can always take leave and make up for it on another day. Since the profits are shared between the women, a member needn’t worry constantly about losing wages. Contrasting this is the situation of women in other units where missing one day means losing anywhere between 100-200 Rs.
Another local brand Majesty papad also employs 100 women. According to Mr. Ahmed, owner of the organisation, the women earn anywhere between Rs 50-180 per day and make around 3000 papads per day. The women here are not a disgruntled lot and are quite happy with their work. There are strict rules to be followed though. Maintaining hygiene is just one of them. Not many units make profits. Often these units break even. According to a Hindu report only 25 percent of this industry actually makes any profit.

To enhance its appeal a few changes have been made. “We made a few additions to enrich its taste and texture,” said Mr. Asokan, “We need more people to meet the demand,” he said. Some units use machines to mix the dough, but more often than not, the entire production of this food product is manual, as machines which work at high speed often destroy the texture of the appalams.
This sector has issues too, and would like the Government to address, for improved performance. They want the government to support them by providing financial support. Considering the fact that it is a low maintenance industry supporting women, it’s high time the government supports this industry. There is also a greater need to organize the women of this industry and ensure that their rights are protected.