The women Narendra Modi extolled,and one he did not

“My father used to be ill and my mother,then 34,had to support the family,” says Hiren Jhaveri,Induben’s son,who manages the business today. The family included two daughters. “She began by selling two kilograms of khakhra from four containers,largely to family,friends and neighbours,says Jhaveri,who took over the business when his mother died in 1981. “Even today we make khakhras based on my mother’s recipe. We follow the standards of goodwill and quality she laid down.”

The shop has 120 women to cook khakhras. It has a retail outlet each at Mithakali and Satellite,and also serves a few non-resident Gujaratis to whom the khakhras are couriered.

Jasuben Shah

In 1973,she tried to recreate at home a pizza she had eaten. She innovated with the way bhakhri,a Gujarati flatbread,is made,and started selling pizzas on a handcart.

Today,outside the Jasuben Shah Old Pizza stall inside an ice-cream outlet at Ambawadi Circle,the crowd stops traffic from 5pm till midnight. The stall sells 20,000 pizzas a day at Rs 50 each,in Italian,Jain,cheese and double cheese flavours. The brand has three outlets and two franchisees.

Jasuben moved to Pune in 1981 and left the brand in the hands of an employee,Jorawar Singh Rajput,and his wife,who today have their daughter and son-in-law for help. “The secret is in our base and gravy,which we do not reveal,” says Rajendra Singh,the son-in-law. “Every two months or so Narendra Modi would have a conference at the town hall,and his personal secretary would come for our pizzas.”

He adds,“We have kept it a family business and hired our 25 employees from among our relatives. Since 2000 our brand has had a loyal customer base.” The brand has won several awards from food websites and media brands.

“These women chose to experiment with food and made brisk businesses. The brands made it big in a city that is always looking for pocket-friendly food which is perhaps why Modi mentioned them,” says Anil Mulchandani,a food critic.

Ela Bhatt

Ela Bhatt,79,whose example Modi didn’t cite,founded in 1972 the Self-employed Women’s Association. Inspired by Mahatma Gandhi who had led a strike of textile workers in 1917,SEWA today has 18 lakh members in nine states.

Hailing from Surat,Bhatt worked with the Gujarat government and joined the Textile Labour Association in the 1970s. She was struck by the fact that women workers were not protected by laws,as industrial workers were. She organised them under a women’s wing of the TLA union,which later became SEWA. Its sister organisations such as SEWA Bank,Lok Swasthya Sewa and National Academy for Self-employed Women have half their members from Gujarat. It launched a clothes brand,Hansiba,with 7,000 craftswomen,which has tied up with designers and retailers in eight countries.

Bhatt won the Padma Shri in 1985,the Padma Bhushan in 1986,the Magsaysay Award in 1977 and a lifetime achievement award under the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace,Disarmament and Development in 2011.

The Lijjat mention

While lauding women entrepreneurs,Modi said the Lijjat Papad enterprise had been started by tribal women in Gujarat. A senior executive in Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad’s central office in Mumbai confirmed it had not been started in Gujarat. The business had been conceived by a Kolkata-based businessman and set up in Girgaum,Mumbai,and put into operation by seven women,most of whom were indeed Gujaratis. Today,13 of 81 branches are in Gujarat,the executive said.

Lijjat works on the model of a cooperative with 40,000 women workers. The seven women of the initial days,who lived in Lohana Niwas in Girgaum,included Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat,Parvatiben Ramdas Thodani,Ujamben Narandas Kundalia,Banuben. N Tanna,Laguben Amritlar Gokani and Jayaben V Vithalani; the name of the seventh couldn’t immediately be established. They took a loan of Rs 80 to take over a loss-making papad making venture. On March 15,1959,they gathered on the terrace of their building and started production with four packets of papad.

Reporting by Lakshmi Ajay & Avinash Nair in Ahmedabad,and Stuti Shukla in Mumbai