Seven Women Borrowed Rs 80 and Rolled Four Packets of Papad on a Girgaum Terrace on 15 March 1959, and Lijjat Papad Now Counts About 45,000 Women Members at 83 Branches

Lijjat Papad began on 15 March 1959, when seven women from a block of flats in Girgaum, South Bombay, rolled four packets of papad (a thin, crisp lentil wafer eaten with meals) on their building’s terrace and sold them. Their working money was Rs 80, borrowed. The society’s own website now counts about 45,000 sister members and 83 branches, and says it has never accepted a donation, gift or grant from anyone.

The name on the door is Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad. WIPO’s profile of the society translates it as “Mrs. or Ms.”, women, home, industry and tasty. It is one of Mumbai’s long-running home-grown enterprises, alongside the dabbawalas, and a society of members rather than a company with shareholders.

Seven neighbours and a terrace in Lohana Niwas

The seven lived in Lohana Niwas, a group of five old residential buildings in Girgaum, according to the National Human Rights Commission’s 2006 study of home-based workers. Mid-day Gujarati, in a January 2021 interview with the surviving founder, lists them as Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, Jayaben V. Vithalani, Ujamben Narandas Kundalia, Parvati Ramdas Thodani, Diwaliben Lukka, Bhanuben N. Tanna and Laguben Amritlal Gokani (names transliterated from the Gujarati).

Popat told the BBC in 2009 why they started: “We were semi-literate which restricted our chances to get jobs.” Papad-making was the one skill they all had, and the money it brought in was meant to ease their husbands’ load.

The Rs 80 came from Chaganlal Karamsi Parekh, a social worker, in the BBC’s account. The society’s own Beginning page says only that they started on a borrowed sum, and Mid-day has Popat saying the loan was arranged with the help of “Chhaganbapa”, whom the paper identifies as Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh. WIPO’s profile spells his name Chhanganlal Karamshi Parekh and also gives Chhaganbapa as what people called him.

According to Popat in Mid-day, the money bought urad flour, asafoetida and black pepper. The women kneaded and rolled the dough, dried the papads on the terrace and gave them to a shop nearby to sell. AFP reports that sales in 1959 came to just over Rs 6,000.

The advice to take no donations

Parekh’s advice, Popat told the BBC, was this: “He advised us that if we wanted to experience success, never accept donations.” The society’s Brief information page says it has never accepted, and will never accept, any charity, donation, gift or grant. The page adds that members give to good causes together instead. The cooperative route differs from the dairy one in Verghese Kurien and Operation Flood, where a government programme copied a farmers’ cooperative across India.

The NHRC study describes the structure as based on Gandhi’s idea of trusteeship, with the assets belonging to the society and no employers or employees, only member-sisters who are owners. WIPO names three core principles: mutual affection and concern, devotion to the workplace, and sarvodaya (collective ownership, which it calls trusteeship). In 2005 Jyoti Naik, then Lijjat’s president, wrote in a Rediff article that the same mentor had told them to close their account books every day, and that every branch still did.

Dough at the branch, papad rolled at home

The working day, as Naik described it in 2005 and AFP reported it in 2021, starts before dawn. Women gather at a branch to collect freshly kneaded dough and hand in the papads they rolled the day before, which are tested for quality. They roll the new dough at home and dry it there. Another team packs the tested papads at the branch.

Membership is open to women over 18 who take a 15-day training, WIPO says. Naik’s article says any woman who pledges to uphold the society’s values and respects quality can become a member and co-owner. Men work only in contracted roles: shop assistants, drivers and errand boys, in AFP’s list. WIPO says the same of specialised contract jobs.

Pay is by output, and profit is shared separately. Naik wrote that each member receives a daily rolling charge called vanai, and that the profit of a branch is divided equally among its members, whatever their seniority, often as gold coins of 5 or 10 grams. She also wrote that any single member can block a decision, because decisions are taken by consensus.

AFP quotes the current president, Swati Ravindra Paradkar, on how the top job is filled: “We believe that only someone who can roll out papads can become president.”

On quality, WIPO says samples from each branch go to a control team at headquarters every day, and batches that fail are destroyed. The society’s quality page says it holds ISO 9001:2015 and ISO 22000:2018 certifications. Naik’s article gives a production rule too: at least 800 grams of papad had to come from each kilogram of dough, or the members’ pay was cut.

From 25 women to 300, and a society registered in 1966

The BBC and WIPO both say the group had 25 women within three months. WIPO adds that the number passed 100, that they moved from charcoal to a stove with a cover for the monsoon and a cot hung above it for drying, and that kneaded flour began to be taken home because the terrace was too small.

By the 1960s there were about 300 sisters, WIPO says. It records that attempts to open branches at Malad in 1961 and Sangli in 1966 failed, and that the first branch outside Maharashtra opened in 1968. The society registered in 1966, which WIPO says opened the way to cheaper bank loans, including from the Bank of India. Lijjat’s Brief information page gives the details: registered under the Societies Registration Act, 1860, and the Bombay Public Trusts Act, 1950, and recognised in 1966 by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) as a village industry. Popat told Mid-day that a committee of 11 women was formed in the early 1960s because the bank needed signatories.

The product list grew from papad. WIPO dates khakhra (a crisp snack) to 1974, masala to 1976, a printing and advertising division to 1977, a bakery and matches to 1979, and detergent to 1988. The papad itself is sold, as of that profile, in 14 varieties.

Lijjat’s Brief information page says its products go abroad through merchant exporters, to the United States, the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Japan. Naik wrote in 2005 that 30 to 35 per cent of papad output was exported, and that export orders began production only after full advance payment by cheque. WIPO records trademarks held in India, the United States and the European Union.

Awards, and a Padma Shri

Lijjat’s Milestone page lists the “Business Woman of the Year” award from the Economic Times on 6 September 2002, and the “Best Village Industry Institution” award that Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee presented on 14 March 2003 at a KVIC convention in New Delhi. WIPO adds that the KVIC award went to Lijjat each year from 1998 to 2001.

The society’s fiftieth anniversary fell on 15 March 2009. The BBC reported that Popat, then 80, was the only surviving founder and that 45,000 women belonged to the cooperative.

The Padma Shri for Popat was announced on the eve of Republic Day 2021, in the Trade and Industry category for Maharashtra, according to the Ministry of Home Affairs list. President Ram Nath Kovind presented it at Rashtrapati Bhavan on 9 November 2021, Zee News reported. She died on 21 September 2023, SheThePeople reported that day. The Indian Institute of Management Ahmedabad had published a 26-page case study of the society much earlier, case BP0132 by K. R. S. Murthy, in January 1978.

Turnover, pay and counts that do not agree

The sources do not give one turnover figure. The numbers they give, each as attributed:

• Naik, writing as president in April 2005: annual sales above Rs 301 crore.
• The BBC, March 2009: nearly $100 million a year.
• WIPO, for 2013: about Rs 650 crore.
• Business Standard, 15 September 2017, quoting a Union Minister of State at the society’s annual meeting: revenues of about Rs 1,600 crore.
• Mid-day Gujarati, January 2021: about Rs 1,800 crore a year.

Lijjat’s own pages, read on 29 October 2026, give no turnover figure, and none of the pages opened for this article carries audited accounts.

Member numbers are steadier: WIPO says “more than 40,000” in 2013, while the BBC in 2009, AFP in 2021 and the society’s pages all say about 45,000. Branch counts are 62 in Naik’s 2005 article, 82 in AFP’s April 2021 report and 83 on the society’s pages, which give 31 divisions on one page and 27 on another.

Earnings are harder to compare because pay follows output. AFP’s April 2021 report says each woman is paid by production capacity and role, and gives about Rs 12,000 a month on average for one named member with 35 years of service. WIPO’s profile gives a monthly average of Rs 2,000 to Rs 3,000 for the period it describes. No study of member earnings was among the sources opened for this article.

AFP also reported that the pandemic cut sales by nearly a fifth on early estimates, with no layoffs and modest pay rises. At the 52nd annual general meeting on 15 September 2017, the Union Minister of State for MSME urged Lijjat to add products such as instant noodles and to adopt automation. Naik had written in 2005 that the society does not use machines for production or packaging because its purpose is to give women a livelihood. This article found no later source on whether that position has changed.