01-06-2025
- General
- New Indian Express
From kitchen to commerce: Kalaburagi women rise as entrepreneurs with jowar rottis in Karnataka
KALABURAGI: Kitchens can transform lives.
A humble initiative that was started one-and-half year ago to make rottis in Kalaburagi district under the district administration's guidance has remade hundreds of women into confident entrepreneurs--it has given them a backbone.
'Kalaburagi Rotti,' made of jowar, the king of millets, is now the preferred choice among the health-conscious.
These rottis, made and sold by Kalaburagi Rotti Utpadakara Sahakara Sangha (Kalaburagi Rotti Producers Cooperative Society), has now caught the culinary imagination of the state. Every day the society sells up to 3,000 rottis and enticing chutneys to go with them.
These healthy rottis range from soft, kadak , sajji, dhapati and sengada holigi varieties. They are simply a click away. It is available on online platforms such as Amazon. One can also place orders at an easy to navigate and user-friendly website.
It was Kalaburagi Deputy Commissioner Fouzia Taranum who acted as the catalyst in the kitchen to set up the society.
Kalaburagi district has 90% rain-fed area under cultivation and jowar and bajra are the staple food. The society buys rotti from 150 Women Self Help Groups based in rural as well as urban areas of the district. Each of these women SHGs have at least six members. The SHGs prepare rotti and sell them to the Cooperative Society.
"Rotti namaga illitana bari hotti tumbastittri yappa, Eega Kalaburagi Rotti Kendra namaga kaitumba hanaanuu kodlikattada (Rotti was so far used to satisfy our hungry stomach, but now Kalaburagi Rotti Kendra is giving us handful of money for the rotti we prepare, sir)" says Ayyamma Kumbar, a serene and confident homemaker, who had never thought of essaying an entrepreneurial role in her village life till the society came along.
