AASTHA BHOJAN:

Aastha Bhojan is a group of women in India's eastern West

Bengal supply homemade food to offices to earn livelihood.
According to Urmi Pal Chowdhury, president of Aastha
Bhojan, the group was set up with the purpose of uplifting
the under-privileged urban women who have been generally
neglected.

"All of us had been thinking of the rural women but there

are lot of underprivileged women also in the urban sector.
What about them? What are the options left to them. So we
thought why not make a group and instill certain things,
inculcate certain things into them and then promote
entrepreneurship," said Urmi Pal Chowdhury. Before joining
the self-help group, women were given training regarding
hygiene, packaging, preservation, customer dealing,
transportation and serving.

Majority of women belonging to the self-help group joined it

due to their poor economic conditions.
Women joined the group out of poor economic conditions.
Here we cook food the way we do at home and sell them at
the IT firms. Whatever we earn from it, we divide it amongst
all of us," said Rama Sarkar, member, Astha group.

Each member of the group earns between rupees 3,000 and

rupees 5,000 every month on a regular basis.
The group runs cafeterias at companies like Tata
Telecommunication, Exide, Indian Institute of Foreign Trade
(IIFT), IDBI and Amity School of Business.
Besides cooking and serving skills, the business talents of
these women have developed considerably. The SHG
business is gradually turning into a movement with new
groups being set up for the same purpose across areas like
Hatibagan, Rajarhat and Keshtopur where new companies
and residential projects are coming up. As a result of that
there has been an improvement in the standard of living of
the women like as follows

 Social status.
 Increase in daily income.
 Impart primary education to children.
 Purchase clothes.
 Purchase food, clothes and medicine

This has led to the women empowerment in respect to:

• Building self confidence, improve decision making

power
• Have ready cash in hand, building self confidence
• Self employed and earn for family
• Earn and purchase land in village
• Helped to earn livelihood

Thus, overall Aastha Bhojan has not only helped the urban
women to gain employment but also helping the economic
growth of the country.

Name: Anuj Agrawal

Roll No: 639