FROM RAGI TO RICHES

Mission Shakti and Mission Millet help Odisha's womenfolk turn entrepreneurs

- ARKAMOY DATTA

In 2019, just before Covid caused worldwide disruption, Minati Sabat, a homemaker from Ward No. 37 under the Bhubaneswar Municipal Corporation, decided she wanted to do “something better” with her life. And so she brought together 13 women to form the Om Sai Ram self-help group (SHG). Initially, guided by the Odisha government’s department of Mission Shakti, they set up a tailoring unit, but within a few months, they found themselves among the nine SHGs chosen to form an area-level federation (ALF) known as the Swayam Sradha Mahila Mahasangha.

Sixteen of its 120 members now run a coveted Millet Shakti outlet at the Kalinga Stadium in Bhubaneswar. The outlet is a joint venture of Mission Shakti and the Mission Millet initiatives. Established on January 12, 2023—when the Men’s Hockey World Cup was on—the outlet now offers 32 varieties of millets-based cooked and dry items, along with multiple millets grains, catering to 200 customers on average every day.

The millets outlet now has a monthly turnover of Rs 5-6 lakh. “On an average, we make a profit of Rs 3 lakh a month, which is shared among the 16 of us,” says the 46-year-old Minati. Currently housed in a small space beside the Kalinga hockey stadium, the state is now setting up a larger Millet Mission Café above the unit. The prospect of managing a whole café widens the smiles on the faces of Minati’s colleagues.