Within the village of Nandurbar District, Maharashtra, the place malnutrition was once prevalent amongst kids, Sunanda Saysing Padvi, elderly 32, had a unmarried concern relating to her children — their meals intake.
“Discovering paintings even two times per week within the fields or anyplace was once a large beef up for us. The cash we earned was once very much less, so lets no longer feed our children effectively. We additionally may no longer ship them to college for a similar reason why,” she stocks, including that they had been making an allowance for migrating to Gujarat searching for higher paintings alternatives.
On the other hand, the situation modified when Aazol — an original Maharashtrian snack trade employed her to make snacks from her house.
“Since I were given employed with Aazol, I paintings for 5 days per week, and I’ve been ready to earn round Rs 30,000 a month. My kids are getting an schooling and don’t seem to be malnourished anymore,” she tells The Higher India.
Aazol has been serving to over 1,000 girls like Sunanda from 17 Self Assist Teams in quite a lot of districts of Maharashtra.
A tryst with future
A Mumbai-based mother-son duo, Apurva and Siddharth Purohit based Aazol which serves original and lesser-known snacks from Maharashtra to shoppers around the nation.
Apurva had a flourishing profession within the company international with over 3 a long time of revel in and Siddharth was once operating as a expert. However regardless of their divergent skilled paths, the duo’s shared want to make a favorable have an effect on on underprivileged communities remained steadfast.
“Whilst I’ve been within the company international for a very long time, all alongside I had this sturdy urge to do one thing for the underprivileged. I come from a normal Indian middle-class circle of relatives. I labored exhausting, were given into just right schools and constructed this existence from the bottom up. On the other hand, the chance to do all that was once given to us. Subsequently, I felt like there will have to be avenues for others to develop too,” says 57-year-old Apurva.
Short of to surrender and transfer into the social sector, Apurva expressed this want to her son.
“Even though I used to be more than pleased in my profession, the urge was once at all times there. On the other hand, after we had been house as a result of the pandemic, it turned into more potent. I had numerous time to suppose. That is after I began to query whether or not what I’m doing is sufficient,” she notes.
“The social divide of our nation turned into so a lot more visual. I began to contemplate if I may well be of a few assist and if I may use my sources to fix things,” she says.
The start of Aazol
Apurva determined to take early retirement in 2021 to brainstorm concepts.
“Once I spoke to my son, I realised that he’s additionally serving to the ground tier of society. This was once it; we each determined to have the option of serving to the underprivileged via giving them a livelihood,” she says.
The similar 12 months, Apurva and Siddharth went to Mahalaxmi Saras Exhibition which occurs annually in Mumbai.
“This exhibition is via other people from all throughout Maharashtra from quite a lot of SHGs showcasing and promoting their produce. Whilst talking to those girls, I realised how they didn’t have many avenues to promote those merchandise. There have been such a lot of snacks and merchandise like chutney, sauces and syrups that I had by no means noticed earlier than,” she says.
“Having lived in Maharashtra my entire existence I used to be stunned to peer such a lot of snacks that no one knew about. Moreover, these kind of had been hand-crafted and with out preservatives. The ones girls additionally instructed me how they don’t have a lot employment and had been repeatedly below monetary pressure,” she provides.
Their conversations with the ladies gave the duo the speculation of beginning an organization that might bridge this hole. “We concept ‘Why don’t we create a market and provide chain for those girls?’ after which in September 2021, Aazol was once born,” she says.
Making uncommon meals to be had to the arena
The mummy-son group went to quite a lot of faraway villages searching for original meals made via the locals.
“My son even visited Naxalite villages to get their original snacks and produce them to the arena,” she says. “For example, the tribal girls in some villages make mahua ladoos which can be made the use of mahua flower and jaggery. It’s endemic to the area and isn’t widely known,” she says.
Aazol has been in company with 17 SHGs from quite a lot of districts of Maharashtra together with Nandurbar, Wardha and so forth. Every of those self-help teams employs 20 to 200 girls on a daily basis.
The corporate acts as an middleman between the top customers and girls within the village who make those merchandise for them. Its wide variety of Maharashtrian snacks contains quite a lot of kinds of chutneys, indigenous rice like Indrayani rice, spices, papads and ladoos.
“All of the merchandise are hand-crafted or in the community grown or made the use of conventional recipes. They’re additionally contemporary and preservative loose,” says Apurva.
“We additionally make certain that the entire girls are paid in advance inside of 15 days of the supply. We don’t stay up for the sale to occur to pay them. Those girls paintings very exhausting, and I simply need to make certain that they get their fair proportion,” she says.
Sharda Gajanan Thakur (47) who has been operating with them for 2 years, says, “In my village in Wardha district, there are not any different paintings alternatives rather then operating within the fields. Ladies are most commonly certain to stick at house. Farmers committing suicide is quite common right here. Once I got to work with SHG and Aazol, I may no longer consider that one thing like this was once conceivable. Many ladies from my village joined too. I am getting paid frequently and my family’s source of revenue has now reached Rs 35,000 a month.”
In just a 12 months and a part in trade, the corporate has been ready to cater to masses of shoppers in Maharastra and across the nation. Their merchandise are priced within the vary of Rs 150 to Rs 800 and are that can be purchased on their web site and on aggregators like ONDC, Amazon, and Flipkart.
Reflecting on their adventure, Apurva says, “Once I determined to modify from a well-established profession to a startup, the place I didn’t also have an administrative center, was once an enormous step for me. I used to be scared, however in my middle, I knew that this was once my calling. I recognise the privilege I had in getting a chance to get a just right schooling, however many don’t get that. I simply sought after to offer again to society after I nonetheless have the power and calibre to take action.”
Edited via Pranita Bhat