A group of women from a slum in south Calcutta are running the kitchen of a cafe.
In addition, some others are making pickles and embroidered mats that are being sold there.
The festive season has come as a relief for these women at Rahee Tea Time on Broad Street.
A government school teacher and her friend started the cafe on the terrace of a house during the pandemic to help many of these women who were forced to support the family when the men’s income had reduced or dried up.
But there have been phases in the last two years during Covid when the sales was low.
Things have looked better this festive season for Rahee Tea Time, an initiative of Tanuz Vocational Training Society.
It employs four women in the kitchen who have been trained to prepare “cafe-like snacks”.
There are a group of other women, some from Barasat and a place near Tangra, who do embroidery work or make pickles.
“The idea is to generate employment for the women. While those in the kitchen get a monthly salary, the rest get paid according to the orders delivered and sold,” said Arpita Chakraborty, who teaches in a school.
For Swapna Singh, her earning has helped to support her family.
“My husband is a driver whose salary was reduced to half in the pandemic. My income helped us then and it supplements the family income even now,” said Singh, a mother of two who does not know how to read or write.
It was in the first year of pandemic that Chakraborty had started several initiatives, one of them was teaching children who were at home as schools were shut because of the pandemic. The cafe was also opened during that phase.
“There were periods when we could not run it properly. There were phases, especially during the second wave of Covid, when there was no income. But we had fixed costs which we had to incur from our pocket,” said Chakraborty.
However, things are looking up.
“Since Puja we have had orders every day. We have been able to sustain the project,” she said.
“There are some women in a slum near Tangra who cannot step out for work. So, they make pickles at home and we keep it in the cafe for sale. We give them the money they need for buying the raw materials. Once the pickles are sold we give them the money,” said Chakraborty.