A lot has been said and done about how there is a dire need
for women’s empowerment. And yet, in a country as progressive as India, the condition of women is still,
for want of a better word, backward. Before this blog starts to seem like just
another preachy article, I’m going to quickly cut to the chase.
I believe employment empowers a person like nothing else.
Yes, education is important and the need for women’s literacy can never be
articulated enough. But, quite frankly, literacy is a grass root problem. The
solution I’m offering is of a more immediate nature – to empower the great
number of mature women in the lower strata of the society.
The thought:
Almost every girl in the lower middle class society
is hardwired to believe that her primary responsibility is cooking, cleaning
and looking after the family; work and employment is secondary. Hence,
practically every girl in this society is taught how to cook at a very early
age. Women, in general, are considered better cooks than men (you never hear anyone
missing “papa ke haath ka khaana”).
Why is it then that most cooks and chefs in restaurants are men? And I don’t just
mean the fine dining restaurants, even in your local Udipi restaurants, lunch homes or even bars, the cooks are always
men.
The solution:
If we could just replace all these male cooks
with female ones, it’ll open up a huge source of employment for women.
Advantage to employer:
Women don’t have to be
trained to cook, they’ve been doing it since the time they could light a match.
The right salt and spice proportion is second nature to them. Hence, zero training
expenditure.
Advantage to employee:
Even if they’ve never
held a job in their lives before, these women don’t have to feel nervous
because they’ll just be working behind the scenes doing what they do every day!
The execution:
Have an NGO portal listing all these ladies
with amazing culinary skills that are looking for employment. Approach small
restaurants and give them visiting cards and pamphlets so that whenever a
vacancy comes up, help is just a call away.
So really, it’s a win-win situation. I’m aware that this
concept has already been explored by Lijjat
and the dabba services folk, but I’m
just suggesting a different spin on it. So there you have it, my two-cents on
sparking a change.
