HYDERABAD: In recent times, women have been driving the much-needed change in the Indian dietary space. Whether it is the women sanghams of Zaheerabad who have cultivated millets for decades or those entrepreneurs inspired by the growing awareness on traditional foods, women continue to use their innovative and entrepreneurial skills to drive the millet revolution.
Sruti Ajmera Reddy is one such entrepreneur who was influenced by her father-in-law and paediatrician Dr Sudarshan Reddy, who had exposed her to the goodness of millets. After the delivery of her first child, she started experimenting with millets, which soon led to a WhatsApp where other mothers would place their orders for millet-based child food. However, what started as need-based experiments, has now become much sought-after product consumed across the country under the brand name ‘Hapup,’ which translates to ‘eat-up’ in Gujarati.
She presently makes millet-based natural ready-to-cook baby porridge mixes for dosas and pancakes, sprouted multi-millet mix, jowar pops, chips and so on. She sources the millets such as jowar, ragi and foxtail millets from farmers and collectives, she has been working with paediatricians, food scientists, farmers and entrepreneurs to make her products better. The products can be consumed by children aged 6 months and above.
She won the Centre’ grant of Rs 5 lakh during her incubation at NutriHub in the Indian Institute of Millets Research in 2020, and has also received a grant from Kotak Mahindra and Goldman Sachs by being among the top 20 women entrepreneurs among the 210 incubated at Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore, in 2021.
“The incubation centres at IIMR and IIM-B were highly focused and helped increase my knowledge on what is there in the market. It was great working with industry experts, mentors and a cohort of women entrepreneurs. We are each other’s customers and brand ambassadors now,” she tells Express. ‘Social impact more important than commercial success’
D Lakshmi Haritha Bhavani, 34, who had completed her Masters in Architecture and was teaching engineering students, was influenced by her mother, who is a retired agricultural officer. She started Ancient Foods, a millet startup based in Saroornagar.
More than the commercial angle is the social impact aspect which she says is important for her in providing good food to people. With a team of seven people, she makes ready-to-eat and cook instant breakfast mixes and snacks using various minor millets, major millets, brown rice and pulses in her products.
“What people have been giving their children unknowingly is slow poison, which would damage their health in the long run. My objective is to create a product which would be viable and not be a burden on the customer and myself,” she says. She is planning to launch millet-based kits for diabetic and obese people, an immunity-booster kit and ‘Millet Magic,’ a daily milk-drink mix for children.