The Amma canteens (the term in Tamil is ‘unavagam’) were started in the Chennai City Corporation area with the approval of the former Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Jayalaithaa, in 2012 at 407 places, including the major government hospitals in the city, with the numbers growing in a phased manner. They have been feeding nearly two lakh people from a wide spectrum of society every day — schoolchildren, street vendors, construction workers, housemaids, elderly couples, IT employees, road cleaning workers, the homeless and migrants. Anyone could have three meals at an average cost of Rs. 20 from these canteens, in a protected and hygienic environment.
The concept received a good response from people from all walks of life and was subsequently implemented in almost all district headquarters towns and cities of Tamil Nadu. Even neighbouring States such as Andhra Pradesh followed the example. Lots of visitors from across the country, including a group of economists from Egypt, appreciated the scheme and suggested various methods for ensuring their sustainability.
This wonderful concept should be revisited, and revamped without the barriers of political colour, but with human compassion with an eye
also on sustainability, in order to help a large number of marginalised people, and mobile and migrant populations. This will require a well-designed administrative system.
Whenever there is an outbreak of diseases such as cholera, typhoid and jaundice, or instances of food poisoning in the city, the City Corporation’s Public Health Department would conduct raids, deploying large manpower with five to ten lorries, focussing on roadside vendors and unlicensed food establishments. A large number of poor women and men who run the stalls have had their freshly prepared, sometimes hot food destroyed by those conducting the raids, declaring it unfit for human consumption. The officials would then confiscate the utensils, and the vendors would run in vain behind the lorries begging for their utensils to be returned.
Seeing their plight, we held meetings with over 70 vendors, especially those operating from the Marina beach. The vendors pleaded for our expertise to help them identify a means for survival since they had no alternative means. They promised that they would keep the areas from where they operated clean. And to our surprise, we found that they were true to their word, at least for the most part.
Determined to find a lasting solution, we referred to practices followed in Madras city during the British days, when hawkers were given hawker licences, and allotted designated spaces to operate from. Even in places such as Puducherry and Bangalore, as in many European cities, food courts are maintained on designated street-side areas during specified hours.
Sanitary inspectors attached to all divisions of the Chennai City Corporation were asked to make a list of roadside vendors, by zone and street. The number came to over 15,000. Simultaneously, we identified spaces in the city where the roads were wide and had little or no
vehicular movement, and where under-utilised buildings belonging to the City Corporation were available.
We drew up a proposal to help vendors form societies to establish food stalls under the government’s entrepreneurship programme, seeking to simultaneously put an end to the problem of unlicensed roadside eateries in dusty, unhygienic conditions. The proposal was presented to the Corporation. The Corporation submitted the proposal to the Chief Minister’s Office and it was immediately accepted for implementation. We were asked to work out the costing in terms of procuring rice, dhal, oil and vegetables at subsidised rates from the Civil Supplies Corporation and agricultural cooperative societies.
Woman workers were recruited through Self Help Groups attached to the Women’s Development Corporation, but the roadside vendors for whom the scheme was conceived in the first place were not immediately given any opportunity in this initiative. The latter could also have been rehabilitated along with the SHG women and the city could have been declared free from street food vending, which is a public health issue.
Nearly 5,000 women and their families from the middle and lower middle class sections are being benefited from the running of the canteens: they get a pay of Rs.300 a day. And nearly two lakh people eat in the canteens each day at the lowest possible cost at points that are easily accessible. This aids their nutrition, and enables healthy living and longevity.
To ensure health and hygiene, physical check-ups and vaccinations are being organised for the canteen helpers. Classes on personal hygiene are being organised. This has been done also for nearly 1.25 lakh food-handlers of the hotel industry in the city. (The Chennai City Corporation was the first in the country to start a system of issuing licences to food-
handlers in 1994.) A health book is maintained for each family of food-handlers, and family members are also provided health check-up facilities.
Three challenges
Currently, there are three challenges before the Amma canteens. The first relates to funds. These come entirely from the City Corporation’s revenue, and grants from the government for subsidised supply from the Civil Supplies Corporation.
The second challenge relates to organisation. The centres are wholly owned by the Corporation of Chennai, and run by the Public Health Department, which is already overburdened with field activities. They should be brought under a dedicated system, linked to the Women’s Development Corporation and Self Help Groups.
The third challenge concerns human resource management. The manpower for cooking, serving, procurement, storage, distribution, and supply chain management has to be worked out, and a system evolved.
To make this programme sustainable, it should be made autonomous, with monitoring and supervision by the Corporation of Chennai and a committed team of philanthropists who have a proven record of service.
To ensure sustainability, prices need to be raised to compensate running costs at least partially. For breakfast, the cost of the idly can be raised from Rs.1 to Rs.3, and that of pongal from Rs.5 to Rs. 7. For lunch, the cost of all rice items can be raised from Rs.5 to Rs.7. For supper, the cost of two chapathis can be raised from Rs.3 to Rs 5. The common person is certain to accept these price levels.
For each zone, a society can be formed under the direct supervision of the Corporation of Chennai with no political interference.
Each centre can also sell grocery items, vegetables from cooperative farms, pickles, appalams, drinking water and so on at controlled prices, at a separate counter during non-food serving hours — 10 a.m. to 12.30 p.m., and 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. — so as to generate income. The profits could be used to pay the salary of workers, who can be allowed to run the centres as a society free of cost, with maintenance undertaken by the society.
The menfolk could be involved in the supply chain of commodities and the transport of prepared food to required places. Procurement of commodities, expansion of services, and marketing of provisions targeting daily wage workers and slum, migrant and mobile populations will generate more employment.
Educated housewives in the respective localities could become voluntary mentors to encourage the workers and to monitor performance.
Initial funding or common good fund can be pooled from the government, corporates as part of corporate social responsibility initiatives and agencies such as the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) and they could help the women entrepreneurs develop a road map. Reputed service organisations and corporate sector entities could be allowed to adopt and maintain the centres.
The programme could be expanded to develop community kitchens in residential colonies of flats, hostels, corporate units, and government and private hospitals. Government colleges where large numbers of underprivileged students study could have extension of the facility to
provide food at low cost. A large number of poor families in Chennai and other cities in Tamil Nadu could be given life-changing opportunities through employment at these centres. The scheme can be extended to rural areas in future.
The Amma canteens constitute a beautifully and emotionally carved concept. They need to survive and be sustained over the long term. This can happen if the government is open to making them an independent women’s entrepreneurship movement. The corporate sector should come forward to support this noble cause.
(Dr. Kuganantham is a former Chennai City Health Officer and Dr. Hamsadvanianand, a former consultant to the World health Organization)
