Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, popularly known as Lijjat, is an Indian women's worker cooperative organisation engaged primarily in the manufacturing of papad and allied food products. Headquartered in Mumbai, Maharashtra, it is widely cited as a landmark example of women-led grassroots enterprise in India, having grown from a small home-based venture into a pan-India cooperative employing tens of thousands of women, who are referred to within the organisation as "sister-members" (ben).
| Name | Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad |
|---|---|
| Type | Women's cooperative society |
| Founded | 15 March 1959, Mumbai |
| Founder | Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat, with six co-founders |
| Headquarters | Mumbai, Maharashtra, India |
| Industry | Food processing (papad, masala, atta, detergents) |
| Best known product | Lijjat Papad |
| Membership | Women member-owners across multiple Indian states |
The organisation was started on 15 March 1959 by seven women in Girgaum, South Mumbai, with the intention of creating a sustainable livelihood for women using a domestic skill — the rolling of papads. The initial venture was launched on the terrace of a building in Lohana Niwas with a small borrowed sum of money. Jaswantiben Jamnadas Popat is generally regarded as the principal founder and spokesperson among the original group.
Servants of India Society leader and social worker Chhaganlal Karamsi Parekh mentored the founders in the early years, advising them on quality control, accounting and the cooperative principles that came to define the enterprise.
Lijjat operates on the principle of collective ownership by its women workers. Every member is treated as an owner of the enterprise and shares equally in profits, which are distributed as vanai (rolling charges) and an annual surplus. The organisation does not accept charity or donations and has historically been self-financed through its operations.
Day-to-day production is decentralised: dough is prepared at branch centres each morning, distributed to member-women who roll papads at home, and collected the same day for drying, packaging and dispatch. This model allows women to combine domestic responsibilities with paid work.
The flagship product is the round, thin, urad-dal based Lijjat Papad, sold in plain and spiced varieties. Other products include appalam, khakhra, instant chapati, vadi, spices, atta and detergent powders and cakes. The brand's long-running television advertisement, featuring an animated rabbit and the laugh-based jingle "Karram Kurram", became one of the most recognisable advertising mascots in Indian popular culture.
Lijjat is frequently studied as a case in development economics, gender studies and management as an example of successful women's economic empowerment, cooperative enterprise and rural-urban livelihood generation in India. It has been cited by the Khadi and Village Industries Commission as a flagship village industry and is often referenced in policy discussions on self-help groups and cottage industries.