It’s 8 a.m. and promises to be another typical
sweltering day. The ‘budget’ canteen at Jafferkhanpet, a residential
area in south Chennai is a bustling place.

Anandi, who runs this canteen, is busy ladling out sambar and serving idlis to hungry breakfasters who are lapping it up.

It’s
going to be a long day for Anandi and her team, who have started early,
at 4:30 am, to prepare the breakfast and will wind up serving lunch by 4
pm. By that time, the batter for the next day is prepared and the
canteen cleaned up.

“I get a salary of about Rs 300
per day,” says a visibly happy Anandi. And it isn’t just her; there are
12 women working at this centre. The canteen scheme helps over 800 women
from self-help groups across the city earn a living.

The
Chennai Corporation’s low-price canteens, launched in February by Chief
Minister Jayalalithaa, are a hit, with school children, work-bound men
and women as well as senior citizens queuing up at these places.
Breakfast of idli with unlimited sambar, at Re 1 an idli, is served from
7 a.m. to 10 a.m. Lunch is from 12 noon to 3 pm and features sambar
rice for Rs 5 and curd rice for Rs 3. That’s much cheaper than roadside
eateries.

The food is prepared and served
hygienically too. The canteen, where this writer breakfasted, is spic
and span, with beige tiles, a shiny stainless steel sink and steel
plates to serve the food.

The kitchen at Anandi’s
canteen is well lit, open and spacious with a large grinder, and two
gas-burners for cooking.  But in these days of high inflation, how much
money is the government losing by providing meals at such low prices?
The State government claims it is losing about 86 paise per idli,
incurred mainly on rice supplied at subsidised rates to these canteens.

A
rough estimate, based on data provided by one centre, suggests that the
cost of materials alone (rice, vegetables and dhal) to make one idli
would come to about 90 paise. Add the labour costs and it would be close
to Rs 2.

 One good thing is these canteens don’t
incur the rentals that are likely to be paid by restaurants in prime
locations. The government provides the space, capital, supplies and
electricity.

A government employee also manages the
logistics of supplying rice, dhal, vegetables, gas cylinders and water.
So, how much does Anandi’s canteen make in a day? Typically, daily sales
are around Rs 1,500 for breakfast and Rs 4,000 for lunch, she says.

The
canteen sells 1,500 idlies, 600 servings of sambar rice and 300 packs
of curd rice as of now and sales are growing. No take-aways are allowed,
for obvious reasons.

These government canteens were
started in February this year to provide affordable food to the poor
and middle-class. The scheme, the State government says, already serves
100,000 idlies, 25,000 plates of sambar rice and 15,000 plates of curd
rice every day, through 73 centres. About 127 more tiffin centres will
be opened this month.