Over the past decade, canteens have been established in various parts of India to provide subsidised meals and enhance food security. Based on a survey of canteens conducted across three states, Reetika Khera contends that this social policy intervention has helped ensure dignified meals for millions, created jobs, and fostered a sense of oneness and well-being for many. She advocates for more and guaranteed funding for canteens, revamp and expansion of menus, better infrastructure, and fair wages for staff.

On my way to Jaipur to pilot test questionnaires for “The Canteen Survey”, I had dinner on the Vande Bharat train. The next day, I ate at an Indira Rasoi. My first though was that the rotis at the Indira Rasoi were better than those on Vande Bharat.

Canteens such as Indira Rasois provide freshly cooked meals at heavily subsidised prices (Rs. 8 for a plate of food). J. Jayalalitha, Tamil Nadu’s Chief Minister in 2013, created a buzz around them when she set up “Amma’s canteens” (Amma Unavagam in Tamil) to serve idlis for Re. 1 each. Following this, more states initiated similar schemes (Figure 1).

Before the Covid-19 pandemic, such interventions were triggered by episodes of high food inflation. Once inflationary pressures eased, canteens faded from public memory. During the pandemic, in response to the humanitarian crisis due to the lockdowns in 2020, canteens made a comeback.¹

Figure 1. Number of canteens in India, per million population 

Source: Map data are from OSM; map created by Reetika Khera with Datawrapper.

Notes: “No canteens” states are those where no information on canteens was available. In “Canteens currently operational” states, we are more or less sure that canteens are working. For “Current operational status not known” states, online information could not be verified – some suggest canteens were running, others suggest the canteens have been shut down/scale back drastically. 

The Canteen Survey 2023

In spite of being widespread (as seen in the map above), canteens have received little attention. Though canteens in the southern states of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka have been around since 2013 and 2017 respectively, few systematic studies of the schemes exist.

To remedy this neglect, we conducted The Canteen Survey (TCS) 2023 in three states: Tamil Nadu’s Amma’s Unavagams, Karnataka’s Indira Canteens, and Rajasthan’s Indira Rasois. TCS 2023 was undertaken in November-December 2023 to understand the potential of such a social policy intervention, its actual implementation, and to draw out possible inter-state policy lessons. It covered 12 cities: Ajmer, Bikaner, Chittorgarh, Churu, Jaipur and Udaipur in Rajasthan; Bangalore, Bellary and Mysore in Karnataka; and Chennai, Coimbatore and Vellore in Tamil Nadu. In all, we surveyed 174 canteens and 704 guests, selected through random sampling.²

Why are canteens important?

Some ask why we need canteens to provide subsidised meals, when 800 million people get free rations through the Public Distribution System (PDS).³ Why not expand PDS coverage or focus on making the PDS portable through “One nation, one ration card”, they say.    

Canteens and the PDS should be seen as complements rather than substitutes. PDS rations can boost food security for those who have cooking facilities; but this is not always the case in urban areas, especially for migrant workers. Among our respondents, between 11-47% had no cooking facility at home. For them, even if the portable PDS provided them with dry rations, it would not guarantee food security.

In popular discussions, canteens are viewed as a food security measure for the destitute, homeless, vagrants and beggars. Indeed, such persons benefit hugely from canteens and comprise almost one-tenth of the respondents in our survey. Almost one-fifth (17%) of respondents reported sleeping hungry sometimes before canteens became available.

Apart from those for whom hunger and destitution is a chronic problem, there were those like Haroon (aged 46 years) in Churu for whom it was a transient issue: he had been looking for work, but on account of a fractured foot, could not.

Yet it would be wrong to view canteens from a lens of chronic or transient vulnerability alone. The food subsidy provided by canteens is substantial, making it attractive for working people too. At the time of the survey, the cost per thali (plate) was Rs. 25 in Rajasthan whereas guests paid only Rs. 8.

Canteens remedy several market failures. First, when food inflation is high, canteens provide assured supply of food at fixed prices. Second, street food tends to be unregulated and not necessarily prepared in hygienic conditions. By setting some standards, canteens can ensure safe and hygienic food is available, with possible spillover effects on private street food vendors. Third, if state governments paid greater attention to nutrition, canteens can overcome the lack of affordable nutritious meals among street vendors. Limited availability of nutritious food is not merely a question of costs, but also due to poor nutrition education.

A hidden benefit of canteens relates to the creation of democratic spaces, that has special significance in India where caste, class, gender and religion still influence social interactions. There are few public places in India where slums-dwellers, homeless or those living in shelters, bus stands, etc. (12-28% of guests) share spaces with those who live in non-slum areas of the city (almost 50% of the guests).

Similarly, the mixed background of canteen staff and guests is noteworthy. Guests and staff were from all social groups. Dalits (a group of castes often excluded especially when it comes to food), Adivasis (tribal groups) and Muslims comprised 16-33% of guests. Canteen staff too were from mixed social groups. They were employed in all three roles – cooks, helpers and at the billing desk – suggesting that there was no segregation.

For women, canteens have significance for creating employment opportunities. Women were well-represented among canteen staff (only 8% canteens reported no female staff member). In Tamil Nadu for instance, the entire team comprises of women.⁴

Who eats at the canteens and why?

On the day before the survey, canteen staff reported that an average of 247 guests were served. There was little variation across the states; the lowest was 224 in Tamil Nadu. Canteens have regular (eating at the canteen “everyday or almost everyday”), sporadic and first-time guests. First-time and sporadic guests include attendants accompanying patients at hospitals, visitors to the city for administrative or legal work, travellers at train stations and bus stands, and so on.

Among the regulars (more than half of the guests), the following five groups were substantial:

Working men: Working men were the largest group among our respondents. Within this group, there was a lot of diversity. Migrants to the cities, from within and outside the state, and locals whose jobs require them to be mobile through the day (autorickshaw drivers, gig workers) find canteens very convenient. Others lived in accommodation without cooking facilities or had little time to cook for themselves.

Women: Among guests, women were a minority, comprising only 9-13% of the guests. Canteens provide them relief in two ways at least: reducing cooking time and combining household and paid work. Several male respondents who were having breakfast at the canteen said that they did not want to disturb their working wives’ on a Sunday, their weekly day off.

The elderly: In Tamil Nadu, one-fifth of the guests were aged 60 years and above, much higher than Karnataka (6%) and Rajasthan (8%). For them, canteens provide an outlet for a simple, easily digestible meal, at an affordable price. Quite importantly, in addition, canteens are a safe and social space, with some sense of community.

Individuals with difficult personal circumstances: In each state, we met people who either openly admitted to mental health issues or implied it, with a strained relationship with their family, and so on. Though not substantial in number, they are nevertheless worth mentioning because canteens made it possible for them to eat home-cooked food, with dignity, and be less of a burden on their hosts.

Students: Canteens were often located near colleges or universities.  More than one-tenth of the respondents were students. For students living in hostels or paying guest accommodation, they were a godsend. Besides being affordable, students appreciated that the food tasted like ‘ghar ka khana’ (home cooked food). In fact, across the board guests mentioned this aspect of canteen food.

Scope for improvement

While there are many areas for improvement, we highlight two major areas here: ensuring nutritious and adequate food, and protection from petty politics.

The most important area where improvement is necessary is the menu, especially the provision of more nutritious food such as eggs, yoghurt, buttermilk, more fresh vegetables and more variety in grains. At the very least, some items can be provided as ‘top-ups’ at cost price.

In Rajasthan, cultural factors including a large vegetarian population has meant that the meal is vegetarian: rotis, dal (lentils) or kadhi (yoghurt-based preparation) and one vegetable preparation.

When canteens began in Karnataka, they turned to centralised kitchens possibly because the state already relied on them for several government schemes. Contractors (religious or otherwise) are not well-suited for such government programmes, because they try to minimise expenses. This probably explains the heavily rice-based menu at Indira Canteens. Further, when religious organisations are involved (as was the case for school meals), for years they succeeded in prevailing upon the state government to keep eggs off the menu.

In Tamil Nadu, the lack of nutritious options is puzzling – there is neither resistance to animal proteins (eggs are widely popular in other government programmes for children) nor the problems arising from centralised kitchens.

Second,  political “onedown-manship” appears to be a longstanding issue with canteens, going back to the Zunka-Bhakar kendras of the mid-90s in Maharastra. In Karnataka, once the BJP (Bharatiya Janata Party) came to power, Indira Canteens were allowed to go to seed with staff layoffs and discontinuation of dinner at some.

In Tamil Nadu, many canteen workers felt that the DMK government was in a bind: they do not want to shut down a popular scheme, but neither do they want to put money into the scheme that is so closely associated with their political rival. In Chennai, workers were bitter that their wages had not increased since they were employed in 2013-2015 (they were still paid Rs. 300 on daily wage basis). Infrastructure was in poor condition: water filtration systems and deep freezers were not being repaired, information boards were dusty or illegible, there was no improvement in seating arrangements, etc. They tended to blame the current government, though the neglect possibly set in earlier – after all, no change in menu or increase in wages occurred during 2013-2021 either.

Soon after the survey in Rajasthan, in the state’s Legislative Assembly election, a new government headed by the BJP was voted to power. It renamed the scheme to Annapoorna Rasoi and imposed an arbitrary cap on the number of tokens that can be issued. These seemingly innocuous caps can sabotage the scheme by reducing the reliability of the canteens.

Concluding remarks

Canteens have helped guarantee a dignified meal for millions, created thousands of job opportunities, and fostered a sense of oneness and well-being for many. Canteens deserve more and guaranteed funding. For instance, in 2023-24, Rajasthan allocated Rs. 700 crores for Indira Rasois. Since the change in government in Rajasthan, that budget has been halved.

By announcing a revamped and expanded menu (featuring nutritious top-ups like eggs or buttermilk, and adding tea-coffee), better infrastructure and fair wages to staff, current state governments could demonstrate political magnanimity as well as seize ownership of scheme.

This post first appeared on The India Forum.

Notes

1. In 2021, the Supreme Court of India took note of the role of canteens for food security and issued orders regarding setting up community kitchens.

2. At the time of the survey, Rajasthan had a total of 1,209 canteens according to the Jan Soochna Portal, and we surveyed 91 randomly selected canteens and interviewed five guests at each sample canteen (a total of 384). In Karnataka, our sample consists of 37 canteens and 140 guests across the three sample cities. In Tamil Nadu, 45 canteens and 180 guests in Chennai, Coimbatore and Vellore were surveyed. In Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the full list of canteens for Bangalore and Chennai were readily available online (though not necessarily from government websites). According to an August 2023 report, there are a total of 197 canteens in the state and this was to be expanded to 315 canteens (Thadhagath 2023).

We used simple random sampling to select the canteens for our survey. For the other cities in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the list of canteens had to be put together using different sources (news reports, online sources including street maps), and triangulated to draw up a relatively reliable list of canteens. When it exceeded six (our target coverage), we took a random sample.

Out of roughly 1,200 canteens in Rajasthan, only 107 are in Jaipur. There is, thus, a fairly wide and even spread of canteens across the urban local bodies. In contrast to Rajasthan, in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, there is a heavy concentration of canteens in the respective capital city. 

3. In most states, ‘free rations’ amount to 5 kilogram of grains each month; a few state governments also provide pulses, edible oil and some other essentials at subsidised prices.

4. In Rajasthan and Karnataka, teams were mixed in terms of gender. In Odisha, canteens are run by Mission Shakti, the state’s women’s self-help group movement, and possibly in Kerala too where canteens are run by Kudumbashree groups.