When the Netherlands born-and-bred Jesse Van De Zand, 33, first came to Gurgaon in January of 2013, he had little idea that the bustling, but chaotic, suburb of New Delhi would be his home for the next several years.
Back then, Zand - a banking lawyer by profession - was working for the Netherlands-headquartered, non-governmental organisation, Enviu, on projects in India when he met Prabhat Agarwal, a former IIT and IIM Ahmedabad graduate who had quit the corporate race a few years ago to work with projects that had wider impact. Agarwal was at the time toying with the idea of setting up Janta Meals and was looking to interest others in the concept.
The idea was simple. Gurgaon has close to 15 lakh people belonging to the lower income bracket, who live in informal settlements and work in the industries that have sprung up in the area. They stay in cramped rooms with little access to the amenities that we take for granted. Clean running water, cooking gas, electricity and time are all at a premium, making cooking at home daily quite a challenge. Tasty, nutritious, hygienic and wholesome home-cooked food is almost impossible to find where they live. Carts and dhabas mostly offer oily, unhealthy options. Dhabas are often in areas close to stinky uncovered drains. Moreover, the cooking methods, if observed, can actually put you off food rather than make you want to consume it.
Zand liked the idea of Janta Meals and quit his company (leaving the comfort of a steady, well paid job to join a far more risky venture), moving bag and baggage to Gurgaon (not quite Netherlands either!) in May 2013 as one of the core founders and CEO of Janta Meals.
The first two outlets of Janta Meals were opened in July 2013 in Sikanderpur and Sitla (old Gurgaon). In September 2013, Zand got on board a second founder, Apeksha Porwal. Porwal, 22, was then working with UnLtd India, a Mumbai-based incubator for social enterprises.
The meals are fairly simple. For Rs 30, one gets a thali of dal, a subzi, one paneer dish, five rotis, pickle and salad (a cheaper thali for Rs 20 is also available).
What's interesting is that it's not only the slum dwellers, rickshaw pullers and labourers who are biting. "The meals are clean and tasty and the outlets are spotless so they are now attracting young crowds from BPOs scattered all over Gurgaon. We get young couples who work long hours and don't have the time to cook but don't want to make do with junk or street food," says Zand. Most of the franchisees and their families also eat from the outlets.
In the initial days, the team thought of setting up company-owned outlets but soon realised that this model would not work. Now, the Janta Meals outlets are owned by micro entrepreneurs who act something like a franchisee. The entrepreneur rents the space but is provided with the basic branding, chairs, tables and the utensils for the food offered by Janta Meals. It costs Janta Meals Rs 70,000 per franchisee but with the right location and attitude, franchisees are earning up to Rs 50,000 a month. "This we found works much better as the franchisee is far more motivated than an employee. In this case, the more he puts in, the more he gains," explains Zand. Janta Meals has 22 outlets across Gurgaon with plans to expand to Delhi, Noida and other Indian cities.
Agarwal says that the model - which was originally conceived of as a philanthropic project - is now for-profit so that future expansion can be funded by raising money. "Further, we realised that the for-profit model works better as it brings in all the efficiencies associated with it." While the project people have made a start with food, they don't see why the model cannot be replicated across services and cities. As far as lack of basic services goes in India, the sky is literally the limit.
