Kashi Vishwanath Dham sweetens the deal for women prasad makers

VARANASI: Kashi Vishwanath Dham, apart from boosting economy of trade and tourism sectors in the city with increase in footfall of devotees from across the globe following its opening by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in December 2021, has also made its contribution in strengthening the financial condition of many women.
Busy in preparing ‘laddus’ sold as ‘prasad’ of Kashi Vishwanath Temple, a group of women explains how the KV Dham came like a blessing for them. Led by Sunita Jaiswal, who leads Bela Papad Self Help Group, the women said, “When our group of eight women was assigned to prepare the ‘prasad’ of KV temple and sell it from the temple’s counters in 2019, each of us hardly used to earn up to Rs 8,000 per month by preparing 50-60 kg ‘laddus’ per day.”

But, with the opening of KV Dham in 2021 end, not only the quantity of ‘prasad’ prepared per day has gone above one quintal per day but the strength of women preparing prasad in this group has also gone up to 29, said Sunita adding that per month income of each of them has gone over Rs 15,000.
The SHG group had been selected to prepare prasad for selling by the then divisional commissioner Deepak Agrawal and chief development officer Gaurang Rathi in 2019 after they had called many women SHGs and checked the quality of prasad prepared by them, said the temple’s chief executive officer Sunil Verma.
“The laddus prepared by our SHG with pure ghee, wheat and gram flour, dry fruits, rose petals, hardened milk and other ingredients was found best after which we were asked to prepared the ‘prasad’ for Kashi Vishwanath Temple to sell it among devotees from four sites allotted by the temple administration”, said Jaiswal.
Earlier, the space at KV Dham was limited in and around the KV temple while footfall of devotees was also low, she said adding, by 2021 end maximum 50 kg laddus could be sold in a day. But, after the opening of KV Dham by PM Narendra Modi in 2021 the sale of prasad laddus doubled up.
Per day production of laddus by the group has gone above over one quintal, said Jaiswal. “As work load increased, more women were added with our SHG. Now, 29 women are working in our workshop at Lehartara and the counters operating for the sale of laddus in the temple,” she said. On special days like Mondays of Shrawan month, the demand of laddus goes up to 125 kg while around 400 kg laddus were sold as prasad on the occasion of Mahashivratri, she added.
However, the temple’s contract with the SHG will expire soon, the possibilities to engage the SHG are being explored. “The contract given to this SHG for preparing prasad will expire soon”, said Verma mentioning that temple administration is now planning to prepare its own prasad. Possibilities are being explored to ensure how the women associated with this SHG would be incorporated in the new arrangement, he added.