In an open kitchen next to the Forest Department in Battaramulla, a suburb of Colombo, Sri Lanka, a group of women begins work at 7 a.m. Government employees from an administrative unit in nearby Sethsiripaya will soon arrive for a healthy breakfast, served fresh before their workday begins.
One woman wearing a green apron serves idiyappam with a spicy pol sambal and a mung bean curry. Idiyappam, or string hoppers, are a popular Sri Lankan breakfast meal. They’re steamed, delicate, matted nets of roasted red or white rice flour mixed with water. Freshly scraped coconut is mixed with red onions, dried red chili, a hint of lime, salt, and grated Maldive fish to make pol sambal, the most sought-after condiment in every Sri Lankan meal.
A plate of ten string hoppers with sambal and curry costs 50 Sri Lankan rupees, something less than 30 cents. The open-kitchen space is called Hela Bojun Hala, which translates directly to “local food stall.” If you travel around Sri Lanka, you will find a number of them scattered across the island. Workers in the all-women spaces prepare quintessentially Sri Lankan, vegan meals such as kithul thalapa (a custard-like dessert made out of kithul flour, kithul treacle, and coconut milk), kos koththu (a healthier jackfruit alternative to the popular street food made out of leftover flatbread), and mung kiribath (milk rice cooked with mung beans). Prices start at 10 LKR ($0.05) for hoppers, and go up to 50 LKR ($0.30) for more expensive items such as kos koththu and cowpeas.
A Ministry of Agriculture initiative, the first Hela Bojun Hala opened in Kandy in 2006 as part of the Women’s Agriculture Extension Programme to promote female entrepreneurship, local produce, and healthy living. In the North, Hela Bojun outlets are called Ammachchi. Facilitated by the European Union-Sri Lanka Development Cooperation and the United Nations Development Programme, they serve delicious northern vegetarian staples made with fresh, homegrown ingredients. There are more than 15 Hela Bojun outlets funded by Ministry of Agriculture across the country. Now, the project is also in the hands of provincial agricultural departments, resulting in even more outlets.
In many rural and semi-urban parts of Sri Lanka, women remain indoors and are absent in public spaces and commercial ventures. The Hela Bojun initiative provides a platform for women to step into the broader public sphere via professional employment, and to monetize their skills to sustain their families financially.
Usha Mary Maniwadan, a war widow with two children, prepares piping hot banana blossom cutlets in Jaffna.
“We cannot sell our products at the Jaffna Market as it’s a man’s world, and women there are often harassed. You often hear unwanted remarks from men,” she says. “Ammachchi has become a safe, reliable platform for me to earn money and look after my kids as a single mother.”
While the space and training programs related to health and hygiene, finance management, and customer care are provided by the government, female vendors have to look after their own resources and raw materials. In Battaramulla, each woman pays 1000 rupees ($ 5.60) a month to the government in rent for a stall. An additional 4000 rupees ($ 22) is paid monthly for cleaners, security staff, and maintenance.
“I used to have a small-scale home-based garment business, but after I was diagnosed with arthritis, I could no more work with sewing machines,” says 56-year-old Muhandiram Ralalage Semarathne Menike. “Making peni walalu is my hobby, and at Hela Bojun, I could turn it into a career and help my children’s higher studies.”
Peni walalu, or undu wel, resembles the famous Indian sweet jalebi–swirly coils oozing with oil and hot, sugary syrup. The batter, which is made out of ground white lentils, rice flour and coconut milk, is squeezed in circular motions onto heated coconut oil to make the pattern. Then the fried, golden coils are coated in a syrup of treacle, sugar, cinnamon, and water.
Preparing this Sri Lankan delicacy is an art one needs to master. “I inherited these skills from my mother, and I want to pass them onto younger generations,” says Menike.
On a good day, she makes a profit of 4000 rupees, or $22. She’s used her earnings from Hela Bojun to set up her own registered peni walalu business called Menike Sweets, and to hire another woman. The business now supplies peni walalu to Sen Saal, a bakery and restaurant chain in Colombo. Now, Menike is looking into marketing her business online.
Meanwhile, in Jaffna, Hela Bojun has uplifted the life of female food vendors. Manikkam Vimaladevi works as a laborer at Hela Bojun, from 6 a.m. through early afternoon.
“With war [which lasted for almost three decades until 2009], we couldn’t study well, and there isn’t much I can do. I don’t feel safe at many places, but we are all women here and there is also a security guard,” says Vimaladevi. “I earn 700 rupees a day and it helps me sustain on my own.”
Visitors to Sri Lanka can eat at Hela Bojun stalls. The first outlet in Peradeniya near Kandy is a regional TripAdvisor favorite, and the Ammachi Vavuniya outlet has its own Facebook page. While feasting on a local Sri Lankan meal at affordable rates, you’re also supporting female entrepreneurs. It may sound ironic to empower women through cooking, but as breadwinners who engage with the broader public, these women are groundbreakers in traditional Sri Lankan society.
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