Homemaker turns innovator with a good cause

Now-a-days, in our society their many homemakers who are becoming self-sufficient. Tokala Sridevi, resident of Nizamabad who has come out of her shell with the passion to provide people with healthy nutrient powder, especially for the rural community and started a small firm in the name of Sri Datta Nutrition.

In an exclusive conversation with Hans India, Sridevi, 46-year-old a resident of Vinayakanagar, Nizamabad district, said "Now-a-days people are obsessed with Nutrient powder but everyone cannot effort to buy this powder, so to provide the larger community of people with nutrition-rich supplements, I started my business in the year 2006 with Rs 40 as an investment. When I sold my product to a supermarket for the first time, I got Rs 70 as my profit. I invested the profit again. Later, I started preparing small packets and added a label with my address along with my phone number for feedback from the customers. Today, larger communities are using my products. Even experts from the Institute of Nutrition (NIN) were one of my customers and also have supplied my powder to LV Prasad Eye Hospital and also got good response. Recently, I have been connected with Nutrihub at Rajendra Nagar and they trained me and with their help, I could reach the interior part of Telangana and I am teaching and guiding the self-help groups about the important usage of nutrient powder."

The powder is made up of millet and pulses and also with vegetables that are rich in fiber and minerals. Whatever, I have learned from my maternal grandmother and my mother, I used all that ingredients for making the nutrient powder. Till 2011 unit was moving at a snail pace after that Palle Srujana, an organisation that helped me move forward and reach heights. I was going at a snail's pace until then. In 2013, I was recognised as grass root innovator by Palle Velugu.

"My main motto is to provide nutrition-rich products to rural people, as they can't purchase kaju, badam or carrots. I wanted to give them ragi, malt, the traditional food,"says Sridevi.

The specialty of her nutrition food is that it uses millet and is free from chemicals. "I don't use preservatives. I didn't grow financially because I never thought of doing it as a business. My aim is to make this product reach every doorstep of rural people. I don't want rural people to suffer from malnutrition. The nutrient powder is good for diabetic patients, heart patients, pregnant women and also for fitness freaks," she added.