CPI(M)’s Jadavpur People’s Canteen Turns 2 With Selfless Service

Kolkata: Srikanta  Das (25), a professional mason employed with a property developer in south Kolkata, prefers to walk 15 minutes daily—even on a hot day—to have lunch at the Jadavpur people’s canteen, popularly known as Sramajibi Canteen. 

There are several poor people engaged in menial professions, like Das, who prefer to lunch at the canteen, or the community kitchen, which was set up by the local CPI(M) committee to serve free food to economically weak sections in during the pandemic in April 2020.

There are first-time customers like Ramesh Roy (22), who drives a minitruck and tasted the food for the first time on Monday, and rickshaw wallah Abed Ali Sheikh, who has been eating at the canteen from day one. “During the lockdown, the food was free. Now, the canteen charges only Rs 20 for a meal of dal, rice, eggs or fish or chicken. We get nutritious food here,” he tells Newsclick.

More than 600 working-class people eat at the community kitchen daily for only Rs 20 in the southern neighbourhood of Kolkata, where a meal even at a roadside eatery costs, at least, Rs 50.

It was April 2, 2020, when migrant workers in West Bengal were deprived of their livelihood and found it increasingly tough to even afford a single meal. “We came up with the idea of providing free food and ration to the needy, which later metamorphosised into a community kitchen. Our idea was to follow the Soviet model post the Bolshevik Revolution when community kitchens were set up to provide food to the working class at unbelievably low prices,” CPI(M) state committee member  Sudip  Sengupta, one of the architects of the canteen, tells Newsclick.

“Our success shows that a properly managed community kitchen can benefit the working class to a great extent,” adds Sengupta, who was helped by techies, doctors and social activists owing allegiance to  CPI(M) in setting up the kitchen.

Realising the growing popularity of the canteen and its impact on the working class, the Mamata Banerjee-led Trinamool Congress (TMC) government started the MAA canteen, which offered a plate of rice with egg curry for only Rs 5, in the same vicinity at Sukanta Setu crossing. Soon, it started losing customers due to the poor quality of food.

CPI(M) activist Bapi Dey has been managing the canteen since its inception. “The voluntary initiative comprises three cooks and their helpers who too charge a nominal amount owing to their proximity with the party.  The head cook,  Banamali, who is from Baleshwar, Orissa, proudly mentions his association with CPI(M) for the last 20 years. 

According to Dey, the place was the training centre of the Jadavpur unit of the All India Democratic Women’s Association but shit down after the TMC came to power. “We took over the place and remodelled it as a cooking and food distribution area.” 

The canteen’s activities, including supplies, accounts and distribution, are managed by volunteer committees which meet regularly, Dey adds. “When we get donations, we distribute about 100 packets of free food pouches containing fish and chicken. On the second anniversary of the setting up of the canteen, we treated the customers with yummy chicken biriyani at the same rate of  Rs 20.”

The party, according to Sengupta, is planning to form a trust to manage the endeavour with noted educationist professor Partha Pratim Biswas of Jadavpur University agreeing to be its chairman.  “The trust will aim to build a relationship with a sizable number of senior citizens of the area.  The endeavour will benefit them too in the future as the volume of food cooked at the community kitchen will bring down the cost of food to a great extent,” Biswas tells Newsclick.

On the second anniversary of the canteen, CPI(M) state secretary Md Salim and leader Shatarup Ghosh and actors Ushasie Chakraborty and Debdut Ghosh participated in a rally and commemoration programme where Indian People’s Theatre Association artists performed.

Such community kitchens have also been set up Bidhannagar, PM Bustee and New Alipore.