D. Sivanandan, Former Police Commissioner Of Mumbai, On The Roti Bank

IN THE ’90S, THERE WERE SHOOTOUTS EVERY FEW DAYS. BUSINESSPEOPLE, FILM STARS, AND BUILDERS WERE SHOT ON THE ROAD, OR IN THEIR OFFICES OR HOMES. Since 2002, not a single shootout has taken place. This was achieved by Mumbai police.

I am going to talk about my Roti bank venture which I began after retirement. I had seen a lot of hunger in Gadchiroli and Naxal areas. I realised that a hundred rupees is the biggest gift you can give an Adivasi family because it takes care of their ration for a month. I have seen them eating red ants with salt; it is sustenance for them. And, of course, there are the street children in Mumbai as well. So, when I got the chance, I started the Roti bank. Today, our country gives 81 crore people free ration of 5 kg per month. This was done because of the pandemic.

I hope you don’t mistake us for a poor country; we have 97 million tonne of food waiting in FCI godowns but there is no purchasing power because of lack of employment. So, more than half our population gets free ration. We began with a simple vehicle in 2018 and delivered 5 lakh meals that year.

Then came Covid and there were issues of migrant workers; we managed 47,000 meals a day. From D. SIVANANDAN, FORMER
POLICE COMMISSIONER OF MUMBAI, ON THE ROTI BANK March 2020, we have served 98 lakh meals. We give 80G certificates also, for the cause.

We are not keen on feeding the population that is able to work. We feed the old and the young. There are people going to the school with food which, in turn, has led to more attendance in the school. That is my shortcut to
cutting crime – by educating the children.

So, we aim for one smile at one time. We are also serving food to Tata patients and the families there. We have a roti making machine from Rajkot and a rice making machine from Bangalore. So, hygiene is guaranteed.

I have now applied for land in CIDCO for a Roti Bhavan. I am likely to get it in 10 days at Rs 96 lakh for a 60-year lease near Mumbai-Pune highway. We began this journey with one vehicle but are slowly and gradually going ahead.

We don’t miss an opportunity to celebrate; we distributed 60,000 meals on World Food Day on October 16th, 2022. We
are bringing more people from corporations, schools, and every corner, to join the drive.

ROTARIANS ASK
How do you manage administrative costs at just 10%?
By not increasing the number of people who work in the office. We are not an army of people; there is an MBA student from Chetana College. We pay the fuel and the drivers, but rest is all voluntary. And we plan to build a scientific kitchen with the help of chef Sanjeev Kapoor.

How much does a meal cost?
It’s Rs. 40 per meal. We manage it through various donations and contacts. A lot of good people donated a lot of money during covid. We have spent about Rs one crore 9 lakh on meals over the years. Just the other day, I received Rs 9.76 from someone. Maybe they did an online transfer of Rs 10 and a fee was deducted. But it made my day that someone found it worth their while to send us Rs 10.

Money apart, food grains are also donated; my Ashoka Tower society collects 300 kg of food grains every Amavasya (no moon day). The CEO of Dmart is a friend and he agreed to donate 6 tonne of rice, 3000 kg of toor dal and 500 kg of oil. That’s the success story. So, approximately Rs. 40 is the price of per meal at subsidised rates.