Saras Food Festival 2025: Celebrating the Empowerment and Culinary Talents of Women Entrepreneurs

The Saras Food Festival 2025, held in Delhi's Sunder Nursery, was more than a celebration of regional Indian cuisine. It served as a flagship event showcasing the economic empowerment and entrepreneurship of rural women, often referred to as "Lakhpati Didis." Led by entrepreneurs like Mrs. Vandana Bharadwaj, who has fostered a network of over 500 Self-Help Groups (SHGs), the festival highlighted the impressive journey from small cooperative participation to enterprises of significant scale. Supported by the Ministry of Rural Development's DAY-NRLM initiative, these women have been provided with the means and training to access markets directly, eliminating middlemen. With more than 500 delicacies and a range of handcrafted products on display, the festival served as a vibrant platform where cultural resilience met economic empowerment. The adoption of digital tools like BHASHINI for overcoming language barriers and QR-based transactions further exemplified the transition towards a digitally proficient and economically independent community. The event underscored the crucial role of government initiatives in transforming the financial autonomy and innovative capabilities of rural women across India.

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