Between Huma Temple Sambalpur & Metkani Temple Subarnapur, Women Serve Taste Of Empowerment In Odisha
Subhadra Cafe in Dhama village brews not just tea but serves hot lunch plates with love and warmth which only comes from empowered women.
Published : October 31, 2025 at 11:15 AM IST
By Badsah Jusman Kumar Rana
Sambalpur: If you have traveled on the road from Sambalpur to Subarnapur in the past few months, it is unlikely you would have missed the aroma of freshly cooked rice and mutton curry somewhere between the leaning Huma Bakra Temple and Maa Metkani temple. A little after Dhama village, there is this unmissable food joint named the Subhadra Cafe - an all women initiative that serves travelers home-made hot food platter in this tourist circuit in western Odisha.
One of its kind, the cafe stands under a tin roof, its bright hand-painted board fluttering in the highway breeze. Go close and you would hear the steel plates clatter and the flavours of mustard oil, garlic, and curry leaves wrap around the place.
Here, a hearty meal costs less than a bus ticket - it is Rs 100 for a mutton, chicken, or fish curry with rice while a vegetarian thali costs Rs 70, and a plain meal for students from nearby Maa Jhadeswari College is served for just Rs 25–30. Breakfast including vada, puri, or upma cost barely Rs 10–20.
“We serve simple food, exactly the way we cook at home. Tourists love it and they tell us the taste reminds them of their mothers,” says Rukmini Bhoi, one of the women behind the counter.
Subhadra Cafe was born out of necessity. The women behind the initiative were only entangled in their household chores or worked as farm hands till last year. Since these women were a part of Metkani Self-Help Group (SHG), they were shown an awareness video by Mission Shakti officials in the Maneswar Block and that became the eureka moment for some. “They told us we could run our own cafe on the highway. We were scared at first. But we took a Rs 1 lakh loan and gave it a try,” recalls Vighnashini Padhi, another partner in the cafe.
Today, each of them earns Rs 20,000 a month, taking turns to work two days a week from 8 am to 8 pm. Their husbands help them with marketing or shopping for essentials and groceries. Together, they have built a business that is earning Rs 30,000 a day.
The cafe has special norms for collegians who do not have much spare money to splurge on non-veg meals. "When a college students walk in, we make something simple but special - with at least steaming rice, dal and a crisp veggie fry. They are happy and so are we," says Vighnashini.
The students say the cafe has proved to be a blessing. “Earlier, we had to go far for breakfast. Now we come here every day. The food tastes like home,” says Khushita Naik, a student.
For the women, the satisfaction of serving food to many and the compliments matter more than anything else. “We are happy because we are serving with dignity and earning money. Before this cafe, people didn’t even know our names,” says Bijuli Banchor, who once hesitated to join the women to run the cafe. “Now they call us ‘didi’ with respect. Our children and family members are also proud seeing us work for a reason,” she adds.
Her husband Krishna comes over to help in carrying plates. “She runs the cafe better than I run my shop. And it makes a difference to the way we run our family,” he adds.
Behind this small success lies the thoughtful planning by the Mission Shakti and Tourism Departments, which are developing 50 similar Wayside Amenity Centres across Odisha.
Jyotsna Naik, Block Programme Coordinator of Mission Shakti, says, “We want women’s groups to manage these centres so that they can become self-reliant and empowered. Subhadra Cafe, within a short duration has become one of our proudest examples.”
As the sun sets over Dhama village, casting golden light on the highway, the cafe’s shutters stay open a little longer as visitors take a return journey. But the tourists do not cross the route without stopping over for a cup of tea. As the sounds of the temple bells fade in the distance, these women clean up the place to wait for another day. "We do not just serve food, we serve a taste of empowerment," they say.
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