Ocold winter morning, Gajraj Singh Kachhawa, a inhabitants of Jaipur Sitting at a tea shop sipping a cup of hot sugar tea. Just as he was about to leave, a man walked up to the stall, bought a pack of cookies, and fed a street dog.
Gajraj is watching this. He walked up to the man and asked him why he was feeding his dog biscuits filled with sugar and wheat, both of which are considered bad for dogs. Gajraj even urged the man to consider giving the dog milk or even better, some curd. “The only thing I will get for Rs 5 is this pack of cookies,” the man replied before walking away.
This thought stuck with Gajraj who went on to establish Bejubano Ki Rasoi (Kitchen For The Voiceless), which has prepackaged nutritious food meal for a dog total cost is 5 Rs.
Talking to India is betterGajraj says, “I have been raising dogs to the best of my ability for more than five years now. When the ban was in place, a lot of people were providing food for others. However, street dogs suffered the most damage. No one was willing to feed them or even take care of them. That’s when I started a concerted effort towards feeding the dogs. “
Most street dogs are fed by small restaurants and cafes that often feed them leftovers.
“With the closure, none of these smaller facilities are operational, which means no food for the dogs,” says Gajraj. During this time, I regularly feed over 600 dogs. ”
The 27-year-old, an entrepreneur and digital marketer, owns a club in Jaipur, where Bejubano Ki Rasoi function. “Since the club is only open in the evening, I can use the kitchen to prepare healthy meals during the day. It’s a win-win for me because I don’t have to invest extra,” he said.
Once the meals are prepared and packaged, they will be sold through a stall near Vivek Vihar metro station in Jaipur. He added: “We are now selling more than 500 packages of food a day.
Nutritious meal for only Rs 5
Each pre-cooked meal, consisting of 400 gm of food, features peas, soybeans, rice and eggs plus multivitamins for dogs. “We add chicken and eggs for protein and the rice is cooked in water from the tray to ensure that the dogs don’t become dehydrated during the summer,” says Gajraj. For this we also add seasonal vegetables. We do not add any sugar or wheat to what we serve. Salt is added in very limited quantities”.
While there are packaged dog foods, Gajraj says most tend to dehydrate dogs. “We now have many regular customers serving their dogs the food that we make. Most of them come back and tell us how their dogs seem to enjoy this freshly cooked meal compared to the prepackaged pellets they’ve been fed before,” he says. more.
When Gajraj started this initiative, he didn’t want to charge for food. However, he said that his friends urged him to charge a nominal amount. “I was told that no one would take what I was doing if I didn’t charge it. So after the cookie crash, I started charging Rs 5”.
On average, Gajraj says that each packet of food costs around Rs 15 to make.
Prices vary depending on the cost of vegetables. “No matter what we pay, I am not pricing it higher than Rs 5. The idea is to feed as many dogs as possible.”
Plans for Bejubano Ki Rasoi Gajraj said it will open five more stalls across Jaipur to be able to feed a minimum of 3,000 dogs per day. “We don’t take any donations from anyone and just work on our own funding and the money we make by selling meal packages.”
Priyanka Sharma, a resident of Jaipur who has also kept wild dogs for a while, said: “Although dogs usually eat whatever they are given, I have seen a difference when I feed them. one of the packages that i bought from Bejubano Ki Rasoi. Within seconds of placing it in front of them, it was wiped clean. ”
“The best part is the nutritional value of each food package.”
She continued, “For the amount of money they charge per pack, I’m sure nothing else will come close to pocket-friendly and nutritious at the same time.” Priyanka bought more than 60 packs from Gajraj and says she can’t recommend enough of that to all the people who stop to feed their dogs on the street.
So the next time you reach for a sugary cookie or dog treat, stop and think. A nutritious meal with protein and carbs can help keep dogs healthy.
To keep track of the work Gajraj is doing, click here.
(Edited by Yoshita Rao)
