The Worli Koliwada Project, a collaboration with the RPG Foundation, drew attention to an 800-year-old fishing village in Mumbai, its inhabitants, and their diverse foodways, along with helping find new ways of income-generation.
The Worli Koliwada forms one of the oldest parts of Mumbai city. While the original inhabitants of this coastline were members of the Koli community—or indigenous fisherfolk—today, they constitute only 40 per cent of the population of this urban village.
Why do this?
As one of the seven original islands that constituted Mumbai (then Bombay), the Worli Koliwada is presently a vibrant multicultural settlement made up of migrants from nearly all over India (Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Karnataka, Telangana, and parts of Maharashtra). These communities face numerous challenges posed by rapid urbanisation and the ongoing climate crisis, often resulting in their displacement, and a loss of livelihood and heritage. Despite these pressures, the communities in Worli Koliwada have managed to stay afloat.
Recognising this rich history and culture, the Worli Koliwada Project aimed to support the community in showcasing their distinct food culture, and through this, enable them to sustain themselves financially. As facilitators and incubators, our role was to help these communities find effective ways of generating income through the prism of food.
Outcomes
• Through this project, we were able to build more awareness around Worli Koliwada through storytelling and on-ground activities. By bringing back the focus on traditional foods of the communities residing in Worli Koliwada, we attempted to help them reclaim a sense of pride in their diverse foodways, shaped as they were by living along the coast.
• With curated heritage walks led by the RPG Foundation, we integrated food stops involving food cooked by the communities residing in Worli Koliwada. This included curating a menu through rounds of tastings.
• We provided the community with the tools to improve or create new sources of livelihood through workshops that detailed financial and logistics management for food businesses as well as safety and hygiene requirements.
Our belief is that this will encourage more residents in Mumbai to engage with and learn about the inhabitants of this coastline, in turn giving the locals an opportunity to showcase their delicious fare.
Here are some things we accomplished during the project:
Storytelling
‘Aai loved eating the really small fish’
The Changing Tides of the Worli Koliwada
Recipes
Kupa (tuna) Biryani and Koshimbir
Workshops
We conducted a ‘Logistics & Financial Management for Food Businesses’ workshop in collaboration with the RPG Foundation on 18 July 2023, at the RPG House in Mumbai. Conducted by ChefTZac and translated into Marathi by Pratik Bagade of the RPGF, it was designed to familiarise seven women home chefs from Worli Koliwada with methods on running a food business.
The ‘Food Safety & Hygiene’ workshop, conducted on 20 July 2023, educated participants about the practices on maintaining food safety and hygiene standards in their businesses. It provided comprehensive guidance on food handling, storage, sanitation, and customer safety.
Meet the team
Zainab Kapadia, Sreyasi Mukherjee, Takshama Pandit, Oishika Roy, Ashish Sharma, Yamini Vijayan, and Thomas Zacharias, from The Locavore
Community collaborators
Sakshi Vichare, our invaluable field guide in Worli Koliwada, played a crucial role in making this project a success.
Amruta Patil’s delicious sukhi karandi is a crowd-pleaser. She even takes on occasional catering jobs to supplement her income.
Ashwini Modkharkar, a social worker who ran a ‘Shiv Bhojan’ stall to feed people during the COVID-19 pandemic, cooked us her mouthwatering bangda aatawni and crab fry.
Pramila Thakur, a talented cook, treated us to her delicious bangda curry. During Ganesh Chaturthi, she hand-makes hundreds of modaks, which are even white-labelLed by prominent sweet shops!
Rajeshree Mahindrakar’s talents extend beyond the kitchen, where she makes delectable chirote and gud papdi. She also runs a tailoring shop, designing and stitching festive kurtas, bandhgalas, and jackets.
Shraddha Jadhav‘s naraali paak was a delight. She enjoys creating innovative dishes that keep her children happy enough to skip restaurant meals!
Shraddha Patil, an anganwadi teacher at a local school in Worli Koliwada, impressed us with her incredible kupa biryani and puran poli with amti.
Surekha Sathe, a retired nurse who now sells fish door-to-door, made the most incredible lapshi we have ever tasted.
Photography volunteers
Koumudi Chouhan
Shaheen Desai
Charvi Thakkar
Vineet Velandy
The Heritage Project, an heritage initiative of the RPG Foundation, works to bring back to glory, sites of cultural and social importance. It aims to help the masses engage with, relive, and experience our heritage through practical new approaches, keeping in mind the evolving, fast-paced world.
The Locavore is partnering with the RPG Foundation to work within the Worli Koliwada geography to provide tools for self-reliance for the region’s inhabitants, as a part of their Heritage Revival Project.
RPG Foundation collaborates with government entities, not-for-profits, and other civil society organisations to develop innovative solutions for social challenges in India. They are committed to catalysing sustainable social change through interventions that are impactful, scalable, and ultimately help build an equitable society. One such intervention is the Heritage Revival Project.
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