As the spiritual leader turns 60 this week, a look at an 11-acre women's campus in South Gujarat whose snacks, fragrances and handicrafts now stock more than 750 stores
The next time you pick up a packet of namkeen from a neighbourhood store in Mumbai, turn it over and read the label. There is a fair chance it was cooked, sorted and packed by a woman from a tribal village in Dharampur, South Gujarat.
The label reads Raj Uphaar. Its range runs to more than 200 products across three brands: Raj Amrut for snacks and savouries, Raj Saurabh for fragrances, and Raj Kruti for handicrafts and garments. The products now reach more than 750 retail stores in Mumbai, with brand stores in nine Indian cities.
The idea behind it came from Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji, founder of Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur (SRMD). He turns 60 on September 26, and the milestone is being marked with a two-day celebration, Aho Gurudev, at the Jio World Convention Centre in BKC. Of the many things his mission has built over three decades, its work with rural women may be the one that most directly changes household incomes.
<img src="http://images.mid-day.com/images/images/2026/sep/s478_e.jpg" alt="" width="1280" height="720" />
Why women, and why Dharampur
Dharampur and neighbouring Kaprada are predominantly tribal blocks with deep gender gaps. According to the mission's own assessment, many girls leave school after the secondary level because household duties pull them home. Early marriage leads to early pregnancy, which raises the risks for both mother and child. The work available to women is mostly unskilled, low-paid and irregular.
There are other barriers too. Women face limits on where they can go, seclusion during menstruation and restrictions on paid work, and alcoholism in many households adds to the instability. The result is women who remain financially dependent, often for life.
The mission's response is simple: give women a skill that is directly linked to a job. The reasoning is that a woman who earns spends more on nutrition, hygiene and her children's schooling, so the benefit carries into the next generation.
An 11-acre campus built around working women
That thinking now has a permanent address. The Shrimad Rajchandra Sarvamangal Centre of Excellence for Women in Dharampur spreads across 11 acres, with more than two lakh square feet of built-up space. Prime Minister Narendra Modi laid its foundation stone, and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh inaugurated it last December.
Each Raj Uphaar brand has its own building on the campus, with production lines for baking, frying, seasoning and packing. There is a 60,000 sq ft vertical warehouse, skilling classrooms and computer workstations for digital training.
Some of the most important facilities are the least visible. There is a cr&egrave;che where employees can leave their children during working hours, a clinic and nursing area, and a dining hall. For a young mother in a tribal village, these facilities often decide whether taking a job is possible at all.
More than a factory job
The mission describes the approach as "empowerment, not just employment". Every woman who joins Raj Uphaar is trained in workplace etiquette, the product cycle and industry norms. Women are rotated through different roles within a single product line so that they learn more than one skill.
Exposure visits show them how other workplaces run. Weekly sessions cover problem solving, conflict resolution, communication and confidence-building, and regular advanced training covers digital literacy, hygiene and nutrition. The working day also includes yoga, pranayama and meditation.
For Geeta Rawal, now a head manager, the job came at the worst moment of her life. After losing her husband in a severe accident, she suddenly became the sole earner for her family. "Just when I felt all was lost, Raj Uphaar became the strongest support in my life," she says.
Kaajal Gavit, who works in the packaging team, took the job to support a sick father, a mother who was struggling, and a sister who still needed an education. It began as just a place to work. "Raj Uphaar has made my life so pleasant and full of joy," she says.
Beyond the campus
Not every woman can work on the production floor, so the programme reaches into the villages as well. Valsad district has more than 11,000 women's self-help groups on paper, but the mission found that most of them had gone inactive. Its SHG hub now helps revive these groups through small daily livelihood projects such as making agarbattis, painting diyas and packing gifts, so that women can save and earn together again.
Village sessions teach budgeting and digital payments, explain how to apply for government schemes, and cover women's rights, safety and mental health.
Vocational training centres in Mumbai, Vadodara, Purulia and other places run courses in English speaking, beauty, mehendi, sewing and cooking. More than 14,500 women have been certified since the programme began. Many now earn through home-based services, group enterprises or jobs in local industry.
These efforts sit on top of a longer-running Woman Care programme that includes:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>a Safe Motherhood programme for expectant mothers from low-income families;</li>
<li>health education for adolescent girls;</li>
<li>financial support for rural girls pursuing higher studies;</li>
<li>welfare support for widows;</li>
<li>organic kitchen gardens that improve family nutrition while adding to income.</li>
</ul>
What comes next
The Dharampur campus is now being used as a template. The mission plans to extend the Centre of Excellence model to six centres across India, with new centres at Manbazar, Jabla, Dhanara, Bamni and Bhalubhasha.
Its yearly performance includes:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>2,000 women annually in short-term skilling courses;</li>
<li>1,500 women in direct employment;</li>
<li>1,000 women annually supported through self-help groups;</li>
<li>10,000 women annually reached through knowledge sessions.</li>
</ul>
Raj Uphaar is also launching a full garment line and is preparing to enter North America.
The man behind it
Born in Mumbai in 1966, Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji took an M.A. in Philosophy with a gold medal. The University of Mumbai later awarded him a doctorate for a treatise of more than 3,000 pages on Shri Atmasiddhi Shastra, the work of Shrimad Rajchandraji, the Jain philosopher remembered as Mahatma Gandhi's spiritual guide.
He founded Shrimad Rajchandra Mission Dharampur in 1994 and set up its ashram at Dharampur in 2001. The mission's guiding line has stayed the same since: realise one's true self and serve others selflessly.
Women's empowerment is one of ten service areas run by the mission's humanitarian arm, Shrimad Rajchandra Love and Care, which has held Special Consultative Status with the United Nations Economic and Social Council since 2020. Its other work includes:
<ul style="text-align: justify;">
<li>a 250-bed charitable hospital in Dharampur, which the mission says is the only one in the area performing paediatric open-heart surgeries;</li>
<li>an early intervention centre that has treated over 11 lakh children;</li>
<li>animal care initiatives that have reached more than five lakh animals;</li>
<li>programmes in 16 African countries.</li>
</ul>
The mission puts the total number of lives touched worldwide at over 4.2 crore.
At Aho Gurudev, the mission will announce 60 new initiatives, 30 spiritual and 30 in service. For the women on the production floor at Dharampur, though, one line already describes the work: "By helping one person, you will not be able to change the whole world. But surely, you will change his whole world."

Raj Uphaar empowers rural women through skills, employment and entrepreneurship at its 11-acre Dharampur campus.

Made in Dharampur, Sold across India: How Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji Turned Seva into a Steady Pay Cheque for Tribal Women

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Made in Dharampur, Sold across India: How Pujya Gurudevshri Rakeshji Turned Seva into a Steady Pay Cheque for Tribal Women

Other Articles

Mid-Day Fast