Evolution of the First All Women Mall in India: Success Story of Mahila Mall

Mahila Mall, as the name implies is a shopping mall owned and run completely by women. A group of Kudumbashree women runs a shopping mall in the Kozhikode district of Kerala. Mahila Mall is situated at Bank Road opposite to Fathima Hospital, Kozhikode. The Mall was launched by Shri. Pinarayi Vijayan, Chief Minister, Government of Kerala on 24 November 2018. The Mahila Mall launched at Kozhikode is the first of its kind venture in the country. Mahila Mall is the result of the sheer confidence and hard work of a group of women who realized their strengths and act according to. The Mahila Mall is an icon of women’s empowerment achieved by Kudumbashree Mission.

Mahila Mall

Mahilla Mall, run entirely by women is a unique project in the country, which is started by ten women of Unity Group under Kudumbashree Mission in an area of over 36,000 sqft. Mahila Mall, located at Wayanad road near Mavoor Road Junction is claimed to be first of its kind venture in the country. Mahila Mall functions under the leadership of a Kudumbashree Micro Enterprises unit under Kozhikode Corporation CDS. It was during 2018 that, Unity Group thought of such an idea. A parking arrangement is also set up near the mall in 64 cents of land. Mahila Mall directly gives employment to around 250 women and indirectly they are giving employment to around 500 women. The mall functions daily from 10 AM to 10 PM. All the vendors and even the security staff of this shopping mall are women. Mahila Mall is fully air conditioned.  

In the basement of the Mahila Malll functions Micro Bazar which has 24 counters set up for Kudumbashree Micro Entrepreneurs. The retailers who were setting up markets in different places in the district were given a permanent sales outlet at Micro Bazar. Every products including vegetables are available there. The counters of Micro Bazar are made available on daily rent basis. 103 sales shops altogether function in the ground floor, first floor, second floor and third floor of Mahila Mall.  The rent of the sales shops is calculated per square foot. Out of 103 sales shops, 69 shops are of Kudumbashree women.  The rest of the shops belong to other women entrepreneurs. The training centre of DDUGKY (Deen Dayal Upadhyaya Grameen Kaushalya Yojana), the Government of India youth employment scheme implemented by Kudumbashree Mission in Kerala, functions in the fourth floor.  Women Development Corporation Bank and Kudumbashree Counselling Centre also functions in the same floor. Electronic Play Zone would be set up in the fifth floor and an open food court would be set up at the sixth floor very soon.

Evolution of Mahila Mall

The growth that a Kudumbashree Micro Enterprise like Unity ME unit had attained was mind blowing and their evolution is a role model for many other micro enterprise units. Kudumbashree Mission had extended skill training on data entry and computer application. Six women who had received this training joined together and formed ‘Unity Group’ and give birth to Techno world, an IT unit during April 2004. All the six women were from Kozhikode Municipal Corporation CDS.  Techno world was the third IT unit under Kudumbashree Kozhikode District Mission. Smt. Vijaya Premarajan is the president and Smt. N.P Sabira is the secretary of the unit. Smt. C.P Jisha, Smt. K. Divya, Smt. A. Beena and Smt. Sheena were the other members of the unit.

The unit was started by availing a loan of Rs 3.25 lakh as loan out of which Rs 1.25 lakh was given by Kudumbashree Mission as subsidy. In the initial days, the unit focused on data entry works.  During 2005, Techno world got the work order for data entry of the Local Self Government Department Elections. Later they could repay the loan and buy a printing machine of their own worth Rs. 3.50 lakhs.  And following that Techno world took up printing works and other activities.  Now a total of 30 women work under Techno world at RT office, Kozhikode Corporation E-Seva Kendra etc. Rs 50 lakh is the annual turnover of Techno world now. The unit members are getting more than Rs 20,000 as their monthly income.

It was Smt. Vijaya Premarajan who put forward the idea of setting up a mall run by women, in which Kudumbashree products could be made available. Mahila Mall is evolved as the product of the self-confidence and foresight of a group of women who realised their strength and act according to. The success story of this group of women can undoubtedly be considered an embodiment of women empowerment.