Tourism yet to pick up, Ladakh's all-woman cafe stares at closure

Arjun Sharma
Jammu, April 14

Started with much fanfare, Ladakhi Women’s Café, a place for foreign tourists to have the taste of authentic Ladakhi food, is now on the verge of closure.

Café owner Thinlas Chorol says the eatery has provided seasonal employment to several women since 2016 when it was started. After 2019, it remained shut for two years due to the pandemic and restarted its operations only a few days ago.

Though domestic tourists have already started visiting Ladakh, there aren’t many from abroad. Blaming the Ukraine conflict, locals say only a few European tourists have arrived. The café is known for its buckwheat and butter tea, besides “khambir”, a traditional Ladakhi bread.

Chorol, who also owns an all-woman travel agency, says tourism has not picked up pace, causing irreparable damage to small businesses like hers. “Till October 2019, our business was doing well. Everything changed after the pandemic. It seems that I will not be able to sustain the business with such low footfall,” she said. Currently, only two women are employed at the café. The eatery was started with an idea that Ladakh being a conservative society provided few employment opportunities to women.

The travel agency run by Chorol has female guides and porters, something which is unusual for a place like Ladakh. But even the travel agency has been hit hard.

“Earlier, there used to be only male guides. When I started the venture it gave hope to local women. At least 40 girls worked with me at the travel agency and café till 2019,” said Chorol. Tsering Youtol, one of her employees, said, “We hope the situation improves and more tourists visit our cafe. This is a unique venture which provides organic food. It must survive.”