by Martin Watts, Research Associate, The University of Sheffield
Didi Haats: In March 2025, we commenced our data collection required to study the feasibility of the first ’Didi Haat’ in Nalanda District, Bihar. Didi Haats is INFUSION’s healthy markets initiative run by women, targeting the reduction of food waste, improvement of food safety and hygiene, increased availability and demand for nutrient-dense foods (NDFs), and enhancement of the shopping experience in rural markets for women. This will be facilitated through a combination of hard measures such as market infrastructure (raised platforms, gender-specific toilets, overhead roofing), and soft measures, such as the provision of clean running water, vendor training, security personnel etc.
With the Didi Haat set to open in May, we have just completed our ‘baseline’ data collection, focusing on understanding and measuring consumers’ current experiences of their ‘food environment’, i.e. how consumers interact with and perceive their main sources of food (in this case NDFs) regarding food availability, accessibility, acceptability, convenience, and hygiene, in the local community around the Didi Haat. Following our process evaluation methodology, we are keen to monitor if and how the local food environment and consumers’ perceptions and experiences of the food environment alter once the Didi Haat is incorporated.
Employing a range of data collection tools including quantitative surveys, semi-structured interviews, and a food environment audit (mapping the different sources of NDFs, availabilities, and their prices), it was my task to oversee the baseline data collection, including training our enumerators before pre-testing and piloting our tools.
After around one month of on and off work (due to various breaks from Indian festivals), we successfully completed our consumer surveys and interviews quickly and thoroughly, thanks to our dedicated enumerators and colleagues from DAI and ISB, providing INFUSION with rich sources of various datasets understanding of the local food environment before Didi Haat’s inauguration. We may have slightly underestimated the number of NDF outlets within the catchment community when planning our fieldwork, given the Didi Haat is located near an existing market. However, we quickly covered these outlets with DAI’s support.
Right now, we’re busy analysing the data and coding the interviews to get ready for our next round of data collection on the local food environment in just a few months. Looking ahead, we’re really looking forward to discovering how consumers’ experiences with their food environment might shift post-opening of our Didi Haat, particularly for consumers who choose to shop there! We were also delighted to find that consumers already know about Didi Haat and are excitedly anticipating the market’s opening! This enthusiasm signals a bright future for the business viability of our intervention, which is an integral part of Didi Haat’s overall feasibility in practice.
Holi: Lastly, during my trip, Northern India’s major festival of Holi- where Hindus throw coloured water and powders on one another- was taking place. Although I don’t usually enjoy getting messy, I realised I might not get another chance to experience Holi whilst in Northern India. Thus, after managing to persuade ISB’s Gaurav Kishen to leave the safety of his home, we joined in the celebrations. This mostly involved me getting covered in paint by locals and someone dumping a bucket of dirty water down my back – to be fair, they did ask my permission first! A heads up for anyone else venturing into built areas during the Holi period: children and elderly people hide on rooftops and ambush you with coloured water from above when you pass by. My top tip would be not to wear any clothes overly important to you – I’m still getting the colours off my cap!
