How Indira Canteens lost flavour among patrons in Bengaluru Premium

Explore how Bengaluru's Indira Canteens, once thriving, have struggled with quality and reliability, impacting their patrons.

It is breakfast time, around 7.30 a.m. Gangamma and Nagalakshmi, who work as pourakarmikas (civic workers), are among the many waiting outside the Indira Canteen located next to the Nadaprabhu Kempegowda Majestic metro station in Bengaluru.

The canteen is open, but the food has not yet arrived yet. Between this Indira Canteen and Majestic bus stand on the other side, lies a heap of garbage — plastic covers, leftover food, damp waste. Partially cleared, but not enough to ignore.  

A man collects a meal at the Indira Canteen near Tannery Road, in Bengaluru on February 10, 2026. | Photo Credit: ALLEN EGENUSE J

When breakfast finally arrives, bisi bele baht and pongal, it is served quickly. Filling meals that workers, like Nagalakshmi, say give them enough energy to last until their shifts end at 11 a.m.

Nagalakshmi, a sanitation worker who eats at the canteen along her daily work route, ate in quick mouthfuls, checking the time on her phone between bites. She had about eight minutes, she said, before moving on to cleaning Gandhinagar, and then rushing to catch a bus to her home at DJ Halli.

Every day, she relies on this canteens to fit a meal into her work schedule and budget. Designed as a universal scheme rather than a targeted welfare scheme, the canteens offer breakfast at ₹5, and lunch and dinner at ₹10.