“Where can I find some REAL butter chicken?” An utterance that echoes from relocated Indians around the globe. In 1991, when Asma Khan was working on her Ph.D in Constitutional Law in London, the story was much the same. A Kolkata native, Khan had lived a privileged life, her mother is Bengali, her father Rajput and of Royal descent but that didn’t help quell her homesickness when she first moved out of the country. When she noticed the number of Indian girls working as nannies to her children’s classmates she decided to invite them over to share some company and a taste of the homeland.

By 2012, she decided she wanted to pursue cooking full time and started a supper club from her home with a menu featuring all the Mughlai dishes of her childhood. This was the launchpad for her restaurant Darjeeling Express in Kingly Court. But she wanted it to be more than a great Indian restaurant, she wanted it to stand for something she truly believed in and so she set up The Second Daughters Charity to help realise this goal.

For centuries, the birth of a female child in an Indian household has been cause for despair. The archaic practice of dowry meant that every girl born signalled a huge toll on the family finances, and if one girl was a bad omen, the second was a true disappointment. For all these second daughters, their gender overshadowed the quality of their entire lives and Asma was determined to help them rise from the limitations forced upon them by their families.

Today, the Darjeeling Express kitchen is run entirely by women. Housewives, ‘second daughters’ and women who had come to her for legal advice. She leveraged her privileges and education to help women in truly terrible situations finance themselves and build a new life in London. As she told the Guardian “Doors have not just to be opened, but held open, and people helped through.” A percentage of the profits from the restaurant go towards the charity which helps fund their celebration packages. In Kurseong - a small town in Darjeeling - these packages find their way to families on the birth of the second daughter and continue to support her through her education, giving them a better shot at the life they deserve.

Asma’s initiative is truly giving these women back their dignity and independence and the charity’s work in India is ensuring that second daughters in the future will start life with a real chance to overcome the meaningless disadvantages afforded their birth.