A tripartite Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed between the Indian Institute of
Technology (IIT) Bhilai, the District Administration of Mohla-Manpur-Ambagarh Chowki, and ABIS
Exports (India) Private Limited (IB Group) to officially launch the “Poshan Pahal Sakhi” project. This
initiative establishes a women-led layer poultry farming enterprise at the Gothan in village Bharitola
under the CSR support of ABIS.
Led by Dr. Jose Immanuel, Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at IIT
Bhilai, the project is designed with a dual objective: to create sustainable rural livelihoods and to combat
malnutrition among local children. Through this initiative, three local women will receive direct,
permanent employment managing the poultry enterprise operations. Simultaneously, 50 children across
village Anganwadi centers will receive free eggs twice a week to significantly boost protein availability in
their daily diets.
During the MoU signing ceremony, District Collector Tanuja Salam emphasized the project’s core
mission, stating that the initiative aims to provide rural women with dignified, sustainable livelihood
avenues while simultaneously strengthening the nutritional foundation of Anganwadi children.
Dr. Jose Immanuel highlighted the innovative framework of the program: “The project is a first-of-its-
kind techno-social deployment in the tribal region of Chhattisgarh, which shall set a benchmark for
similar establishments across the state in the future. The technological intervention in poultry farming
shall enable rural women to handle such a complex activity with much ease, bringing down laborious
tasks to a minimum.”
The project is strategically structured to achieve total community self-reliance over a three-year period.
Following this phase of training and capacity building, the full operational command of the enterprise will
be handed over to the trained women’s group, ensuring a permanent source of local employment and
continuous nutritional support for the village.
The formal signing ceremony was attended by key stakeholders including District Collector Tanuja
Salam, Dr. Jose Immanuel of IIT Bhilai, Mr. Shivendra Kumar Dubey representing ABIS Exports Pvt
Ltd, and Ms. Jenisha Beneton, Project Engineer from IIT Bhilai.
