Women Show The Way to Successful Group Operations in Madhya Pradesh - Amrut Mahila Audhyogic Co-operative Society Limited

 Jhabua is one of the poorest district of Madhya Pradesh, with around 98% of its population comprising of tribals - Bhils, Bhilalas and Pateliyas.
In 1997, the World Food Programme entered into an agreement with KRIBHCO to supply locally produced nutritious food (wheat 40%, maize 40%, soyabean 20%, with added vitamins and minerals) to the ICDS centres at Meghnagar, Jhabua district, for their complementary feeding programme. The work would be carried out under the supervision of district administration.
Community meetings were held to discuss the proposal. The community agreed that the project would
reduce dependency on external assistance;
give women a source of livelihood by providing wages to group members;
develop women’s skills in group formation, food processing technology, communication and dissemination, management, financial skills, etc.;
improve community participation;
improve awareness on the need for better nutrition, particularly for children and women;
specifically improve awareness on complementary foods for children;
improve complementary feeding practices in the communities
The task was handed over to the women’s self-help groups initiated by the project. In an open, extremely transparent manner, a core team of 16 women was formed to run the enterprise autonomously.  The women were selected by the various women’s groups themselves during a series of monthly village and intra-village level meetings, on the basis of the women’s skills in group formation and management.
Once selected, the core team was exposed to several women-managed institutions to build up their vision, confidence and awareness and to help them understand various forms of organisation and management systems -  leadership pattern, responsibilities of members, distribution of works and responsibilities, and so on. The exposure visits also gave women the opportunity to collect a lot of information and documentation on the legal nature of various institutions, different ways of incorporating their enterprise, memoranda of association and bye laws of diverse enterprises, including corporate, cooperative, public sector enterprises. One of the team’s first decisions was that the project shall be registered as a cooperative society, under the Cooperative Act of Madhya Pradesh, which it was in 1998.
“Amrut Mahila Audhyogic Cooperative Society Ltd.” was set up with a few conditions:
all women members of the project villages would become a member of the cooperative
Each member would pay an entry fee and purchase at least one share of the cooperative; the share money was non-refundable
The above money would be used to open an account in a cooperative bank in the name of the society
Bye-laws would be in accordance with the Cooperative Act of Madhya Pradesh
Chairperson, president, vice president, secretary and the managing committee/board of directors would be selected/elected
Each member would give a certificate to the effect that she would adhere to the rules and regulations of the society.
The enterprise is located in Kaglidungri village, about 28 km. from the district headquarters, and 8 km from the Meghnagar block headquarters, to facilitate women’s attendance. A production unit has been set up, with the capacity of producing 250-350kg of blended product every hour.