Indian Army opens up first ‘Kibithu bakery shop’ in Arunachal Pradesh for women

By Syeda Shabana Parveen

The Indian Army in Arunachal Pradesh’s Kibithu village has been focusing on women’s empowerment to make them self-sufficient so they can stand shoulder to shoulder with men. Kibithu is a small village in the north-eastern region of Arunachal Pradesh where women mostly serve as homemakers, and men serve as the only source of income for the household.

The Army is continuing its initiative to give the women in Kibithu hamlet vocational training in baking in response to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s vision of women’s empowerment and appeal for their right to march alongside men.

Speaking to ANI, Shanti Rai, a woman from the Kibithu village lauded the Indian Army for their initiative and appealed to more women to come forward.

“With the help of the ‘Aseem Foundation’, the women are getting trained in the bakery. We previously used to stay in and cook at home, but we were given the opportunity to work in the bakery. We’ll learn how to make cakes and teach the other ladies in the village so that they can also come forward and get a job.”

Anju Dorji, a Kibithu Bakery staff, was one more woman who expressed her satisfaction at being independent and praised the Indian Army for assisting the village’s women in being self-sufficient.

“We are very happy and appreciate the Indian Army’s thoughtful initiative in preparing us for self-independent. The women of Kibithu village never imagined they would run a bakery,” Dorji said.

Major Amit Kumar said the purpose of the Indian Army is to empower women in the village.

“Our first goal was to empower the women in this area and provide them with the financial independence they lacked five years ago. We have given them tools and trained them through the Aseem foundation,” Kumar said.

He further added that The bakery is successfully operating and making money and more bakeries are being planned in order to create employment opportunities here.

The Indian Army and the government are collaborating to create network-building capacity to make it easier, he said.