The ‘All-India Cooperative Week’ is marked annually from November 14 – November 20. Diversity Digest looks at the pivotal role cooperatives have been playing in women’s empowerment.
In the late 1940s, Anand Milk Union Limited, or Amul, as it is popularly known, was launched to solve the crisis of marginal farmers getting exploited with unfair prices. Today, Amul is one of the biggest success stories among cooperative societies. The top beneficiaries are women who have attained economic empowerment, granting them the liberty to make decisions about their families. A whopping 36 lakh women farmers are part of this success story— the 9th largest dairy company in the world.
Why they are a success story
Amul is a classic example of grassroots empowerment in the cooperative society model, and there are many others. A cooperative is ‘an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations by setting up a jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprise.’
A study by ILO-ICA has shown the rising gains for women in the sector. ‘The Alliance and ILO joint survey highlights the unique effectiveness of the cooperative model in providing women with a dignified way out of poverty, often away from violence and abuse’. Some factors that benefit women from cooperative societies are that they are run on the principles of self-help, democracy, equality, equity, and solidarity.
They also play a key role in India’s fight against Covid-19 as seen in Kudumbashree in Kerala because of the intrinsic value of the grassroots connect as it takes the same approach as a cooperative society, including micro-credit, entrepreneurship, and empowerment.
Other successful ones are Usha Cooperative Multi-Purpose Store Limited, Kolkata, and Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Cooperatives, Ahmedabad.
The impact
A paper on ‘Successful Women Cooperatives’ observes that Women are capable and confident of entering into Cooperative Movements. This is possible because the capital need is small and the know-how of the business is available without difficulty. The paper also notes that the utilization of women’s labor for productive purposes under the Cooperative Movement can provide an impetus to the gross national income and take the country closer to the objective of socio-economic development.
The All India Cooperative Week, which has been observed since 1953, has turned out to be an occasion for governments in India to look into the challenges faced by cooperatives. It is also the time for them to study the opportunities to build robust systems to leverage their true potential.
