Lauding the women engaged in the country’s dairy industry, Prime Minister Narendra Modi has called them the real leaders of the sector.
Highlighting their participation and contribution, PM Modi, who recently spoke at the International Dairy Federation World Dairy Summit (IDF WDS) 2022, said that they constituted 70 percent of the workforce in India’s dairy sector and that more than a third of dairy cooperatives’ members were women.
“Women are the real leaders of India’s dairy sector… In 2014, India produced 146 million tonnes of milk. Now it has increased to 210 million tonnes. That means an increase of about 44 percent,” he was quoted as saying by news reports.
He also added that the scale of operations of the dairy sector in India was well-known.
“India’s dairy sector is recognized for production by masses rather than mass production. Today 8 crore families are getting employment in the dairy sector. India has become the largest producer of dairy products in the world due to collective efforts of small-scale dairy farmers,” the news reports added.
Reports say that Uttar Pradesh leads in dairy production in India at 18%, followed by Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Punjab.
The success story of Amul, headquartered in Anand, Gujarat, is a classic example of women’s participation. According to a 2018 report from the National Cooperative Union of India, 4.98 million women members contributed to 30% of the total membership in cooperative societies. Of the 34.94 lakh milk producer members in the state, 36% or 12.5 lakh members are women.
