Cooperative Movement In India
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The cooperative movement in India plays a crucial role in the agricultural sector, banking and housing. The history of cooperatives in India is more than a hundred years old. Cooperatives developed very rapidly after Indian independence. According to an estimate, more than half a million cooperative societies are active in the country. Many cooperative societies, particularly in rural areas, increase political participation and are used as a stepping stone by aspiring politicians.


History

In the initial stage co-operative movement in India stood up slowly. In 1904 British govt formed a co-operative rule on the basis of report given by Fredric Nicholson a British officer of Madras region. While the first co-operative society formed in TIRUR of Tiruvallur district of TamilNadu becoming the first co-operative of Asia. It was started by Adhinarayana Ayya in 30.08.1904 .


Government initiative


Ministry of Co-operation

The Union Ministry of Cooperation is a ministry under the
Government of India The Government of India (ISO 15919, ISO: Bhārata Sarakāra, legally the Union Government or Union of India or the Central Government) is the national authority of the Republic of India, located in South Asia, consisting of States and union t ...
which was formed in July 2021. The ministry provides a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country. The ministry's creation was announced on 6 July 2021 along with its vision statement of ''"Sahkar se samriddhi"' (). Before the creation of this ministry, the objectives of this ministry were looked after by the Ministry of Agriculture. The ministry works in strengthening co-operatives at the grassroot level, working to streamline processes for 'Ease of doing business' for co-operatives and enabling the development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS). The same was initially announced by
Finance Minister A ministry of finance is a ministry or other government agency in charge of government finance, fiscal policy, and financial regulation. It is headed by a finance minister, an executive or cabinet position . A ministry of finance's portfoli ...
Nirmala Sitharaman Nirmala Sitharaman (born 18 August 1959) is an Indian economist, politician and a senior leader of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) serving as the Minister of Finance and Minister of Corporate Affairs of the Government of India since 2019. ...
while presenting the 2021 Union budget. The ministry was created with objectives of: * To realise the vision of ''"Sahkar se Samriddhi"'' (prosperity through cooperation). * To streamline processes for ‘'Ease of doing business’' for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS) * to provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movements in the country. * To deepen the cooperative as a true people-based movement reaching up to the grassroot level. Many experts have raised concerns about the new ministry because co-operative societies are subject of
State List The State List or List-II is a list of 61 items. Initially there were 66 items in the list in Schedule Seven to the Constitution of India. The legislative section is divided into three lists: the Union List, the State List and the Concurrent Lis ...
under the Seventh schedule of the
Constitution A constitution is the aggregate of fundamental principles or established precedents that constitute the legal basis of a polity, organization or other type of entity, and commonly determines how that entity is to be governed. When these pri ...
, and therefore creating such a ministry at the central level would increase the power in the hands of the union government. Kerala's Minister of Co-operation and Registration V. N. Vasavan stated that, "Creation of a new Cooperation ministry is an infringement upon the rights of the state governments.


Legal framework

Co-operative Societies Act (1912) provides the legal framework.


Policy and strategic intervention

National Policy on Cooperatives was formulated in 2002 to develop the cooperative societies sector.National Policy on Cooperatives
Govt of India, accessed 16 Aug 2021.


Agriculture

The country has networks of cooperatives at the local, regional, state and national levels that assist in agricultural marketing. The commodities that are mostly handled are food grains, jute, cotton, sugar, milk, fruit and nuts. Support by the state government led to more than 25,000 cooperatives being set up by 1990s in Maharashtra.


Agri product marketing cooperatives

As with sugar, cooperatives play a significant part in the overall marketing of fruit and vegetables in India. Since the 1980s, the amount of produce handled by Cooperative societies has increased exponentially. Common fruit and vegetables marketed by the societies include bananas, mangoes, grapes, onions and many others. Changthangi Pashmina which remained as the monopoly of few traders is also moving towards fairness in production and supply chains with source region Ladakh's cooperative Looms of Ladakh.


Dairy

Dairy farming based on the Amul Pattern, with a single marketing cooperative, is India's largest self-sustaining industry and its largest rural employment provider. Successful implementation of the Amul model has made India the world's largest milk producer. Here small, marginal farmers with a couple or so heads of milch cattle queue up twice daily to pour milk from their small containers into the village union collection points. The milk after processing at the district unions is then marketed by the state cooperative federation nationally under the Amul brand name, India's largest food brand. With the Anand pattern three-fourths of the price paid by the mainly urban consumers goes into the hands of millions of small dairy farmers, who are the owners of the brand and the cooperative. The cooperative hires professionals for their expertise and skills and uses hi-tech research labs and modern processing plants & transport cold-chains, to ensure quality of their produce and value-add to the milk.


Sugar

Most of the sugar production in India takes place at mills owned by local cooperative societies. The members of the society include all farmers, small and large, supplying
sugarcane Sugarcane or sugar cane is a species of tall, Perennial plant, perennial grass (in the genus ''Saccharum'', tribe Andropogoneae) that is used for sugar Sugar industry, production. The plants are 2–6 m (6–20 ft) tall with stout, jointed, fib ...
to the mill. Over the last fifty years, the local sugar mills have played a crucial part in encouraging political participation and as a stepping stone for aspiring politicians. This is particularly true in the state of
Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
where a large number of politicians belonging to the Congress party or NCP had ties to sugar cooperatives from their local area and has created a symbiotic relationship between the sugar factories and local politics. However, the policy of "profits for the company but losses to be borne by the government", has made a number of these operations inefficient.


Banking and rural credit

Cooperatives also play a great part in banking. Cooperative banks in India serve both the rural and urban societies. Just like the sugar companies, these institutions serve as the power base for local politicians.


Housing societies

Widely known as Cooperative Housing Societies, these housing alternatives are established to help people with limited income to construct houses at reasonable costs. The function of housing cooperatives varies based on geographical and cultural context. Compared to Western and European understandings of housing cooperatives, that primarily views cooperatives as equating to
collective ownership Collective ownership is the ownership of private property by all members of a group. The breadth or narrowness of the group can range from a whole society to a set of coworkers in a particular enterprise (such as one collective farm). In the la ...
, India differs from these conceptions about how cooperative housing societies operate.
Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...
and
Chennai Chennai, also known as Madras (List of renamed places in India#Tamil Nadu, its official name until 1996), is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Tamil Nadu by population, largest city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost states and ...
are two areas that set the present for cooperative movements in India, influencing development in other major cities such as
New Delhi New Delhi (; ) is the Capital city, capital of India and a part of the Delhi, National Capital Territory of Delhi (NCT). New Delhi is the seat of all three branches of the Government of India, hosting the Rashtrapati Bhavan, New Parliament ...
,
Thiruvananthapuram Thiruvananthapuram ( ), also known as Trivandrum, is the Capital city, capital city of the Indian state of Kerala. As of 2011, the Thiruvananthapuram Municipal Corporation had a population of 957,730 over an area of 214.86 sq. km, making it the ...
, and
Kolkata Kolkata, also known as Calcutta ( its official name until 2001), is the capital and largest city of the Indian state of West Bengal. It lies on the eastern bank of the Hooghly River, west of the border with Bangladesh. It is the primary ...
. Despite the cooperative success and influence of these cities' in other regions, Mumbai and Chennai differ from the cities of
Maharashtra Maharashtra () is a state in the western peninsular region of India occupying a substantial portion of the Deccan Plateau. It is bordered by the Arabian Sea to the west, the Indian states of Karnataka and Goa to the south, Telangana to th ...
and
Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is the southernmost States and union territories of India, state of India. The List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of Indi ...
, known as areas in India that demonstrate a long history of cooperative efforts.


Types of housing cooperatives

There are three distinct types of housing cooperatives in India approved by each state, through the Cooperative Societies Act, based on the co-op housing objectives and functionality. The categories of cooperative housing are tenure, finance, and building co-operatives.Ganapati, Sukumar. 2008. "A Century of Differential Evolution of Housing Co-operatives in Mumbai and Chennai." Housing Studies 23(3):406 The classifications of these cooperatives vary across states, and its approval is not exclusive to each state. Ganapati (2008) defines these categories as the following: ''"In
Tenure Tenure is a type of academic appointment that protects its holder from being fired or laid off except for cause, or under extraordinary circumstances such as financial exigency or program discontinuation. Academic tenure originated in the United ...
co-operatives, members collectively own and manage housing, similar to co-operative housing in the Western countries. Finance co-operatives provide loans for new construction or housing repairs to members. Building co-operatives construct housing for their members, but they may also be involved in land development"''


Multi State cooperative Society

Any society that is formed with the object of the economic and social improvement of its members by way of self-help groups with mutual aid, but is registered in more than one state is known as Multi State Cooperative Society.


Khadi cooperatives

As of 2009, there were 5,600 registered institutions and 30,138
Cooperative A cooperative (also known as co-operative, coöperative, co-op, or coop) is "an autonomy, autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned a ...
societies for
Khadi Khadi (, ), derived from khaddar, is a hand-spun and woven natural fibre cloth promoted by Mahatma Gandhi, Gandhi as Swadeshi movement, ''swadeshi (of homeland)'' for the freedom struggle of India and the term is used throughout the Indian sub ...
About us - Delhi Khadhi and Village industries Board
Government of Delhi.
which employs nearly 95
lakh A lakh (; abbreviated L; sometimes written lac) is a unit in the Indian numbering system equal to one hundred thousand (100,000; scientific notation: 105). In the Indian 2, 2, 3 convention of digit grouping, it is written as 1,00,000. F ...
(9.5 million) people. Khadi and Village Industries Commission uses government provided funds to implement its programs either directly - through its 29 state offices, by directly funding Khadi and Village institutions and co-operatives, or indirectly through 33Page - 66
Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises The Ministry of Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises is the Ministry (government department), ministry in the Government of India. It is the apex executive body for the formulation and administration of rules, regulations and laws relating to Sm ...
Khadi and Village Industries Boards, which are statutory bodies formed by the state governments within India, set up for the purpose of promoting Khadi and Village Industries in their respective states. The Khadi and Village Industries Boards, in turn, fund Khadi and Village Institutions/Co-operatives/Entrepreneurs.


Small and micro industries corporation


List of major cooperative societies in India


Aavin

Aavin is a statutory corporation and the trademark of Tamil Nadu Co-operative Milk Producers' Federation Limited. Aavin procures milk, processes it and sells milk and milk products to consumers.


Amul

Amul cooperative from India is the world's largest producer of milk, an achievement of the White Revolution in India, which was spurred by Amul. An Indian dairy cooperative society established in 1946, Amul is located in
Anand, Gujarat Anand is a city and the administrative centre of Anand District in the state of Gujarat, India. It is administered by Anand Municipal Corporation. It is part of the region known as Charotar, consisting of Anand and Kheda district, Kheda district ...
. Dr Verghese Kurien, known as the father of the White Revolution, was the chairman of GCMMF for more than 30 years. Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF) is the cooperative body which manages the brand of Amul. GCMMF is currently owned by an apex body of 13 District Milk Unions, representing 3.6 million milk producers, spread across 13,000 villages of Gujarat.


Karnataka Milk Federation

After Amul, Karnataka Milk Federation is the second largest milk co-operative in India. It is a federation of milk producers association working on cooperative principles. In 1974, KMF was founded as Karnataka Dairy Development Corporation (KDDC) to implement a dairy development project. This project was run by the
World Bank The World Bank is an international financial institution that provides loans and Grant (money), grants to the governments of Least developed countries, low- and Developing country, middle-income countries for the purposes of economic development ...
. Procurement of milk is done from Primary Dairy Cooperative Societies (DCS) by Karnataka Milk Federation (KMF), which has 14 milk unions throughout the Karnataka State which procure and distribute milk to the consumers. The milk is marketed under the brand name Nandini.


Horticultural Producers’ Cooperative Marketing and Processing Society (HOPCOMS)

It is a farmers’ society founded in 1965. HOPCOMS comes under the jurisdiction of the Department of horticulture, Government of Karnataka. It was founded with the objective of direct marketing of farm products. HOPCOMS is headquartered in Bengaluru. HOPCOMS is spread across districts of Bangalore Rural, Bangalore Urban, Mysuru, Mandya, Chikkaballapura, Ramanagar of Karnataka. The operations of HOPCOMS are three-fold: distribution, storage and procurement.


Indian Coffee House

Indian Coffee House Indian Coffee House is a restaurant chain in India, run by a series of worker co-operative societies. It has strong presence across India with nearly 400 coffee houses. History Coffee had been grown in India by Indians since the 16th century. ...
is a chain of restaurants run by a series of worker co-operative societies. The India Coffee House chain was started by the Coffee Cess Committee in 1936, The idea of Coffee House was formed since native Indians were not allowed into Coffee Houses which were mainly allowed only for Europeans. The first outlet of Indian Coffee House was opened in Bombay. By the 1940's there were 50 coffee houses across the country. To run the coffee houses in India, there are 13 co-operative societies.


Southern Green Farming And Marketing Multi State Cooperative Society Limited (Farmfed)

It is an Agriculture society founded in 2008. Operational area of these society is Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Society's mission is socially, economically, and ecologically sustainable community development. Society help the farmers to get a reasonable return for their efforts in the soil by making them aware of various advanced techniques and methods of cultivation without harming the fundamental being of nature.


Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative (IFFCO)

Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited, also known as IFFCO, is a multi-state cooperative society engaged in the manufacture and marketing of fertiliser. IFFCO is headquartered in New Delhi, India. Started in 1967 with 57 member cooper ...
Limited (IFFCO) was registered on November 3, 1967, as a Multi-Unit Co-operative Society. On the enactment of the Multistate Co-operative Societies Act 2002, the Society is deemed to be registered as a Multistate Co-operative Society. The Society is primarily engaged in production and distribution of fertilisers. The byelaws of the Society provide a board frame work for the activities of IFFCO as a Co-operative Society. At IFFCO, the thirst for ever improving the services to farmers and member co-operatives is insatiable, commitment to quality is isurmountable and harnessing of mother earths' bounty to drive hunger away from India in an ecologically sustainable manner is the prime mission. All that IFFCO cherishes in exchange is an everlasting smile on the face of Indian Farmer who form the moving spirit behind this mission. IFFCO, today, is a leading player in India's fertiliser industry and is making substantial contribution to the efforts of Indian Government to increase foodgrain production in the country.


See also

* Ministry of Co-operation * List of cooperatives in India *
List of co-operative federations This is a list of co-operative federations. For a list of individual Co-operative Enterprises, please see List of cooperatives. International * International Co-operative Alliance (ICA) * World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) * International ...
*
Institute of Rural Management Anand An institute is an organizational body created for a certain purpose. They are often research organisations (research institutes) created to do research on specific topics, or can also be a professional body. In some countries, institutes ca ...


References


External links


India's National Policy on Cooperatives 2002
{{Co-operatives
JKPSC Assistant Registrar Cooperatives Book
India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...
* Cooperativec Ministry of Co-operation