Challenges To Cooperative Societies In India In The Era Of Globalization
Challenges to Cooperative Societies in India in the era of globalization
Dr A K Sannigrahi
Human beings are social animals, stay together, join hands to overcome common problem and share experiences to achieve best results. Cooperation means extending mutual help to each other. The Cooperative Societies have come into existence in the world since 1844 with the concept of cooperation among masses for their socio-economic development. According to the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), ‘a cooperative is an autonomous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common, economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprise’. The cooperative principles are : (1) Voluntary and open membership, (2) Democratic member control, (3) Member economic participation, (4) Autonomy and Independence, (5) Education, Training and Information, (6) Cooperation among cooperatives and (7) Concern for community. India has an agrarian economy with 72 percent of its total population living in rural areas. During British rule at the last part of nineteenth century, Indian farming community was highly exploited by greedy money-lenders. The cooperative movement was started in India to avoid their exploitation as well as to remove their poverty and indebtedness. Cooperative societies are now providing essential services to the community all over the world. In 90 countries more than 700 million individuals are the members of different cooperative institutions. The Indian cooperative movement celebrated hundred years of its glorious existence in 2004. The movement has been acknowledged as an instrument towards achieving the socio-economic transformation of Indian society with special focus on the life of people living in rural areas. Cooperative society has a great significance in a vast country like India since it is an organization for the poor, illiterate and unskilled people run...
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