ISTR Sixth International Conference Toronto, Canada / July 11-14, 2004 Contesting Citizenship and Civil Society in a Divided World

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Micro initiatives: a pragmatic paradigm for cooperative member development in India
by
Sudha K
Anantha Vihar, Kapikad, Bejai, Mangalore 575 004, D.K., Karnataka, India

Micro Initiatives: A pragmatic Paradigm for Cooperative Member Development In India By Sudha K* Development does not start with goods; it starts with people, with education, organization and discipline, without these three, all resources remain latent, untapped potential(Myrdal, 1968).

Cooperatives, being the oldest and the important segment of the Third Sector, will find its relevance and reality as people's organization in the future days only when its members are enlightened and found participative, leading to their development and sustenance of the movement. In the light of the new Cooperative Identity, accepted after the Manchester Congress of the ICA (1995), there is a dire need to inculcate cooperative consciousness through value education.

In countries like India, where the cooperatives dwell more than 150 million members, it is indeed a great challenge to take up member education and other developmental efforts. This is especially difficult when more than half the members neither have formal schooling nor have any exposure to human resource development endeavours. So it is essential to make an attempt towards building a new cooperative culture among the members.

The National Cooperative Union of India and the different State Cooperative Federations are attempting member education especially at the macro level. Such initiatives are indeed necessary. However it is insufficient and impractical as they could achieve only a limited purpose and cover only a fraction of the total cooperative community (Krishnaswami, 1976; Goel, 1981; Prakash, 1988; Mulani, 1993). `Member development is a local phenomenon'. Hence such initiatives should come from the primary units themselves and complement the efforts of macro level. Process of development has meaning only when it occurs from below through spontaneous participation and whole hearted cooperation of the people and not when it is imposed from the above or driven by external action (Shah, 1996).

Members growth actually begins at the respective cooperative society itself, as it is not only a service unit for the members but also a learning centre for it is a practical method of educating the citizens into an enlightened democracy (Bonow, 1960,p.28). But unfortunately, the drive towards member development is minimal at the cooperative's level in India. Majority of them function only on trade terms and are devoid of any specific strategies to enlighten and build the capacity of the members in a wide array of disciplines that is crucial for them to face the challenges in the current competitive scenario. Cooperatives are member driven organizations and they can become real voluntary organizations of people only when members understand and appreciate the cooperative causes. This is possible only through pragmatic member development strategies.

Focusing on the need for a new paradigm (member development through micro initiatives) in developing the members, the present paper attempts to devise effective strategies for the member development reflecting in efficient governance of the cooperative. It also undertakes an evaluation of member development efforts, currently vogue in India. An empirical survey conducted for the purpose elucidates how micro level efforts towards member development pay rich dividends. Further, this paper intends to build up a strong case for member development initiatives at the level of primary cooperatives and renders some concrete suggestions towards this end.

Methodology used: The study is exploratory in nature. Methods in the data collection are primary, secondary and field observation while the methods of data analysis are descriptive and statistical inferences: scaling technique, percentages, averages, chi-square, correlation and non-parametric statistics.

The study is confined to the primary cooperatives working in eight sectors in five different States in India. For the purpose of this study, multi stage stratified random sampling was used for selection of area, sectors and units. One office bearer, two members of Managing Committee members and five ordinary members were selected at random from each of the sample society taking into consideration the fair representation in terms of gender, literacy, age, occupation and location. Totally, 37 office bearers, 74 Committee members, 185 members form 37 units were selected for the interview. Two macro institutions that are functioning in the main stream of formal member education programmes at the State and District level were selected to analyse the initiatives practised at the macro level.

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Fauquet, G. (1951). The cooperative sector. Manchester(UK):Cooperative Union. Goel,B.B.(1981). Cooperative Member Education Programmes:Role of State Cooperative Unions in a Developing Country- A case study. NCDC Bulletin, XVI, 19-23.

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ICA (1995) Statement on Cooperative Identity. Geneva:ICA. International Joint Project on Cooperative Democracy (1995). Making membership meaningful: Participatory democracy in cooperatives. Saskatchewan: Centre for the study of cooperatives, University of Saskatchewan.

Myrdal, Gunnar.(1968). Asian Drama: An Inquiry into the Poverty of Nations. Volume I, London:The Penguin Press.

Krishnaswami, O.R. (1976). Democracy in Action. New Delhi: Somaiya Publication. Laidlaw, A.F. (1958). Extension work in the cooperative movement. Bombay: The Central Committee For Cooperative Training, RBI.

Mulani, J.M.(1993).Functioning of Co-operative Educators.The Maharashtra Cooperative Quarterly,LXXVI,148-164.

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------------------------------------------------------------------------ * Sudha K, Sr. Scale Lecturer in Commerce, Besant Women's College, Mangalore, India.

An abstract sent for paper presentation at the ISTR Sixth International Conference to be held at Toronto, Canada, July 2004.

Date received: September 30, 2003

Copyright © 2003 by the author(s). The author(s) of this document and the organizers of the conference have granted their consent to include this abstract in Atlas Conferences Inc. Document # caml-64.