Dr. Nandini Azad, who was in race for the Women Committee of ICA-AP as reported earlier in these columns, brought laurels to Indian cooperative movement by getting elected with a comfortable margin in an election that took place in Malaysia on Friday.
Ms Azad beat her rival by polling more than 70 per cent of the votes. Her rival, Ms. Antolina Ravina Durias, from VICTO, Philippines could neither match Nandini’s appeal and nor her clout at the international cooperative forum, claimed her associates.
The election also saw Ms.Chitose Arai from the Japanese Consumer Co-operative Union (JCCU) getting elected as the Vice-Chairperson of ICA-AP Women’s Committee. Women Committee thus has Chairperson and Vice-Chairperson from India and Japan respectively.
NCUI President Dr Chandra Pal Singh expressed his happiness at Ms Azad’s victory. “It’s a matter of pride for the Indian Cooperative movement”, said Chandra Pal talking to Indian Cooperative. It bears recall that Nandini was nominated by the apex co-op body NCUI.
President of the Indian Co-operative Network for Women (ICNW) and Working Women’s Forum, Nandini had been making news these days. Earlier, she grabbed headlines when she was elected to the board of the International Raiffeisen Union based in Koblenz in Germany.
Soon after her victory Nandini sent a mail to Indian Cooperative “Elections were also held for Office Bearers of the ICA-AP Women’s Committee. I have been elected Chairperson with 70% votes against Ms. Antolina Ravina 
Durias, from VICTO, Philippines”.
ICA-AP twitter handle also congratulated and wrote, “Day 1 of the Workshop on Data for gender equality. Organised by the Committee on Women, @JCCU_Int & ANGKASA! The Committee held its elections today & our new Chair is Dr. Nandini Azad & Vice Chair is Ms. Chitose Arai! Congratulations to both of them! Photo credit: @ANGKASACoop”.
ICNW, of which she is the President- is a multi-State cooperative operating in Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. With over 6 lakh women beneficiaries involved in 276 trades in the informal sector, the ICNW promotes “new age cooperatives of grass-roots women”.
