Cooperative leaders from Union Ministers to NCUI President to IFFCO MD all of them have greeted women cooperators on the occasion of International Women’s Day reiterating their commitment to help them have pride of place in the cooperative world.
Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister interacted with rural women of Self Help Groups on DD Kisan Live TV program to mark the International Women’s Day. Tomar said India cannot emerge as a developed economy in the comity of nations without participation of women.
IFFCO MD Dr U S Awasthi tweeted, “My Best Wishes of International #WomensDay to every women. They are the strength & inspiration. Specially, our #WomenInAgriculture who grow food for the world silently. Let’s empower them & make a better Society. #IWD2020 #HappyWomensDay2020 #NewIndia4NariShakti @icacoop”.
It bears recall that IFFCO is among the few co-op organizations that has reserved Board seats for women. In the recently concluded election, Sadhana Jhadav was elected to its board from Maharashtra.
Talking to Indian Cooperative NCUI President Dr Chandra Pal SinghYadav said the cooperative movement can never succeed unless women are made equal partners in it. “NCUI is eager that 97th CAA be implemented sooner than later which talks of women reservation in co-op boards”, he added.
Addressing a live TV program on DD Kisan on Women’s Empowerment to mark the International Women’s Day here today, he said the Prime Minister Shri Narendra Modi’s mission of a New India can become a reality only with the active participation of women, who constitute half of the population, in the economy.
Tomar said the Women’s Self Help Groups (SHGs) are the backbone of poverty alleviation programs and the entire focus of Department of Agriculture, Cooperation & Farmers’ Welfare and Departments of Rural Development and Panchayati Raj is on increasing women’s emancipation.
Indian Cooperative movement indeed has several women who are spearheading the movement in their own way. A few names such as SEWA’s Ela Bhatt, WWF’s Nandini Azad, Surekha Khot, Sadhana Jadhav, Arti Bisaria, SEWA’s Mirai Chatterjee, Alka Srivastava etc immediately come to mind.
One can also not forget the contributions of Padmashree Jaya Arunachalam who passed away last year but not before igniting a powerful cooperative movement in the southern states. She single handed established a huge network of micro financing entities in the southern states of Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra.
Arunachalam organized a grassroots trade union of working class women in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The unionized women are vendors and hawkers, other service specialists, fisherwomen, landless women, lace makers, beedi rollers, silk Weavers, agarbathi workers, embroidery workers, and engaged in several other activities.
It also goes to the credit of Biscomaun Chairman Dr Sunil Kumar Singh, who took pains to invite several prominent women cooperators recently in Patna on the occasion of a mega co-op conference which was addressed by state Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. “Such gathering of women cooperators at one place is rather a rare sight”, quipped an onlooker.
There are hundreds of unheard and unknown women cooperators who are working quietly in the backwaters for their families and societies. Indian Cooperative wishes all of them on the International Women’s Day.
