National Workshop demands Separate Fund for women co-ops at NCDC

SEWA cooperative federation kicked off a two-day national workshop in collaboration with NCUI and ICA Asia Pacific on empowering women co-operatives at NCUI headquarters on Tuesday. More than 100 women co-operators from 20 states attended the event, in which the issue of inordinate delay in registering co-ops compared to companies figured prominently.

The issue of financial assistance to women co-ops was also raised with one of the participants demanding that the National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) should create a separate fund for women co-ops. Titled ‘Strengthening Solidarity: Enabling Women’s Cooperatives and Collective Enterprises to Thrive”, the workshop is focussing on helping women find means of livelihood through cooperatives.

Sewa Bharat President and Padma Shri Awardee Renana Jhabvala said registration of co-ops is a herculean task for us and it is a time taking process. “The registration of women co-op under the cooperative act is becoming a big challenge and it takes more than 1.5 years after applying. If we register under the company act, it hardly takes one month. So, there is a need to look at the matter and make the process easy”. She also demanded that National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) should create a separate fund for women co-ops

NCUI President Dileepbhai Sanghani inaugurated the first day of the workshop. ICA-AP President Dr Chandra Pal Singh, ICA-AP Regional Director Balu Iyer, NCUI CE Sudhir Mahajan, Deputy CE Savitri Singh, Sewa Co-op Federation President Mirai Chatterjee, Sewa Bharat Renana Jhabvala and other eminent women co-operators were present on the occasion.

The committee room on the 2nd floor of NCUI’s sprawling headquarters was packed with women cooperators, who had travelled long distances to become a part of the event. In his welcome speech, NCUI President Dileep Sanghani stressed on increasing the participation of women in the cooperative movement of the country. “NCUI’s education wing NCCE is playing an important role in strengthening the women co-ops by organizing different training programs”, he added.

“NCUI has given a platform to women co-ops by launching the NCUI Haat at its premises to showcase and sell their products. Besides, women co-ops are also giving priority to purchase the item from GeM portal”, Sanghani underlined who rushed to attend the IFFCO board meeting soon after delivering his speech.

Addressing the women cooperators, ICA-AP President and Kribhco Chairman Chandra Pal Singh Yadav said, “The women associated with co-ops can play an important role in nation building and they can bring revolution in the cooperative sector. The participation of women on the board of co-ops should not only be limited to grabbing the seats of reserved category; they should come forward and fight elections”, he said.

“GOI has launched several schemes for empowering the women of the country but these schemes are not reaching the beneficiaries due to lack of awareness. In this regard women co-ops can take the lead by giving schemes’ benefits to their members”, Singh noted.

He added, “Union Ministry of Cooperation constituted a committee to draft a new national cooperation policy document. Before drafting, the members of the committee should think about the role of women co-ops and their participation in the cooperative sector”.

Besides, Ms Sangeeta Gamit, farmer and board member shared her experience of the cooperative sector and apprised the participants of work done by them during the corona pandemic in the interest of women. Whereas, in his speech Ms. Geeta from Delhi Credit Cooperative informed how her co-operative is helping women and strengthening them.

On this occasion, ICA-AP President Chandra Pal Singh inaugurated a Women Cooperatives’ Bazaar in NCUI.