Greening India Through Cooperatives : Daily Current Affairs

Relevance: GS-2: Development processes and the development industry- the role of NGOs, SHGs, various groups and associations, institutional and other stakeholders.

Key Phrases: Cooperatives, Water conservation, Waste management, Solar energy, Sustainable Development, SDG 13, Forestry Development, Self Employed Women’s Association’s, Climate change, Environmental degradation.

Why in News?

  • Cooperatives have shown the way in water conservation, waste management and solar energy.

Context:

  • Be it climate change adaptation or mitigation, cooperatives have set the agenda to collectively provide solutions to the
    • Looming impact of rising temperature
    • Loss of jobs
    • Depletion of water resources
    • Degradation of land and forest resources
    • Accumulation of wastes leading to health hazards.
  • The explicit adoption of eco-social agendas by cooperatives is contributing to co-op viability and vitality, providing a basis for positive differentiation and for stronger ties to important constituencies, stakeholders, and strategic allies.

Cooperative Societies

  • 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 enterprise".
  • The 97th Constitutional Amendment Act of 2011 gave constitutional status and protection to Cooperative societies.
  • In this context, it made the following three changes in the constitution:
    • It made the right to form cooperative societies a fundamental right (Article 19).
    • It included a new Directive Principle of State Policy on the promotion of cooperative societies (Article 43-B).
    • It added a new Part IX-B in the Constitution which is entitled "The Cooperative Societies" (Articles 243-ZH to 243-ZT).

Cooperatives’ Role in Sustainable Development:

  • Cooperatives have provided alternative sources of clean water for metropolitan communities and are helping to accomplish sustainable goals of energy access, energy efficiency, and reduced emissions. In many regions of the world, they are also leading the way in the use of new and renewable energies such as solar and wind power.
  • Cooperatives contribute to the sustainable management of natural resources in a number of ways. These include ensuring that natural resources are not depleted and providing a forum for local people to find information on environmental change by defining their property and user rights, preserving natural resources, and diversifying their economic activities to include green economic ventures.
  • Apex organisations like AMUL, IFFCO, and NAFED have diversified into organic farming by supporting the cooperatives for production certification, adherence to food safety and linking to the market-driven value chains. The initiatives of this kind have made cooperatives oriented towards natural and organic farming and are all set to cater to the demand for organic produce.

Some Case Studies of Cooperatives

  • Dhundi village in the Kheda district of Gujarat had formed the world’s first solar irrigation cooperative as Dhundi Saur Urja Utpadak Sahakari Mandali (DSUUSM) in 2016. The solar energy provides power to
    • run irrigation pumps
    • water for farms, cattle, homes
    • Income by selling the surplus energy to the grids.
  • The members of this cooperative society are solar entrepreneurs who are harvesting solar energy. This has enabled them to reap a better harvest and they are connected to grid for additional income. Cooperatives like DSUUSM in India have meaningful action for attaining SDG 13 on climate change and renewable energy.
  • Satara water cooperative CORO in Maharashtra is working to bring relief to water-parched village Panvan by rejuvenating wells and improving the water level. Women have taken a leadership role in conserving water, 90 women from 10 talukas have implemented the water school (Panni Shala), which provides training to the community to resolve the water crisis collectively and adopt water conservation.
  • Indian Farm Forestry Development Co-operative (India), the umbrella co-operative, is turning wasteland back into forest in three north-central States of India, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
  • Swachh is India’s first wholly-owned cooperative of self-employed waste collectors and other urban poor in Pune. It is an autonomous enterprise with a vision to be a society that is socially just, economically equitable, culturally plural, politically democratic, environmentally sustainable, peaceful and humane. The cooperative has been collecting waste, creating awareness, and segregating and composting it.
  • Self Employed Women’s Association’s (SEWA’s) interventions in regard to the environment, climate, water, clean energy, and spreading awareness are apt in the current times and support our national goals to be achieved by 2030.

Challenges to Cooperative Societies:

  • Lack of spontaneity: Co-operative movement in India lacks spontaneity in the sense that it has not been emanated from the people themselves. They usually do not come forward to organize co-operatives on their own accord.
  • Lack of funds: The cooperatives have resource constraints as their owned funds hardly make a sizeable portfolio of the working capital. With weak owned fund base, the borrowings of the cooperatives from the central financing agency are considerably conditioned. This has stood in the way of adequately meeting the credit requirements of the existing as well as new members.
  • Regional disparities: There have been good deals of regional disparities pertaining to credit availability. The picture of credit availability in the Eastern states, tribal and hilly regions is simply dismal. Consequently, the farmers in these regions farm technology.
  • Lack of cooperation on the part of the people: In the Indian context, most of the people are in the grip of illiteracy, ignorance and conservatism. They do not understand the significance of cooperation in their lives.Absence of willing cooperation on their part hinders the growth of cooperative movement.
  • Defective management: The cooperative credit structure is criticised on the ground that it is mostly managed by landlords and large farmers. Hence small and medium farmers do not get their fair share. They are often deprived of the assistance from the co-operative society.

Way Forward:

  • The potential and value of cooperatives’ contribution to the design and realisation of environmental sustainability appear to have been overlooked by policymakers at various levels due to their lack of visibility.
  • Cooperatives should concentrate their efforts on the goals and objectives to which they are most suited. They should do so by bringing their most significant competitive advantage to the table, namely their dual status as associations and enterprises, as well as the complementarity of their triple roles: economic, social, and societal.
  • There is a need for enhanced capabilities amongst the cooperative members to understand the pervasive impact of climate change and environmental degradation. Reaching out to cooperatives for raising awareness about environmental problems, training on adaptation and mitigation, forging alliances to work together, investing in cooperative enterprises and innovations are required to have a green agenda for a sustainable future.

Source: The Hindu BL

Mains Question:

Q. Discuss the role of Cooperatives in Sustainable Development: of India? Illustrate with Examples.