JOIN USPresident Pratibha Patil on Wednesday called for greater participation of women and youths in co-operative sector.
“Setting up of women cooperatives will be useful in many ways since these would be better acquainted with the requirements of women and can become instruments of their economic betterment,” Patil said in her speech at the inauguration of an international co-operative conference here.
The conference was organised by Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Limited (IFFCO) coinciding with the UN International Year of Cooperatives.
Patil said education institutions should hold courses on cooperatives so that youth can develop an understanding and appreciation of the co-operative movement. Highlighting importance of cooperative, she said over one billion people globally are members of one cooperative or another.
In India alone there are over 249 million members of about six lakh cooperative societies in a range of agricultural activities such as credit, fertilisers, production, processing as well as housing, dairying and textiles sectors, she added.
Addressing the conference Agriculture Minister Shard Pawar said that to ensure good governance in India’s co-operative sector, there is an urgent need to revamp co-operatives as autonomous and professional bodies to achieve inclusive economic development.