Sahkar Bharati addressing challenges of co-op sector

The last century has been one of drastic reforms in all social walks of life in India. Among those reforms one of the salient and beneficial movements has been the co-operative movement. It was very conducive to the natural Indian ethos. Formally introduced as a Cooperative Society Act of 1904 by British rule, the co-operative movement has grown by leaps and bounds in every state. According to an estimate there are at present 5.04 lakh cooperative societies of different type with a membership of 22 crore, covering 100 percent villages and 67 percent rural households.

On the background of globalization or liberalization the transition in economy has thrown a whole lot of challenges to the cooperative sector. ‘Sahakar Bharati’, the RSS-inspired initiative in the co-operatives field since 1978, is trying to address these challenges.

Spanning from urban cooperative banks to agro co-operatives, ‘Sahakar Bharati’ has created a strong platform for all co-operatives, big or small. More than 40,000 self help groups operate under the initiative of Sahakar Bharati. Last year, Sahakar Bharati organized fairs for the products of co-operative societies at 24 places where thousands of people visited. One of the weak points of co-operative movement is lack of training of social workers active in co-operatives about various laws, technical issues, marketing etc. Last year Sahakar Bharati organized training programs for co-operatives activists at 34 places.

The program arranged for credit co-operative societies in Goa was first ever of this kind at all India level. “It was a total success. 2500 delegates from more than 750 credit co-operative societies attended the three-day training program. What is more remarkable is that the delegates attended all sessions in total seriousness and at their own expenses of travel, lodging and training fees.” Satish Marathe, the national president of Sahakar Bharati told newsbharati. The importance is underlined by the fact that along with Ministers Manohar Parrikar and Nitin gadakari, many senior bureaucrats attended and addressed the seminar including the chairman of Central Board of Direct Taxes [CBDT].

Satish Marathe addressing Press conference

Recently a Sahakar Bharati delegation called on Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley and raised various issues pertaining to the urban co-operative banks. Satish Marathe, Jyotindra Mehta, Chairman of Gujarat Urban Banks Federation and some other important delegates presented vital demands like complete withdrawal of Income Tax levied on Urban Co Op Banks (UCBs) by the UPA Govt. ever since it was imposed in 2007, participation of UCBs in ‘Jan Dhan Yojana’ and ‘Sukanya Samridhi Account’ etc.

In the Pratinidhi Sabha, the re-elected Sarkaryavah Bhayyaji Joshi announced emphasis on village development activities. There is no doubt that Sahakar Bharati is going to be one of the vital saffron initiatives in this regard.