Case-gujarat State Cooperative Union

The Gujarat State Cooperative Union, Ahmedabad How it came about Gujarat is one of the most cooperatively advanced states in India. This was the State which made India self sufficient in milk and milk production through dairy cooperative movement. After bifurcation of the then Bombay state in the year 1960 into Gujarat and Maharashtra, it was a felt need to have an organisation, which can play pivotal role in cooperative propaganda, member education and strengthening of cooperative movement in the state. Therefore, the Union was formed in 1960 to provide cooperative education, training, publicity, information and guide various cooperatives in the state. It acts as a federation of 19 District Cooperative Unions. What it does The Gujarat State Coop. Union (GSCU) has lot of activities to perform for cooperative movement in the State, like imparting member's education about important aspects of cooperative movement, facilitating opinion formation

Facts & Figures Organisation type - Federation of District level Unions Legal Form - Registered under Gujarat Coop. Societies Act Date established - 19th April 1960 Location - Ahmedabad (Gujarat) No.of Members - It is an Apex Federation of 19 district level Cooperative Unions Main Functions - Cooperative Training Education, Research, Development & Publicity

____________________ Case study prepared by Prof. Paramjit Sharma, VAMNICOM, Pune

about cooperative and representing cooperative movement to promote research regarding problems and prospects for cooperatives, publish propaganda materials for cooperatives and conduct training programmes for employees & board members at its six training centres in the state. GSCU shares responsibility with NCCT for training middle level executives at Udaybhansinghji Regional Institute of Cooperative Management at Gandhinagar. URICM has been organising, annually, more than 60 need based training programmes on various subjects and sectors along with a 24 weeks Higher Diploma Course in Cooperation. 50% of its budget is met by GSCU. The Union has also been organising training programmes for primary societies at its five training centres located at Nadiad, Mehsana, Surat, Bhavnagar and Rajkot. All the five Centres have been organising at least two sessions of 24 weeks Diploma in Cooperation besides organising Programmes on Auditing, Banking, Dairy etc., and other relevant subjects required by the primaries. The general health of these institutions need to be taken care of including the selection of the faculty who are either on extension or their services were hired after their retirement.

For member education, the GSCU is taking help of 38 male Cooperative Education Instructors who are working in 19 districts. They are constantly organising education programmes for members, board members and employees at taluka/village level. They also organise camps for the public to make them aware of the contribution of cooperative sector in the rural economy of the State. Union organises special programmers for women through 19 Female Cooperative Education Instructors posted in each of 19 districts. GSCU has been allotted two field Education Projects by National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI). These projects are located at Ahmedabad (Rural) and Surendranagar. Each project comprises of a Project Officer, 3 Education Instructors, one Lady Cooperative Education Instructor and one Farm Guidance Instructor. The projects concentrate on all sided development of selected PACS. GSCU undertakes different activities to popularise the achieve-ments of cooperative movement among the general public at large. It publishes weekly Sahakar and monthly magazine Gram Swaraj to project cooperative movement in the State. Both the magazines contain news, articles and other related information about cooperatives in the state. Centenary Celebration GSCU has taken a lead in the State for the celebration of Centenary year (1904-2004) in India. Lot of efforts were made by the Union in

celebrating centenary year. Almost all cooperatives organisations were involved in the celebration and lot of publicity materials have been used in this event. Series of statements/slogans made by eminent personalities like Mahatma Gandhi, Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel, Vaikunth Bhai Mehta etc., were exclusively displayed on the banners, which were placed at important locations in the State. Some significant Cooperatives like Amul (GCMF), Bardoli Sugar (Largest Cooperative in India), KRIBHCO, IFFCO, etc., along with their activities & performance were projected during the celebration. A Souvenir on this occasion was also brought out where along with the contributions of cooperative movement in the state, eminent personalities contributed their thoughts and articles in this Souvenir. Governance Structure All 19 district level Unions are members of GSCU. Besides, district level unions, district level banks, central financing agencies, the area of operation of which is not less than a district, apex level societies, and certain other types of societies could become members of the Union. By the end of 20042005, there were 265 members of the GSCU, which included 19 district cooperative unions, 9 state level Cooperative Institutions, 15 District Central Cooperative Banks, 33 District level Cooperative Societies and 189 other types of cooperative societies. The Board of the GSCU comprises of 27 members, drawn from all 19 District

Unions, State level Cooperative Institution, two persons of district level cooperative banks, 2 persons from dairy union and a representative of Urban Banks and PACS. The board meets at least once in a quarter. The other activities are taken care of by subcommittees like Education Committee, publication committee, staff committee, shield committee, women cooperative education committee. Surprisingly these sub-committees meet only twice in a year which appears to be quite unreasonable by any standard. The board members are paid sitting fee, daily allowance and travel expenses for attending the meeting of their respective committees. The performance of the board members is evaluated by the Chairman, Vice Chairman and Secretary though there is no formal process at place for such evaluation. The GSCU organises at least once in three years a Seminar on some current topic where 4-5 thousand delegates from state level, district level and block level cooperatives participate. The last such Seminar was organised in 2001. The next Seminar was slotted in the year 2004, but instead Union decided to use the occasion for Centenary Celebration. The Union has also shown concern for the community, when it constituted 15 teams for providing relief during earthquake at Kutch and Bhuj. All the district unions, supported the move not only in providing manpower, but also in collection of funds. The Board and subcommittees of the board, do not meet too frequently, as

the Union is not into a business but only provide training and education to cooperatives. The Chairman is Ahmedabad based, therefore, he visits Union quite frequently and takes care in implementing decisions taken during the board and sub committee meetings. Regular activities are performed by Chief Executive along with other supportive staff. The Union has constructed a seven storeyed building in the seventies, which has housed training hall, conference room, library besides the general office occupied by the staff. The general maintenance, upkeep and quality of house keeping reflects the quality of governance at the Union. GSCU takes special care in organising training programmes for its board members. They assess their training needs at district level and state level and provide training at Udaibhansinghji Institute of Management, Gandhinagar, Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Coop. Management, Pune and National Institute for Cooperative Education, New Delhi. In the past the Chairman and more than half of their board members have attended training of national and international importance. The Union is well represented at the national level as the Chairman of the Union is also member of the board of National Cooperative Union of India, National Film and Fine Arts Cooperative, Indian Adult Education Society, Indian Farmers Fertiliser Cooperative Ltd., Indian Society for Studies in Cooperation. Similarly, the representatives from all tiers

of Cooperatives in Gujarat are part of board of the GSCU. To coordinate the represent-ation of the cooperative movement within Government a Gujarat State Cooperative Council has been formed, which meets at least once in a month. The Chairman, GSCU is the member of that Council. During the meetings, issues concerning development of cooperative movement in the state, impediments against development and sectoral progress is discussed. In the past, many issues of state importance and their impact on cooperatives have been resolved. Measures of Success The main function and activities of GSCU are training and education to employees and members of Cooperatives in Gujarat. It is assisting five training centres located at Nadiad, Mehsana, Surat, Bhavnagar and Rajkot, which are quite less in number considering the number of district level unions, which are 19 in total. Gujarat has attracted more

than 1 crore 25 lakhs members in cooperatives. It may be difficult to educate the large number of members through five centres and 57 instructors, including lady instructors, which have been placed in 19 districts for member education. By any standards, Gujarat has one of the best Cooperatives in dairy, sugar, urban banking and primary credit coops. Though NDDB & Gujarat Coop. Milk Marketing Federation have been taking care for the education of dairy cooperatives, but for rest of the sector it may be having quite inadequate force to educate such a large number of members about cooperative philosophy and other business intricacies. But considering the statistical figures of training programmes of Udaibhansinghji Institute, training programmes at five training centres, Cooperative Education & Training Programmes conducted by District Cooperative Unions, Cooperative Education Instructors, Education & training programmes under Women Coop. Education Scheme, it looks quite impressive though inadequate. For instance, all the district level Unions, Women Cooperative Instructors who are directly in touch with the members could educate only thirty thousand males and forty thousand females, put together. Whereas the total membership strength in Gujarat exceeds more than 2 crores. Future Perspective GSCU represents 19 district level Federations but it has only five training centres at

present. Therefore, the Union should make a plan to have a separate training centre for each district, where training programmes on dairy, banking, credit, auditing,accounts, computerisation etc., can be organised and awareness education programmes for members could also be strengthened to meet the compelling demand. The faculty deployed in these centres are either retired persons or quite fresh in cooperatives. Though Union has been sending these trainers on training to VAMNICOM and other training centres, but trainers are not sufficiently equipped to handle adult training. If recruitment of permanent faculty is a problem then these Centers can prepare a panel of trainers who could be invited to cover the areas for which permanent faculty is not available. Lot of space at seven storeyed building of the Union is remaining unutilised. Union, instead can use this space in organising some value based programme for these district level unions or generate resources by organising programmes for Dairy Cooperatives or Urban Banks. GSCU plans to become number one Union in India in terms of their programmes for education, training, publicity & development in the state. It has resources and infrastructure to do that. The Union can hire some one from outside to prepare a perspective plan, which can guide the Union towards achieving their goal.