Governor of Telangana Smt. Tamilisai Soundarajan recently inaugurated the Regional Excellence Award function for the best women cooperatives. The event was held in Chennai to mark the 88th Birth Anniversary of the legendary cooperator and social worker Dr Jaya Arunachalam.
Nearly 3000 poor women entrepreneurs from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Andhra, and Telangana attended the function. The Adiramapattinam cooperative (Tanjore) of the WWF – ICNW with the fisher women members of the Indian Cooperative Network for Women won the Tamil Nadu award for Regional Excellence Award for the best women cooperatives in South India.
Speaking on the occasion, Dr Nandini Azad President of WWF-ICNW said even in a vulnerable situation like Gaja Cyclone (no food, water, electricity) the fisher members were honest and asked for rescheduling and repayment of loans on time but no loan waiver. With 98% repayment, the ICNW did not face any problem of NPA, she added.
Four awards were given including the Best Cooperative award to best cooperative to Chennai (North and South, Chennai). In Karnataka the Bellary cooperative branch won the award for its early rehabilitation of Devadasi while the Telangana, Hyderabad branch was awarded for disbursing maximum loans. The Andhra branch was awarded 
President, WWF-ICNW and the Chairperson of the International Cooperative Alliance- Asia Pacific Women’s Committee Dr Nandini Azad welcomed the gathering by highlighted the role of poor women co-operators in the informal sector. She made a special mention of it that WWF’s sister concern ICNW works to enhance the social/financial independence of poor women, providing low interest loans and encouraging women’s entrepreneurship and growth.
In her remarks on the occasion, R.Lakshmipathy, Chairman, Dinamalar group said Dr.Jaya Arunachalam was a woman who sacrificed her life for the betterment of poor women for forty years from 1978 to 2019. She spent her life addressing women’s issues and worked hard to improve their quality of life. The vision of Dr Jaya Arunachalam was to make the poor working women stand on their own feet in their life, she underlined.
N.Ravi, Chairman, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan (Publisher of The Hindu) called Dr Jaya Arunachalam a remarkable worker. He appreciated Nandini Azad for following in her mother’s footsteps and ensuring an effective management, academic vigour and research for loan allocation. He mentioned that the WWF-ICNW is doing a commendable job. He also congratulated the awardees for their dynamism, leadership and efficiency.
In her closing remarks the governor congratulated the awardees and called upon the hard-working poor women to look after themselves and focus on their health issues. She also admired the working of the WWF’ and its invaluable services to the weaker sections of society.
The event was widely covered by the local and southern media.
