By Dr Sudhir Mahajan, Chief Executive, NCUI
As a major initiative for popularizing cooperative model amongst all sections of the society through display/sale of unique cooperative products, National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) being an apex organization of the cooperative movement is involved in active preparations for setting up a Cooperative Craft Centre (NCUI Haat) at its headquarters premises in New Delhi.
NCUI Haat, unique of its type, which will be inaugurated on 16th August, 2021, will host all the year-round exhibition of products of cooperatives/SHGs all over the country. This initiative is based on a strong conviction that there is a need to showcase the products of lesser known coops/SHGs at the national level though an exhibition, which can not only offer good markets for such products, but also encourage them to undertake skill up-gradation so as to come up with innovative products of all types.
Many of the cooperatives, more particularly of women as well as SHGs, face a lot of problems of marketing, as they are not getting right price of their produce because they are exploited by the middlemen. The vision of Coop Haat is to make sincere efforts to fulfil the business aspirations of cooperatives which have low visibility, and highlight their immense business potential so as to bring them into the cooperative mainstream which can not only open new gateways for their growth and development, but also build up in general the image of the cooperative movement.
This will also be a humble step in boosting the morale of such cooperatives, and empowering them in a true cooperative spirit. NCUI Haat also promises to be an effective platform for communicating the business strength of cooperative model to the youth, who are generally not aware of the good work of cooperatives.
With more than eight lakh cooperatives covering all areas of socio-economic activities, with 90% coverage in the villages, the cooperative movement in India is the largest in the world. While dairy cooperatives have ushered in milk revolution in the country, and Amul as a renowned cooperative milk brand has earned global fame, the fertilizer cooperatives like IFFCO and KRIBHCO have also gained world-wide recognition in production, distribution and marketing of fertilizers. The primary level cooperatives like Uralungul Labour Contract Cooperative Society, Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank, and many others have strengthened the cooperative movement at the grass-root levels in the rural areas.
Despite commendable growth of the cooperative movement in all areas of socio-economic activities, and their business diversification in new areas, there are many smaller level cooperatives/primary agriculture cooperatives/SHGs in the country who due to poor support mechanisms, have failed to compete in the market economy despite having value-added products. Because of their poor marketing and weak communication strategies, these cooperatives are far from spotlight of attention, and their success stories are not highlighted due to which such cooperatives feel de-motivated to expand their business. Against this backdrop, NCUI’s initiative in setting up NCUI Haat is indeed timely.
A calendar of events has been prepared for NCUI Haat under which the cooperative organizations/SHGS of all states will be given exposure to display their wide-ranging products over the year. Initially, six states have been picked up, and over a period of time more states will join to exhibit their cooperative products at NCUI Haat.
The products of SHGs under NCUI Cooperative Education Field Projects will also get an opportunity to exhibit their products at NCUI Haat. Around 3600 SHGs have been formed till date which are working under the supervision of 41 Cooperative Education Field Projects across India. The projects help in enhancing the earning capacity of members of SHGs, and also provide them hand-holding support so that they convert themselves into successful cooperative societies.
The NCUI Cooperative Education Field project officials are upbeat that now they have an opportunity to sell their products at the national level, which they feel is a recognition of their hard work and toil in motivating the deprived sections of the society in the rural areas to come up with products which can be a good source for their income generation.
In recent years, the products of SHGs under NCUI Cooperative Education Field Projects have become popular like namkeen, besan, spices, mushroom, honey, artificial jewellery, toran(home decorative item in Gujarat), handicraft products of varied types, etc. These products now get a chance to expand their horizons from a localized concentration to national level with many possibilities of multitude of new avenues opening for them.
NCUI has allotted adequate budget for skill up-gradation of the SHG members under the educational field projects. The SHGs members need training to learn new skills for improving the design and quality of their products, competitive pricing and accessing digital marketing platform so as to reach out to a large segment of national and international buyers. With the opening of NCUI Haat at its headquarters premises, the avenues of collaborations with reputed design and digital organizations will open up so that the products made by SHG members get a major face-lift in terms of quality and value.
In the recent months, besides taking steps for opening of NCUI Haat under new initiatives, NCUI is also involved in preparing ground work for undertaking a major project related to assessing share of cooperatives in GDP of the country, an important issue which has been neglected till date, and due to which there is no clarity regarding the contributions of cooperatives to the national economy.
Besides this, NCUI is actively involved in forging collaborations with skill development organizations so that the new Skill Development Centre recently inaugurated at Noida campus becomes operational to serve as a centre of excellence for skill-based training in the cooperative sector. NCUI has also recently taken timely steps to take a lead in sensitizing all cooperative organizations to take active steps for strengthening their social media platforms for image-building of the cooperative movement.
In the end, I appeal to all of you to visit NCUI Haat Centre, buy cooperative products and experience the uniqueness and difference of cooperative products.