World  cooperative movement
By Alok kumar Deb IAS (Retd)

Introduction
On a world-wide basis, modern cooperatives have developed for over 200 years. Cooperative institutions  exist all over the world providing essential services which would otherwise be unattainable.  In many Third World countries, cooperatives such as credit unions and agricultural organizations have been very successful in helping people to  provide for themselves where private and other corporate capitals do not see high profitability .  In  90 countries of the world, over 700 million individuals are members of cooperative institutions. Globally, cooperatives have been able to elevate its position as   a powerful economic model. In some countries they are a sizeable force within the national economy.

ORIGIN
Cooperative philosophy  though originated  with revolutionary characters in the writings and activities of Robert Owen , Louis Blanc, Charles Fourier , and others. but under the impact of such movements as Christian Socialism this aspect diminished. After some early 19th-century experiments, consumers' cooperation took permanent form with the establishment  of the Rochdale Society of Equitable Pioneers in England  in 1844

    The cooperative movement has had considerable growth throughout Great Britain and countries under its domain and through phases local cooperatives transformed into national wholesale and retail distributive enterprises with involvement of a large section of the population as members. of Cooperative organizations are also formed in the Scandinavian countries, Israel, China, Russia, and France. In the United States the cooperative movement began in the 19th century., first among workers and then among farmers. in 1867 the “National Grange”, a farmers' cooperative, was formed  and later  this institution exercised considerable political influence .

An international alliance for the dissemination of cooperative information was set up in 1895. Today the major types of cooperatives include those of farmers, wholesalers, and consumers, as well as insurance, banking and credit, and rural electrification . There has been increasing international collaboration among the various kinds of cooperatives and a growing trend toward the establishment of international cooperative distribution.

Cooperative movement in India
During the British rule , Nicholson a British Officer in India suggested to  introduce  Raiffersen model of German agricultural credit Cooperatives in India. As a follow-up of that recommendation, the first Cooperative Society Act of 1904 was enacted to enable formation of "agricultural credit cooperatives" in villages in India under Government sponsorship. With the enactment of 1904 Act, Cooperatives were to get a direct legal identity as every agricultural Cooperative was to be registered under that Act only. The 1904 Cooperative Societies Act, was repealed by 1912 Cooperative Societies Act which provided formation of Cooperative societies other than credit. Under 1919 Administrative Reforms act , Cooperatives was made a provincial subject making each province responsible for Cooperative development.

In 1942, the British Government enacted the Multi-Unit Cooperative Societies Act, 1942 with an object to cover societies whose operations are extended to more than one state. The impulses of the Indian freedom movement gave birth to many  intiatives and institutions in the post independence era in India and  armed with an experience of 42 years in the working of Multi Unit Cooperative Societies and the Multi-Unit Cooperative Societies Act, 1942, the Central Government enacted a comprehensive Act known as Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 1984, repealing the Act of 1942.
An  Expert Group constituted by the Govt of India in 1990 ,recommended  i) to facilitate building up of integrated co-operative structure; ii) to make the co-operative federation organisations responsive towards their members; iii) to minimise government interference and control in the functioning of co-operatives and iv) to eliminate politicisation.

India has  basically an agrarian economy, 71% of its total population reside in rural areas and 29% in urban areas. The rural people need lot of services in daily life which are met by village co-operative societies. The village co-operative societies provide strategic inputs for the agricultural sector, consumer societies meet their consumption requirements at concessional rates; marketing societies help the farmer to get remunerative prices and co-operative processing units help in value additions to the raw products etc. In addition, co-operative societies are helping in building up of storage go-downs including cold storages, rural roads and in providing facilities like irrigation, electricity, transport and health. Thus the co-operative societies in India in fact are playing multi-functional roles both in rural and urban areas.

Based on the recommendations, the central govt enacted the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act, 2002 which provided for democratic and autonomous working of the Cooperatives, which  came into force with effect from August 19, 2002. At present, the Government of India is in the process of formulation of National Policy on Co-operatives  which   is likely  to uphold the values and principles of co-operation  recognizing its autonomous characters and attaching priority to  professionalism , human resource development and  to act as preferred instrument for execution of public policy in rural areas and in sectors where they provide the most effective delivery system . To strengthen their competitive edge in the market total quality control initiatives, management initiatives and cost reduction initiatives will also be taken up. It is now increasingly recognised that the co-operative system in India has the capacity and potentiality to neutralise the adverse effects emerging from the process of globalisation and liberalization, and  continue to play an important role in employment promotion and poverty alleviation, both as production enterprises – mainly of the self-employed – and as providers of services to members Although cooperatives are not instruments of employment promotion, they do effectively create and maintain employment in both urban and rural areas and thus provide income to both members and employees in the form of shares of surplus, wages and salaries or profits depending of the type of cooperative

Developments in Europe Few Examples

 DENMARK
The first co-operative store was established in 1866, but in fact  in  1882  the first co-operative dairy was  established. This ushered in the start of the agricultural co-operative movement which by the time of the First World War had expanded to its fullest extent  in the shape of co-operative dairies and bacon factories, with production facilities, marketing undertakings  in the shape of co-operative egg and butter exports and purchasing organisations  like co-operative heavy goods undertakings. An important precondition for this development was the fact that Danish farmers and marginal holders owned their own land, for which reason the co-operative undertakings could be financed by joint liability on the part of the members. Within the co-operative movement the fundamental principle has been one man - one vote (vote entitlement was not decided by the number of cattle owned, which was prevalent in some other countries). There is no special legislation in Denmark governing the co-operative movement, but from its early days in the 1880s and right up to the present, the movement has developed on the basis of members' needs and the constant practical adaptation of the movement's fundamental principles to the demands of the day. Apart from the principle of one man one vote, which applies in primary production activities, i.e. where there is a question of personal membership, other characteristics of the movement are the open membership and the distribution of profit in relation to the individual member's volume of business with the undertaking. The co-operative movement in Denmark is felt to be an integral part of the community and business, which many  of them encounter either  as consumers (co-operative stores) or as producers (agriculture, market gardening and fishing). The  co-operative undertakings have for generations been seen as practical instruments for protecting of financial interests.

FINLAND
During its century-long history, the Finnish cooperative movement has played an important role in the development of society and national economy.
The cooperative enterprise, controlled by its members, has been particularly strong in agricultural production , dairies,and marketing, since most of the producers have been ­ and still are - small-scale farmers. It has been vital for them to join hands in their efforts to procure farm inputs and to market their produce.     More recently, the movement has also gained momentum in services such as children's day care and care of the elderly. Further evidence of the viability of the cooperative movement are the hundreds of new cooperatives being started every year in country.

PALESTINE
The roots of the cooperative movement in Palestine goes back to the year 1933, when the first Palestinian Cooperative Law was published. Tobacco growers and Citrus producers established the first cooperatives., Savings & credit cooperatives in the Palestinian countryside also existed then.
The Palestinian Cooperative Movement encountered different political conditions. As a grassroot socio-economic movement, the Palestinian Cooperative Movement remained voluntary and non-governmental owned and managed by its members based on cooperative values of democracy, social justice, equitable distribution of resources and opportunities.  Cooperative activity differs from one cooperative to another depending on members activity and dedication. New studies show that the number of active cooperatives in Palestine is around 400 cooperatives with more than fifty thousands members representing 300,000 families. This number indicates the importance of cooperatives as forming a vital economic sector in the Palestinian society.
Generally, at the end of the Second World War, consumer cooperatives were a major presence in most European countries. They could be found in almost every town and city. Most were still locally owned and controlled democratic institutions responsive to their local community Cooperatives in the modern sense have been around since the people of Rochdale, England founded their co-op in 1844. The consumer cooperatives of Europe were the first to organize group purchasing, wholesales, transportation networks, and a host of allied services, such as banking and insurance. While they were the only retailers doing it, the independent local co-ops were economically successful and they were growing. Fortunately for the cooperatives, it was not until after the Second World War that competition among retailers began to heat up. Chains were forming, wholesales being organized, supermarkets being built. For about 25 years, the co-ops stood and watched the competition take away their market share. The local cooperative societies, with their small corner shops on High Street, were no match for the big supermarkets sitting on cheap land on the outskirts of town.

MOVEMENT IN UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND CANADA
In Canada and the US, the roots of the cooperative movement  are  stuck to  the businesses  to figure prominently in their national economies. Rural electric co-ops, credit unions, and agricultural co-ops were formed to meet the needs of rural populations, , which did not attract investment or where goods and services were provided at unfair prices. In the early 20th century, cooperatives in these two countries began to see a need for national organizations. In the US, cooperatives organized the Cooperative League of the USA, which later became the National Cooperative Business Association (NCBA) which  provides networking, technical assistance, and development assistance.  It contributed for   effective lobbying at the national level for cooperatives.  It helped pass legislation which formed the National Cooperative Bank in 1978. Today, NCBA remains the premier cross-sectoral link among co-ops in the United States. Canada enjoys an even stronger network of cooperative support organizations. The Canadian Co-operative Association (CCA), , provides educational services to its member cooperatives and sponsors cooperative development in lesser-developed nations. The Co-operative Housing Federation of Canada provides technical assistance to developing and established co-ops throughout English-speaking Canada. Canadian cooperatives have also benefited from the support of the Canadian Mortgage and Housing Corporation .. The contemporary cooperative movement is strong and diverse there. Cooperatives exist all over both  the countries Some of the larger cooperatives have an annual income of several billion dollars. In addition to rural electric co-ops, credit unions, and agricultural co-ops, there are cooperatives to serve almost every need namely food co-ops, automotive co-ops, insurance co-ops, housing co-ops, book co-ops... and so on.

COOPERATIVE DEVELOPMENTS IN   ASIA

JAPAN
The Japanese cooperative movement today has 13 million members cooperative societies, which with over 50,000 employees. Over 5 million households participate regularly in nearly 1 million han groups. The number of han groups has doubled in the past five years.

The reasons for  success of the han approach

1. They reduce the need for high investment by not having to build or own stores. At least in the early stages, their capital investment went only into distribution centers and small delivery trucks.

2.They take advantage of computer technology to give people at home tremendous ease in ordering and communica-tion.

3. Centralized management and distribution centers are separated. The business side focuses on aggregating and using economic power, allowing participants at the han level to concentrate on member activity and democratic participation. Thus  the cooperatives offer economic advantages to their members as consumers, while at the same time providing the organizing advantages of decentralization to their members as citizen activists. The combination of the two elements is without doubt the most important example of a successful consumer cooperative to emerge in the 20th Century.
 
Thailand
Cooperatives in Thailand, like in all developing countries, have been initiated by the government since 1915 with the prime aim of using as a means to improve the livelihood of small farmers. This is due to the increasing indebtedness problem resulting from farmers who were suffering from the shifting of self-sufficient economy to trade economy. The natural disaster such as drought and flood even added further to create more chronic and severe indebtedness to the farmers. Consequently, they lost their farmland and becoming labourers and thus leaving their debts unpaid. The first cooperative in Thailand named Wat Chan Cooperative was established by the government on February 26, 1916, following the Raiffeisen credit cooperative type with a single purpose of providing farm credit and being organized as a small village credit cooperative to help the severely indebted farmers. The success of this cooperative type in preventing many farmers' land from being grabbed by the money-lenders led to the increasing number of small village credit cooperatives all over the country. The small credit cooperatives had prevailed in the country until 1983 other cooperative types then established in responding to the people's need First "Cooperative Bank" was set up  in 1947 with government funds. Village credit cooperatives were urged to increasingly hold share capital in the Bank with the hope that they would, in future, be owners of the Bank which was their own financing centre.  In 1952 and 1953, two provincial cooperative banks were also  established . The two provincial cooperative banks were serving their affiliates so well both in their credit needs and depositing surplus funds.  These were reorganized as credit cooperative federations , and further  reorganized as the “Bank for Agriculture and Agricultural Cooperatives”, , a state enterprise, functioning as a financial center of agricultural cooperatives including lending directly to individual farmers. In 1968 establishment of the Cooperative League of Thailand, functioning as the apex organization of the cooperative movement..

At present, the cooperatives in Thailand are officially categorized to six types, namely

1. Agricultural Cooperative;

2. Land Settlement Cooperative;

3. Fisheries Cooperative;

4. Consumer Cooperative;

5. Thrift and Credit Cooperative; and

6. Service Cooperative.

Kerala has gained a lot through the cooperative sector during the last five years. ASOUTH AMERICA

LATIN AMERICA:genesis of cooperative movement

The Brazilian Landless Workers Movement is the largest social movement in Latin America and one of the most successful grassroots movements in the world. Hundreds of thousands of landless peasants have taken onto themselves the task of carrying out a long-overdue land reform in a country mired by an overly skewed land distribution pattern. Less than 3% of the population owns two-thirds of Brazil's arable land.

While 60% of Brazil's farmland lies idle, 25 million peasants struggle to survive by working in

temporary agricultural jobs. The Landless Workers' Movement  is a response to these inequalities. In 1985, with the support of the Catholic Church, hundreds of landless rural Brazilians took over an unused plantation in the south of the country and successfully established a cooperative there. They gained title to the land in 1987. Today more than 250,000 families have won land titles to over 15 million acres.

 UNITED APPROACH

Consumer cooperative organizations in Europe, Israel and Japan recognized the growing global market and created Inter-Coop in 1971. The objective was to promote economic collaboration between the member organizations and thus to increase their competitive power. By the end of 1992, 18 central buying organizations from 16 countries were members of Inter-Coop.
Inter-Coop created a non-food buying group, which in 1992 accounted for joint purchases of more than seventy million dollars. During 1992, Inter-Coop signed agreements with 17 major European non-food suppliers.

The main headquarters of Inter-Coop are in Denmark with an office in Hong Kong
Due to the volume of purchases from Asia, Inter-Coop created a transportation system for the region that last year shipped 6,500 containers to Inter-Coop member organizations.
Though THE COPERATIVE MOVEMENT IN THE 21^ST CENTURY IS A CHALLENGE in India  IN VIEW OF THE ECONOMIC REFORMS PROCEDURE ALONG WITH THE STIFF MARKET COMPETETIONs, the essence of the autonomous character lies in the root of democratic philosophy and this independence will allow it to grow further  for the well being of the members . The sovereignity of nations are helping  to strengthen the independence of the national cooperative movements One of the great and yet unsolved dilemmas facing cooperatives today is how to maintain sustainability as a locally controlled independent economic unit in a competitive market dominated by larger and larger players who have neither respect nor interest in community or national borders

 Recommendations made in 2000  by UNITED NATIONS  on cooperative and social developments

1.Urge Governments to adopt the revised draft guidelines aimed at creating a supportiveenvironment for the development of cooperatives and    keep under review the legal, judicial and administrative provisions governing the activities of cooperatives, with a view to ensuring     a supportive environment in   which cooperatives can participate on an equal footingwith other forms of enterprise, protecting and  advancing the potential of cooperatives to help members achieve their individual goals and to contribute to society’s broader aspirations;
2. Invite Governments, in collaboration with the cooperative movement, to develop programmes topromote professional cooperative value-based management and to create or improve   statisticaldatabases on cooperative development and the contribution of cooperative enterprises to nationaleconomies;

3. Invite relevant specialized agencies, national and international cooperative     organizations, incollaboration with Governments, as appropriate, to   provide technical           assistance    and promote an exchangeof experience, through the organization of conferences,workshops and seminars at the national, subregional and regional levels;

4. Request United Nations agencies that are members of the Committee for the Promotion and Advancement of Cooperatives (COPAC) to increase their support to the Committee, with a view to broadening its activities, and to encourage other United Nations agencies to join COPAC so as to further strengthen its capacity to address cooperative issues.

In conclusion
The following letter  found from a website  (sardee@evoserve.com Mon, 24 Nov 1997  is reproduced to finally write the state of affairs more or less going in  all the countries  in Asia“When I visited very successful Japanese university coops last month, I asked them if they taught their members the coop principles and values.They said no. The coop manager and members of the student committee themselves did not really know what the coop principles and values were.But the thing is, they were practicing the values and principles in daily life even though they did not know that they were practicing them.I think organizations which call themselves coops but do not practice the coop values and principles ARE NOT and SHOULD NOT be called cooperatives. Maybe they are just running a business where they want to get tax breaks or other benefits that coops get. But I also think these organizations (most of them anyway) will not be successful. They will die and disappear. Unfortunately, they give the REAL and HARDWORKING coops a very bad name.

Saidee Singson
Univ of the Philippines
Students Multip-purpose Cooperative”