Samir Kumar Biswas :
[This is the second part of the article]
The Cooperative movement today
Considering the plethora of records of cooperatives started out as small grassroots organisations in Western Europe, North America and Japan in the middle of the nineteenth century, however, it is the Rochdale Pioneers that are generally regarded as the prototype of the modern cooperative society and the founders of the Cooperative Movement in 1844.The principles that underpinned their way of doing business are still accepted today as the foundations upon which all cooperatives operate. These principles have been revised and updated, but remain essentially the same as those practiced by the Pioneers in 1844.
The Golden Heredity of Cooperative Legacy in our soil
In the Indian Subcontinent (Presently India, Pakistan &Bangladesh) the Cooperative movement was introduced in 1904. The farmers were suffering a lot due to multifarious problems, namely, lack of loan facilities, exploitation of moneylenders and backdated farming system. To improve the distressed condition of farmers, the need for evolving a workable system was badly felt as farmers’ revolts took place in the Deccan in 1875 due to this reason. Eventually, different Acts were passed to control this money-lending system as well as to provide credit and relief as assistance to the suffering farmers. But the desired result was not achieved. Sir Frederic Nicholson, a senior civil servant of Madras Provincial Government, after completing the study on agriculture and Land Management of some countries of Europe including Germany, submitted report in two parts (1895/1898) with recommendation to establish ‘Cooperative Village Bank’ for resolving the entire problem of the poor people in each village of the Sub-Continent and to make the Bank as the main centre for all the development programs of these poor people. Afterwards, on the recommendation of Famine Commission of 1901 and a Committee constituted by the then Viceroy Lord Curzon comprising three members (Lord Edward Law, Sir Fredric Nicholson and Mr. Dupernics), “The Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904” was enacted. The main purpose of the act was to increase savings, obtain self-reliance and initiate mutual cooperation among the rural poor to uplift their lives and livelihood.
Throughout the period of the then British Government up to present Bangladesh, the Cooperative Law has undergone major changes in 1940, 1984 and 2001; with these changes cooperative movement has crossed a timeline of more than hundred years. Through these hundred years it has had some major achievements withstanding some failure also.
After the Independence of Bangladesh cooperative, on the principles of ownership, was given formal recognition in the Constitution as the second sector of the economy. At that time two types of cooperative movement started, in one hand, cooperative activities under cooperative department, and on the other hand, cooperative system of IRDP (later on BRDB). Department of cooperative initiated formation of cooperative societies including people from different sectors i.e. agriculture, fisheries, sugarcane, weaving, dairy, transport, poultry, cottage industries, women etc. Under the main program of BRDB, Krishak Samabaya Samity (KSS) at village level, Thana Central Co-operative Association (TCCA) at thana level and under the women development program, Mohila Samabaya Samity were formed. To ensure congenial atmosphere in the management of Cooperatives, the Cooperative Ordinance was promulgated in 1984 and Cooperative Rules were formulated in 1987. Later Cooperative policy was drafted in 1989. At the beginning of the new century Cooperative Society Act, 2001 and Cooperative Society Rules, 2004 are being practiced.
However, in Bangladesh, Cooperative has both the success and failure. There are also agreeable reasons for this. Before referring to reasons for its success and failure, Cooperative societies may be divided into two categories in the basis of sponsorship- firstly cooperative society developed by the Government, BRDB, BARD, RDA and other agencies; secondly the societies developed independently. The societies belonging to the latter group are taking lead among the successful ones. However, the activities of some of those developed by Government, BRDB and other agencies are also satisfactory although many of them have failed to achieve any success.
The government of Bangladesh has also emphasized cooperative initiatives to protect the interest of common people and to reduce gap between the rich and the poor. It is absolutely true that every cooperative society is an economic unit creating opportunities to promote economic growth and sustain ethical values to put into practice in life and society. Cooperative societies are based on certain values like democracy, equality, and solidarity. In fact co-operatives are autonomous associations of members united voluntarily to acquire some important common economic, social and cultural goals through jointly owned and democratically controlled enterprises.
The challenge of upcoming days must be poverty reduction and development of human resource provided that economic emancipation of the poor and disadvantaged remains to be the major goal of the country. To achieve the goals the cooperative societies should be given opportunities to contribute significantly and play their positive roles. Besides, cooperative societies can act for promotion of social security, enhancement of affinity and fraternity among the citizens leading to political stability in the country provided that these cooperative societies are given adequate encouragement and incentives.
(Samir Kumar Biswas, Deputy Secretary, Ministry of Food, Former Joint Registrar, Deptt. of Cooperatives, Ministry of LGRD & Cooperatives, Ph D Fellow in Jahangirnagar University; email:[email protected])
