Women in Co-operatives – A Case Study of
Indian Co-operative Network for Women
(To the commemorate volume of 100 years of co-operative in India)
History of Co-operative thought in India/Vehicle of Social Development:
Hundred years of Indian Co-operative venture is a milestone in the history of Indian
social movements. Initiated by men of great eminence like Sri. Vaikunth Mehtaji in the last
millennium, the co-operative movement was a proposition to augment an egalitarian society
visualized further as a collective economic venture to shape human destiny to progress. The
idea of a co-operative was widely prevalent in the mid-18th century in Europe, advocated by
eminent thinkers like Robert Owen and Ryfeission of Germany. While Robert Owen’s
ideology was based on the Karl Marx’s concept of common ownership to do away with social
inequalities, Ryfeission propagated the same idea of self-help and self -management process.
Sri.Vaikunth Mehthaji, the Father of the Indian Co-operative Movement was drawn to
the above schools of Co-operative thought as a mechanism to set right the degenerated Indian
Economy after the British left India. According to him “the co-operation in essence is nothing
but a voluntary association of equals, pursuing democratic management, willing to work for a
common cause. He believed in the elimination of individual profit and advocated practice of
thrift and distribution of surplus to members”.
Sri Mehtaji’s concern was to deal with rural masses who lived in poverty as
landless/marginal holdings, living still in fear/complexes as colonial subjects
vulnerable/victims of exploitation. In his search for a development strategy, he found cooperation as best suited to Indian conditions ensuring peoples participation at all levels.
To drive this idea of co-operation, i.e. self-control/self-planning management
process, as a way of life among the masses who lived in slavery for generations was not so
easy. The multi-dimensional problems in India then required a developmental strategy, a
strategy that would serve more as a means to an end and not as an end in itself. To this end in
view, Sri. Mehta studied several tribal societies as tribals in India had a collective vision in
their approach to all matters.
Aiming of a co-operative venture at the outset, in India then was expected to reduce
the prevalent inequalities in income and wealth, a structure that would change socioeconomic life in all sectors. To avoid concentration of power in the hands of few and to
ensure the dignity of every individual, infusing personal interest in work rather relying on
some one was the watchword of this effort. Such a collective economic/social venture
warrants promotion of group solidarity, where in as a group people would learn to decide,
control, empower preparing themselves for new responsibilities of leadership and
participative management.
All these were laudable efforts of course, but the uphill task was to remove several
barriers of class/caste/social hierarchies such as feudal domination and so on. Prevalence of
such barriers marred the very spirit of participative management and the poor illiterate
masses. Therefore, the idea/function of a co-operative was thought of to work as a
development strategy towards social progress confronting several obstacles.
By Dr. Jaya Arunachalam – President
Indian Co-operative Network for Women
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Hundred years of Co-operative Development
in India (1904–2004)
The need for such a vehicle of social development process even today, cannot be
ruled out. The current and disheartening facts are that 44% of India still live in poverty i.e.
one third of the worlds poor found in India - justifies the need. Over 30-40% of the people in
the metro cities in India like Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkatta and Delhi even now live in the
urban slums. A third of the child-population live and work as child labourers; 62% of
children live in conditions of malnutrition. About 89% of the women workers in informal
sector (about 299 million) are still illiterate and over 220 million people live without access
to drinking water while over 640 million live even without basic sanitation.
The Limitations of such power hierarchies remain as major obstacles for any
development process - a matter of major concern for all. Large groups of vulnerable
population of scheduled caste/tribes remain in the periphery of the development process.
Most of them in scattered/unorganized groups live and work as casual labourers in very
impoverished conditions. Women who form 50% of India’s population is yet to be
recognized of their contribution to production process. The vital question is that the planning
process of the country should not exclude women and must create a full chapter on women
and development.
Women’s Economic Roles:
Women’s economic contribution to family, community and national economy has not
only been ignored but has been under valued and under estimated as an extension of the
household work. Organization of the family in poorer household is run with the meager
income of the women and the economic ventures of their children who work as child
labourers in many areas. In the urban areas, most women carry on their enterprises as
vendors/hawkers, petty producers, construction workers etc. They sell most of their goods to
others who are poor and whose purchasing power is very low.
As wage labourers, most of these women are engaged in wage work, working either
as contract labourers or home based producers. In the rural areas, poor women play a
major role in the agrarian economy.
Women work as agricultural labourers engaging themselves with major operations
in farm work from the stage of sowing to harvesting as well as to post harvest operations. In
the non-agricultural season, most women are engaged in some kind of micro-business or as
vendors in the mobile weekly markets. Rural women are artisans often engaged in the
production of handicraft that bring in abundant foreign exchange to the country. But the wage
they received for all this work of long and hard hours are just a meager sum. Stipulation of
social legislations such as equal or minimum wages are seldom operative in the areas where
poor women live and work.
It is not without isolated cases of experiments in co-operative ventures as envisaged
by founding fathers. There have been efforts to organize groups of poor/women and these
have shown the way as co-operatives replicable models. Given their rights for equal
opportunities, poor women in many areas in smaller experiments have demonstrated that they
can reach a stage of enhanced income/employment levels and asset creation. The history and
growth of Working Women’s Forum/Indian Co-operative Network for Women that
provides an inspiring model is described in the following pages: Poor women have taken up
extraordinary leadership roles to get out of living in abysmal conditions in poverty/squalor,
through several branches of co-operatives.
Working Women’s Forum India/Indian Co-operative Network for Women:
Working Women’s Forum was initiated as an aftermath of devastating severe flood in
1978 and it was observed by the promoters that it will be difficult for the poor women to
carry on their lives on short-term relief measures such as flood/fire relief alone. But their
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needs went beyond and well planned long term measures (after the flood subsides) a measure
that would stand any disaster that was the real concern behind the promoters.
WWF/ICNW realized the need for a union to bind these workers together who live in
isolation from rest of the world. Even the knowledge of working hours/real wages are almost
unknown to them and therefore the need for solidarity groups to facilitate collective
action/bargaining. Most of the consumer items like beedi, cigar and agarbathi are produced
by these women workers as home based production or in a contract system of labour under
severe exploitative/hazardous conditions. Similarly, the handicraft women workers too are
caught in the same complex web of the middle men and merchant exporters who are greedy
and usurp greater profit margin for themselves. Thus, these women workers have worked in
an exploitative system of a vicious circle of low wages and long hours of work, that have
undermined their productive efforts and resulted in their enterprises being unproductive
ventures.
With reference to the agricultural wage labourers in rural areas they are totally a
powerless group and not able to alter any stipulative conditions of the employers. They
accept anything that is given to them. For one person’s wages, the entire family works as
unpaid labour in the villages. Women work even for a morsel of food in villages in many
remote areas
Efforts of WWF have clearly demonstrated that when once social awareness is
infused, the poor women would succeed to this end through their collective determination
using the participatory approach.
Remarkably, the Forum sustained itself through these 25 years, slowly manifesting
itself into a social and co-operative movement with phenomenal growth of 7,00,000 women
from its small base of 800 poor women.
Aims/objectives of the WWF/ICNW:
1. To provide organizational support to women
lines/ create visibility with regard to their economic role.
workers
on
trade
2. To provide an innovative grassroot methodology to facilitate more and more poor
women to reach out to their own class in large numbers/participate at all levels in the
union.
3. To make it only women intensive.
4. To adopt a programme strategy to address poor women’s critical needs such as credit,
employment and health care, strengthening their productive roles, as against their
reproductive roles, fighting child labour in their own families, devise/establish non
formal education centers/child care centers to take load off from the female children,
who can be sent to school.
5. To establish a well thought out training/orientation programme towards career
development, promote resource trainers, establish institutions of training expertise, to
train women in leadership, financial/entrepreneurial and empowerment process.
At that time, when WWF entered the slums it found that 68% of the women were
heads of the household and were sole income earners and in 70% of the households
children worked as child labourers.
Working Women’s Forum – A Reflection of World-Wide Women’s Moment:
The U.N declaration of decade for women not only opened new possibilities for
emergence of new forms of women’s movements but also encouraged the promoters to move
further and facilitate the poor women to form their own organization towards bettering their
economic/social needs. Therefore, the emergence of Working Women’s Forum is a
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reflection of women’s awakening worldwide since 1975. The Forum took up the issues of
women far more seriously recognizing the economic roles of women in the national
economy.
Credit – An Instrument of Social Change:
Credit became the most crucial variable to the economic ventures of women. The
Forum facilitated the same from nearby Nationalized banks. In initial days, the Forum and the
President guaranteed the loans. A year after the first repayment was over, the bureaucratic
delays and complicated procedures of the nationalized banks almost turned away the poor
borrowers discouraging their self-help/self-management process forcing them to go back to
the moneylenders once again.
However, majority of women having had a collective experience and having had
handled the credit options for these few months, advised the promoters to promote their own
credit outfit. The Forum by now had grown into 3000 women spreading in more and more
slums. Women contributed Rs.20 each as a share and a matching amount of Rs.2,40,000 was
donated by an American Charity Organization i.e., Appropriate Technology International
from Washington.
Poor Women’s Co-operative Initiative:
Thus the first co-operative society for the poor by the poor and of the poor was
initiated with 2500 members at the outset in the year of May 1981. Though it operated as
Working Women’s Co-operative Society at state level in the early days in Chennai and
Tamilnadu, later this society was re-registered as multi-state co-operative society called the
Indian Co-operative Network for Women (ICNW), having country wide operations with
the option and capacity to work anywhere in India.
Through this co-operative venture, women strengthened not only their economic roles
to enhance their existing skills and/or trained in new skills but also enabled the other women
in neighbourhoods to join this effort. This was the first move of poor women in cooperative effort to ascertain their strength/weakness and build on it to have better livelihood
options. The mobilization process demonstrated their extraordinary leadership effort in
building not only solidarity in the neighbourhood of many villages/slums unfolding it as the
mass movement. Together, they resisted authority/bureaucracy/oppressive forces and fought
for their rights.
The emergence of this co-operative network among poor women thus became a strong
unification strategy using credit as a focal and perhaps even entry point. The leaders
emerged stronger when they guaranteed loans to others in the community that enhanced their
leadership, both in their household and with in the family. By word of the mouth, these
women are able to communicate their strategy to other women in most backward and
challenging areas. The effort helped women as they used only their powerlessness and
poverty as the central point to mobilize divergent groups, fight caste networks, class
domination, moving towards better gender strategies. Poor assetless women proved they are
bankable, their capital enterprises can grow, they can accumulate at the base and enhance
income, assets and social status.
In the ICNW, women had full control of the banking institution. They initiated peer
pressure among the members in slum neighbourhoods to achieve repayments on time.
Furtherance of business opportunities through loan options became crucial and the end use of
loans was strictly monitored by members themselves. The rotating capital of Rs.6 crores in
ICNW has now grown into 100 crores.
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ICNW Operational Details:
The simple credit model of ICNW in which the clientele and the cadre belonged to the
same neighbourhood helped the co-operative to move faster. The Indian Co-operative Network
followed all the legal norms necessary for co-operatives, but still served large number of poor
clientele. Efficiency has been the watch word in each of the branches which have demonstrated
that they are extremely self managed. The strategy of the entire training and other connected
activities are operated and controlled by poor women, has infused full confidence in other poor
women.
Most of the organizers in WWF/ICNW women have been well trained and are capable of
identifying with other poor working women. The success/failure of neighborhood groups in
ICNW depends upon the leadership of the poor women and the communication skills they have at
their command.
A leader takes loan applications in each of her groups, process these, helps disburse loans
and monitor the use and repayments. She acts as a loan guarantor of the group. The leaders
operate on a voluntary basis and as an incentive, she gets a higher loan. The organizers are
provided with a honorarium. They provide the necessary institutional link between the groups
and the WWF/ICNW combine. The organizers meet once every week, take full responsibility to
collect repayments and also bring pressure on the clients. Some times, these organizers by virtue
of their ability and leadership in the neighbourhood are able to represent themselves as office
bearers in the executive committee of WWF and in the ICNW Board.
The system of banking operations in the ICNW with its 25 years of Micro banking
experience has evolved into a simple, easy to operate mechanism. It is now a time tested credit
model where the poor women are comfortable. As share holders of the co-operative, they own the
institution and are the direct participants in the decision making process of ICNW. They monitor
all the business of the groups in terms of group formation, leader selection, member selection,
organizing new groups, infusing confidence in other women to join the Forum. All these and
much more are accomplished in the field areas itself before they reach the bank.
Loan Appraisal:
The next step lies in the hands of the field officer of ICNW who undertakes field visits to
assess the credit worthiness of the prospective groups, assessment of volume of business,
neighbourhood position, poverty status of the group, approval among group members leading to
sanction of loans. All these are specific assessments based on the socio-economic and gender
indicators.
In ICNW, the system of appraisal varies on the types of loans. For regular Micro loan
disbursement, field visit prior to loan disbursement is a must. During the field visit, the loan
appraisal is based on the proper feed back from the prospective clients endorsed by the area
organizer who guarantees the loan in addition to a group leader. The factors for appraisal during
filed visits are. a. Repayment track record for previous loans b. Age c. Neighbourhood status and
d. Type of Occupation they are engaged.
Even within the appraisal, looking for better occupation, field organizers are asked to go
into detail whether it is an existing business or a fresh one, and the degree of investments, their
business income are all taken into consideration. Types of housing in which they live,
marginalized status and major contributions are also assessed along with the leadership potential
and these are key factors for technology loan. The time and mode of the payment are taken into
consideration for a housing loan. The housing loan is a risk factor in terms of possession of an
encroached settlement as the clients eligibility in this case becomes doubtful.
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Loan size/Types:
The first loan size is normally Rs.1600 for members and Rs.1800 for leaders. These are
sanctioned depending on the members occupation, credit requirement as well as their repayment
capacity. Loan sizes are increased gradually after every loan period is over. The maximum loan
size could be Rs.50000. Not many from the working class women of WWF/ICNW combine have
reached that stage. Loans upto Rs.5000 have repayment schedule of 10 months. The loan 5000 –
10000 have a repayment schedule for 15 months. The loan size upto 25000 have a repayment
schedule upto 30 months. A major portion of the loans disbursed at ICNW are for trade/business
loans. Sparingly, the oldest members who have graduated to higher loans become entitled for
education loan, housing loan, technology loan and various types of loans in addition to it. They
pay 18% on declining balance which works out to 8.25% on a flat annual basis.
For an increased loan, in addition to post/prepaid clients, it is stipulated to fix a higher
repayment schedule towards a larger loan requirements. In the context of a larger loan, the scope
for absorption of increased volume, trade competition in the area where they live and work,
residence status in the neighbourhood, marketing potential, the volume/degree of male
contribution if it is a joint enterprises are also assessed. These are some of the key decision
making factors for the loan disbursement. There are also certain cases where collaterals are
accepted, for higher loans, when available.
Training in WWF/ICNW:
The members have to undergo several types of training programms to familiarize
themselves with the process of self actualization and to get to know the various other
programmes that are integrated into with ICNW programme. Also, they are counseled through
sound financial training regarding the end use of loans and holding custody of their income.
Then the loan date is fixed only after this and is subsequently disbursed. Orientation programmes
are given to the members on loan procedures at the ICNW centers. The monitoring cards are
printed in different colours to acquaint the members on the principle and interest payment every
month. Each member has a saving accounts. They are entitled to a pass book that enables them
to operate saving accounts on their own. The minimum saving is Rs.300/- and some save more.
Lending is primarily done on a group system but eventually a large number of graduated
members over the years have to be given an individual loan too. A higher level of credit
worthiness is excepted among individual loanees. In many cases, these women, i.e., individual
loanees, also provide employment to few more members.
a) Other Integrated Services
ICNW/WWF motivates their clients to get into various other programms such as savings
and insurance of various types, such as health, life and disability and so on. They always trust
ICNW to save their meager resources. In times of crisis, such savings help the client to
compensate for potential default. In many cases as seen above, WWF/ICNW combine have
stepped in to help many potential clients reconstruct themselves and facilitate them to even
migrate to new places for better livelihood options.
While the above paragraph describes normal clients, there is another set of clients in the
WWF/ICNW who are the floating micro entrepreneurs to the city from the suburbs who visit city
everyday obtaining products from the suburbs and sell them in the city markets. Infact, many of
them do very good business as they are also small production groups too, like vegetable/green
producers in the suburb areas.
The second category are the clients who are migrant women wage workers who take loan
from WWF/ICNW and go to the neighbouring towns and work as workers in construction/road
work for few months and return to their base and repay the loan. This approach of co-operative
effort has demonstrated the humanitarian concern of ICNW towards poverty reduction and acted
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as employment guarantee for many poor women. Therefore ICNW/WWF’s strategy of taking up
of several risk measures to help poor women to survive, have helped many clients to come out of
their conditions of starvation and pursue better livelihood options.
To evolve an efficient support system to carry out lending formalities to large number of
clients, recently the banking process have been computerized to reduce the drudgery of the staff.
Earlier it has been an exhaustive process of ledgers, cash books and heavy book keeping, due to
the fact that the shareholders are illiterate or semi-literate. With the help of experts in the field of
Micro Finance, ICNW has automated its micro finance delivery using latest IT innovation. As an
organization of poor women for WWF/ICNW, this is a land-mark action that captures the
benefits of Information Technology. The key benefits has been that the women have more time
now to themselves to organize/mobilize and reach more clients. This reduced the processing time
of the Micro finance products scaling down the manual ledger operations. Efficient field
management and scaling up the quality service became possible. Occupation related diseases are
monitored easily, improving and working/living conditions of the members. Thus it has been
proved and demonstrated that the benefits of sophisticated banking is not the exclusive domain of
the elites alone. Poor women too, can enjoy the benefits of IT that would save their time and plan
effectively to stabilize their lives and livelihood options.
One crucial factor that has contributed to the success of credit programme in ICNW is that
it has severe norms of supervision and monitoring efforts which is an on-going process. The
president and the Board members visit branches after branches and attend periodic staff
meetings/review to improve and form new work plans based on the performance of a half yearly
report every year. This is part of the management monitoring/supervision and policy formulation
process in ICNW. An annual evaluation and planning meeting is conducted to assess the branch
performances. The branch appraisal becomes very crucial each year before the annual meeting in
December.
b) The reproductive health care:
There is a well-defined health care programme and it is carried out through a network of
health cadres in the urban/rural areas. This is to achieve the economic balance of credit
programme in poorer families, strengthening women’s productive roles. All the credit organizers
are experts in spreading the norms of reproductive health care, and the health care advocates also
have sound knowledge on credit.
A women worker is given maternity benefits up to 2 children and continued health care.
The health insurance scheme helps her in a well-designed health care package that includes a
medical reimbursement of up to Rs.5000. Poor women have availed this health care insurance in
abundance. One of the innovative efforts of WWF/ICNW has been the programme of group
insurance initiated in 1981. The premium is collected in small amounts through the co-operative.
ICNW not only takes part in the collection but also encourages the legal heir of the deceased to
claim the amount and save it. Once, when women enter the ICNW they are guaranteed by such
social security measures - a boon to many poor women.
The Branches of WWF/ICNW:
A word about the branches of WWF/ICNW - there are about 14 branches of cooperatives that are more efficiently run by poor women in the three southern states. Chennai is
the headquarters and the other branches are extension counters in other states. Promoters feel
proud that these institutions have completed 25 years of their existence and run on in a more
efficient way as non-corrupt, honest co-operatives making a reasonable profit and no loss. As an
organization working for the poor cannot earn much profit, the poor have indeed proved
themselves in their effort that they are viable human resources, who are bankable, credit worthy
and can save and manage their own finances. Default and delinquency rates are hardly 1.47%, a
unique feature in the history of co-operatives in India.
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The programmes initiated by the various branches of ICNW/WWF are need-based
programmes and each branch has certain special features. The ICNW as a cooperative out fit not
only provided them the bargaining power to have access to resources but also a share in the
decision-making. The poorest women in the ICNW have demonstrated that though poor, they
can organize themselves, combat poverty, enhance status and most importantly, manage their
own affairs. It is a sheer demonstration of the fact that when once social awareness is raised,
women are able to show collective determination to achieve even the most impossible tasks,
carrying the whole community with them. The individual examples in each of the branches prove
this vision/action and are described in the following paragraphs.
Chennai Slums:
In the month of November, the President of WWF/ICNW combine, social worker
interested in public welfare in the midst of her relief operation found that most of the poorest
women in the slums were neither interested in politics nor in the flood relief. Their main preoccupation was to increase their capacity to earn and do away with many obstacles in their work
options.
With a population of 62.11 million, most of whom are women in Chennai (North, South,
Central) slums are engaged in informal sector activities, both as micro entrepreneurs or as casual
wage labourers in low paid, low working capital, low skilled and low subsistence level
occupations. These women workers are very innovative in devising adaptive strategies for
survival. Their major constrains were lack of finance, high interest payments, lack of markets,
lack of space to trade and lack of mobility. The Forum under its credit programme provided
credit assistance to more than 200 different occupations to these women workers in the urban
informal sector, saving them from money lenders and pawn brokers, “Thandals” as they are
called. They are mostly vendors, hawkers, service specialists like dhobis and so on. Today the
Chennai branch of ICNW has reached 73,511 poor women in 1,669 slum neighbourhoods,
through its effective programme.
Dindigul (Near Madurai):
In the year 1979, a peasant woman from President’s own ancestoral village in Dindigul
district of Tamil Nadu, having come to know of the Chennai experiment approached her to start
some non-farm employment programme on the same line as in Chennai. Consequently, Forum
moved from the urban areas on to rural areas initiating, ICNW branch there. From this village
later the credit effort spread to several villages where women started selling local produce like
banana, tamarind, chillies etc. either as head loaders around the villages or carried them to rural
weekly market of the villages or towns fairs nearby. Since the rural men and women face the
onslaught of non availability of work, low and inadequate wages, credit facility helped them. Few
rural women were able to use the credit to buy dairy cattle too. Today Dindigul has 20,894
members reaching 651 villages, providing relief to many peasant women, as employment in
agriculture offered no scope in this drought-prone area. In the early days in this branch, ILO was
working in close collaboration with ICNW/WWF in training the rural women.
Adiramapattinam (Tanjore Coastal Area):
In the year 1981, the Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO) which was engaged in a
project in Adirampattinam a Coastal belt in Tanjore district, called “Bay of Bengal small
Fisheries Programme” invited the President WWF/ICNW to start a programme for fisher women
as the FAO programme was mostly for fishermen. Despite the fact that fisherwomen played a
major role in the overall fishing economy, these women workers were object of neglect.
Fisherwomen went to weekly market in an around 10 to 15 kilometers all the seven days to sell
fish, obtaining their fish products from the auctioneers even when their men do not go for fishing
into the sea. The Forum’s credit intervention through ICNW enabled women engaged in fish
marketing to carry on their occupation outside the hold of the money lenders/auctioneers. Apart
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from the fish sellers the forum has also mobilized other working women in the periphery such as
mat weavers, weavers of roof materials and salt producers. The fisherwoman in Adirampattinam,
fought for their rights to repair their fishing canals, right to be consulted on fishing auctions.
They also joined their men to fight for their fishing rights against Trawler owners in the Supreme
Court, which they had won. The then Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi visited this area too. Today
WWF has 22,510 members in 345 villages in this branch.
Vellore:
The testified, heightened awareness and conscious leadership of the WWF/ICNW could
become more and more aware of the presence of oppressive structures wherever they went. One
such group they identified in Vellore, in the North Arcot district of Tamilnadu are beedi rollers,
where child bondedness in many beedi factories were highly prevalent. A branch in 1983 initiated
to bring to light the oppressive living and working conditions of these beedi rollers and also
initiated the much required ICNW branch. It was here that the then Prime Minister Sri Rajiv
Gandhi first visited the women beedi rollers and listened to them. After this the Prime Minister
recommended effective social/legislative measures including Minimum/Equal Wages and
initiation of social security measures. Today with world wide stigma associated with cigarette
smoking WWF in collaberation with ILO has initiated an alternate livelihood programme, in
Vellore and in the neighbouring Gudiyatam, training women, particularly the younger ones in
alternate skills. This has helped nearly over 6,450 to learn new skills and benefit. Today Vellore
has 23,011 members in 225 villages.
Kancheepuram:
The ancient temple city – Kancheepuram in South India – could be justifiably compared
with Pataliputra (now known as Patna in Bihar State), claimed to be the oldest town in the
country. It has a long cultural history of silk weaving carried on from ancient times. Currently,
despite the price of these silk sarees being exorbitantly high, the life of the weavers is a tale of
woe. The governments policy protected only the male weavers through its cooperatives and
admitted only the male heads of household for the provision of credit and raw materials. Women
who are the real weavers carrying on the weaving operation at home were not given that status.
Also most of the assistance offered by the government both in cash and kind (in the form of gold
thread) was pledged by the male weavers of the family to moneylenders and the cash loan being
spent on liquor. Thus, the women and children, despite their contribution to production process
were in severe impoverished conditions.
When the United Nations Population Fund and the International Labour
Organization together planned to support an integrated programme of one of the branches, the
President ICNW/WWF offered the Kanchipuram branch. The area was to combine the credit
banking and reproductive health care programme. Thus, the credit helped many of the weavers to
redeem the pledged weaving materials and their children who were in bonded conditions from
other weavers. The effort further enabled the women to take up weaving successfully and become
members of weaver’s credit and marketing society directly. Also it was proved, higher the
opportunity for employment, greater is the reduction in the fertility rate.
Today guided by Corporate philosophy to support civil society initiatives, the gobal outfit
like Citi Bank in India has come forward to arrange frequent buyer seller meet to help marketing
of Kanchipuram Sarees, and other items from the other branches too, such as lace products and
cotton sarees soon. The current membership in this branch is 24,484 members in 308 villages.
Dharmapuri:
The branch at Dharmapuri in Tamilnadu was a challenge thrown to President of WWF
by the Government of India in one of the tripartite meetings to check the large scale occurrences
of human rights violation of female foeticides in rural areas. A team of members were sent
accordingly to study the conditions of the mothers who themselves were involved in the killings
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of the girl children within 24 hours of the birth of a baby girl. Later WWF organized many such
women and brought them into WWF/ICNW’s fold, and educated them on the human right option
of every girl child to survive, as much as a male child. Helping them through credit banking and
sound Reproductive Health Care/Adult Education Program strengthened adult employment and
brought down the pressure of poverty on women. Dharmapuri records a membership of 9456
members in 456 villages!
Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh):
Based on the findings of the feasibility study conducted among the poor minority women
in the slums of Hyderabad city and Ranga Reddy District, in 1997, WWF/ICNW combine
initiated their branches in Hyderabad. The process of identification and mobilization of poor
women borrowers of minority community was taken up actively. The members of Forum in this
branch are mainly those occupational groups where there Muslim women are engaged in Zari
embroidery, Chumki work, candles, stickers and bangle making, basket weaving and production
of safety pins, carpentry, laundry and other kinds of handicrafts production. Along side in
Reproductive health Care social security schemes were initiated. Currently WWF/ICNW has
14,637 members in 261 villages, in and around Hyderabad.
West, East Godavari District (Andhra Pradesh):
The Forum’s work exposed the exploitative/oppressive conditions of women, the lace
artisans of Narsapur, numbering 80000, in West & East Godavari District. This was especially
around Narasapur, Palakol and Bhimavaram towns. Thus in 1981 President and her team
replicated the experiment of Madras at Narasapur facilitating the lace artisans with a co-operative
society (ICNW) and a marketing outlet, along side in addition to credit.
Majority of the Lace Artisans and weavers being illiterate, the trade monopolists always
kept them in ignorance without allowing them to learn new designs and many of them did not
know even how to measure the raw materials, required for every piece. Women did not have
proper equipment of their own and were treated only cheap labourers. The conditions of their
children were very pathetic and for the sake of earning 10 paise to 13 paise, most children were
stopped from attending schools. However, the Forum has been able to give a new lease of life to
the women artisans through the credit options and marketing facility. Some of them are now able
to gain the power to negotiate with the exporters for increased wages from meager amount.
Infact, many of the quality producers are able to earn as much as Rs.600/- a month, today, a
reasonably better income in rural area like Narsapur. Later on, Forum/ICNW brought in to its
fold the artisans of Palakol, Bhimavaram and Malkipuram rope makers and weavers.
Some of them teach this Lace-Craft to other rural women in the neighbouring districts of
Andhra Pradesh and as craft trainers they even earn Rs.1,200/- per month. For these producers
marketing network with a proper linkage to outside market is provided. Today this region covers
70,448 members in 746 villages.
Thus the growth of the Forum/ICNW’s credit option in the rural areas of Andhra Pradesh
has strengthened the entreprenuership of the poor women Lace Artisans and Cotton Weavers and
reduced their earlier inevitable dependence on exporters/middlemen.
Bangalore (Karnataka):
The experience of challenging the contractors and merchant exporters of lace articles in
Andhra Pradesh has sharpened the understanding of class forces as obstacles to women’s work in
many places. This resulted in organizing the agarbathi working in Bangalore, Karnataka where
oppressive situation became more aggressive due to the prevalence of dualistic ethnic society as
most of the women workers were migrant from the urban slums of undivided Madras State.
Members of Vellore branch, requested the President of ICNW/WWF to initiate a branch to
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provide relief and credit to agarbathi workers in the slums of Bangalore city. The trade of
agarbathi rolling thrived and flourished in a highly exploitative conditions. After organizing the
migrant women in 16 localities the President and organizers later intended to make an effort to
bring down the prevalent tension of ethnic difference of Kannadigas and Tamils. Though the
Forum initiated this branch in 1983, the credit society came only after the ethnic differences are
sorted out and the migrant workers were ready to unite themselves with the locals under the
banner of Forum. Unmindful of their ethnic and other differences after 4 years poor women
joined together to fight the oppressive conditions. Banglore now has 16,363 members in 141
slums.
Chennapatna (Karnataka):
Chennapatna is almost an extension of the Bangalore branch activities of the Forum
ICNW efforts. It is one of the major Panchayat of Karnataka state where women workers of
WWF/ICNW are mostly engaged in sericulture activities, leaf plate making and production of
wooden toys. There is a sizable amount of minority women engaged in beedi rolling too. Forum
initiated to extend credit activities through ICNW here in the year 1995. Chennapatna has a total
membership of 8,840 in 282 villages.
Bidar (Karnataka):
Bidar is a backward district of Karnataka, and is a drought prone, rain shadow region
receiving very meager rainfall annually. The major population component of the district are the
Muslim minority and upper caste lingayat community besides others. Women are totally illiterate
and are quite backward, with very little communication with nearby adjacent states namely either
Andhra Pradesh, (near Hyderabad) or Maharastra (Lathur district). It is situated in a place where
there are no trains/buses and the roads are rugged and rough. Being a drought prone area,
employment is seasonal, depending on the rain, only one crop is possible a year.
Earlier the Government of Karnataka initiated an integrated rural development project to
improve the conditions of rural and poor women/children who are engaged in blanket weaving,
cattle rearing, poultry and bidri handicrafts. Having spent substantial resources through UNICEF
assistance, the Government decided to hand it over to an NGO to take over the project from them.
Accordingly in 1987, the President received an invitation from the Karnataka government to help
take over the project under the banner of WWF/ICNW, as their presence were felt in Bangalore
town in Karnataka. WWF team commissioned a study of the existing project and learnt causes of
failures. Major cause of failure was, the absence of not involving the poorest segment of
Schedule Caste and the minorities in the project. The President of Mahila Mandals who were
incharge of the project were upper caste/well to do women who could not even visit, the colonies
and bastis. President of ICNW/WWF advised the Forum to restructure the entire programme
strategies. As in all places the Forum initiated Co-operative Society i.e., the ICNW in Bidar too
and started the micro-loan programs to help the alternate employment options such as blanket
weaving, goat rearing, poultry and bidri handicraft production. While on their own they could not
find markets for their products, the Forum and ICNW helped the branch. The branch records a
membership of 15128 members in 196 villages.
Bellary (Karnataka)
The Bellary branch of Karnataka was initiated on account of the Central Government’s
initiative requesting WWF/ICNW outfit to experiment the replication of their experiment in that
district. Not only did the Government nominated the President as a member of the team to
formulate, a National credit fund (Rashtriya Mahila Kosh) to help women NGOs in the country,
also provided financial assistance to initiate a branch at Bellary. The immediate necessity to start
this branch was a provocation prevailed around that area where large scale oppression being
inflicted on girl children dedicating them to the female deity later to be condemned as Devadisis
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or child prostitutes. The untold sufferings of these girl children as victims of exploitation in
prostitution, was the main issue taken up by WWF by helping their mothers to take up some
gainful employment and encourage them not to induce their young girls to prostitution but send
them to school towards better education. Today WWF has 7,652 members in 113 villages.
As the above paragraphs describe that fighting situation of poverty and squalor in India is
a formidable challenge. Thus, credit, health measures, empowerment training, street marches and
other struggles – today all have made WWF as one of the foremost NGOs in the third country.
But it is seldom understood by planners and policy makers just the provision of material benefits
alone is not enough. The poor should be made aware of the intensity of the poverty which is not
their own choice but is imposed on them. To make the poor become aware of the exploitative
conditions a well-planned platform of organization of their own is a must to continue their
struggle against oppressive forces. They have to learn to fight for their rights/entitlements on their
own. Provision of goods and services are important, equally important in the task of empowering
them. Treating poor as valuable human resources will help reduce poverty, as any attempt to
under utilize the poor will only lead to perpetuation poverty. This was the landmark decision in
WWF/ICNW to move beyond credit provision and to help the poor women through integrating
several services together in their favour.
Factors that Contributed to Success and Quantifiable results:
a). The effect of credit option through a co-operative network resulted in the leaders of the
poorer neighbourhoods emerging stronger, particularly when they guaranteed loans to other
women. This further reinforced their leadership both in the household and in the community.
Their communication strategies have helped to spread themselves to more challenging areas
and had greater gender impact too.
The major share of their subsistence income was saved for the benefit of children/family
which otherwise would have been spent as interest to moneylenders. This is a very efficient
method of re-allocation of resources
b). The bottom up organization structure in the WWF/ICNW combine has facilitated grassroots
participation to reach the other poor clients quickly as well as enabled unfolding itself into a
massive social movement. The approach helped to formulate suitable/need based programme
requirements to help the clients. Stronger the neighbourhood ties, the greater was the
solidarity and co-operative spirit among them. The organization’s effort to choose the field
bases as meeting places demonstrated the concern for members not to waste their time and
resources in travel and productive hours to attend such meetings. Meetings in the field areas
became an ideological commitment to integrate different caste/religious communities into a
social integration process through a co-operative culture.
Women have been able to demonstrate a new alternative leadership pattern by integrating
more and more of their class, learning to control their own outfits, through group dynamics and
self management process as this has kept the elite participation out. Further, this is a
demonstrative effort that leaders are not born but can emerge through provision of opportunities
coupled with training and encouragement. Such leaders can be multiplied too in large numbers.
By word of caution, though credit can play a greater role in human development, credit
per se can never be a solution to poverty and powerlessness. A viable success formula in
WWF/ICNW has been a continuation of both material benefits, in addition to facilitating them
through other variables like unions, health care services, training, insurance and others to
continue their struggles and confrontations. Thus, the empowerment process became equally
important to material progress.
The financial networks if they are to succeed in their effort, they have to maximize the
clients’ participation through a systematic integrated approach. Credit and finances are highly
12
sophisticated instruments where patron-client relationship will never work but a de-centralized
entrepreneurial approach at all levels alone can work. Such an approach ensures success in
enhancing viable financial transactions also have greater impact on the livelihoods of poor.
Further, the training and orientation of the clients particularly (who are poor) has been
focused upon to help them take several responsibilities. Pursuance of a well defined field
orientation policy, identification of the poorest borrowers, determination of affordable effective
interest rates, collection of installments and even pressurizing the default payments, all became
an integral part of client management. The sound training/orientation policy in WWF/ICNW has
been responsible for the high rate of recovery, in excess of 98%.
Suggestions:
Restructuring of co-operative institutions as a viable service delivery mechanism to facilitate
rural India.

Experimenting ourselves in a massive co-operative network over these 25 years, the
WWF/ICNW combine feels that they have an obligation to place few of the following
suggestions as future guidelines towards restructuring of co-operatives.

Undoubtedly, the co-operative financial institutions as they are today cannot and will not
become an integral part of the economic ventures in the process of development. They have
to undergo a drastic change in attitude and working operations if they are to become viable
service delivery mechanisms.

The stringent state control prevalent on the co-operative management is a major impediment
in the functions of co-operative institutions. This may be due to the extension of financial
assistance by the state/central government either a grant or as a share capital, continuously
creates a dependent syndrome in many co-operatives. Such financial assistance by the
government may be either to meet the management cost or even serve as share capital that
becomes the starting point in most cases for the state control on the day-to-day functioning of
co-operatives, which are therefore denied their basic right to become peoples’ institutions.
Governments appreciation to provide such financial assistance can be considered as a
reorganization mechanism and importance of co-operatives role in the Indian economy
despite governments intervention. Such actions by the governments undermine the basic
principles of self-help, self-management and mutual benefit associated with co-operative
economy.

The creation of the post of Registrar through an act of legislature in the year 1904 is a
serious departure in the history of co-operative thought as primarily the pioneers of this
movement believed in the autonomy and self-management by and of such institutions.
Therefore, our system of creating a Registrar of co-operative in India to facilitate the
management is neither Indian nor an European system but rather a British colonial code of
conduct. As far as the Registrar’s intervention is only to guide, advise on tax and audit,
registration and approval of bylaws, amendments, arbitration and liquidation, his authority is
ideal. But his interfering in the autonomy of institution is not a healthy gesture towards
management. Unfortunately, holding on to the statutory legal provisions, through the
guaranteed powers, the functioning of the Registrar is a serious roadblock to the working of
cooperative societies and it has become detrimental to the entire cooperative movement.
Unless such powers are done away with, there is no guarantee for the effective functioning of
co-operatives. Till then not only many co-operatives will remain as defunct as they are today,
but become worse in future, in terms of their performance as measured in various aspects.
There are ample examples of such defunct societies who have neither been liquidated nor are
functioning but in a state of static situation and remain a drain on government resources.
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What then is an Alternative?

To quote examples, it is said that out of the 30 state co-operative banks it is stated nearly
13 co-operative banks are almost defunct institutions/loss-making bodies. It also applies
to primary agricultural societies, most of whom are covered under the reconstruction plan
to become viable. Even if they are to be used as a service delivery mechanism, they need
a drastic re-construction.

To place on record the feeling of many rural families, instead of rehabilitating these
state/central primary co-operatives over and over again, it is better to find out a viable
mechanism to access the rural people directly. It can be in the form of providing interest
free loans or issuing farmers credit card directly to these farming families as part of
drought management or crop failure situation. This will avoid large-scale suicides that
are more a commonplace occurrence in rural areas in recent years.
The Crop Insurance and provision of subsidies is a must to stabilize the farming families
in the case of crop failures when the price of the products go down even below the
production cost. The importance of farm subsidies is realized even in rich countries like
US who have a very small percentage of rural population. Agriculture is a highly
protected occupation in US and carries a very high level of subsidies. Also as a
comparison, the rate of subsidies in other countries are 1.3% in Sri Lanka 4% in Tunisia,
45% in USA, 45-50% in European countries.
The extension of rural credit assumes greater importance in the enhancement of
prosperity of agriculture on one side and increase of food production on other.
Therefore, the extension of this credit options must be the objective of enhancing the
prosperity of the rural masses. They must initiate this process of credit extension from
the stage of sowing through production and marketing. Side by side, genuine attempt
must be made towards rural savings. Savings will become possible when the family can
gain access to those savings when they require it and trust must be created among the
rural savers.
While co-operation is a state subject, the co-operative movement is a federal one. The
primaries at the grassroot level are federated to district level and further on to state level.
The grassroot primaries always look to the federal structure towards enhancement of
their business. Therefore, co-operatives must adopt a multidimensional approach as they
have to deal with inter-related/inter-sectoral problems. To devise timely and effective
measures to reach the grassroots, there must be an effective information system and a
sound communication network. To improve the work efficiency in a highly competitive
global economy, the co-operatives cannot be just satisfied with their social objectives and
doing usual business. They have to improve both their structure and management in view
of the challenges to exploit more business opportunities and improve value driven
enterprises.



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Details of Working Women's Forum (India)
And The Indian Co-operative Network for Women Ltd.,
Portfolio Report as on 30th June 2004
Area covered under the Working Women's Forum (India)
No of Members
733,555
No of Branches
15
Villages
3080
Slums
2078
Social Security Coverage of Women(cumulative)
Reproductive Health Coverage
4,93,505
16,18,842
As a legally registered Micro Finance Institution ICNW has on
Out reach in Credit
3,71,362
Loan Portfolio(Rs.)
1110 Million
No of Loans
11,75,212
Share Capital ( “ )
37.6 Million
Saving Capital ( “ )
75.7 Million
Working Capital
37.2 Million
Outstanding Portfolio
53.8 Million
Financial Self-sufficiency
134%
Operational Self sufficiency
206%
% of women clients
100%
% of Rural Clients
69.6%
% of Urban Clients
30.3%
On Lending Interest Rate
18% on declining balance
Avg. Repayment Period
10 Months
Cumulative Repayment Rate
98.94%
Default Rate
1.06%
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