A curriculum made for exploring the promise and drawbacks of cooperatives as a method for community economic development in rural Bihar, India.

1. Cooperatives
Study-action-reflection

3. अपनापन //
Ownership
Study

4. अपनापन // Ownership in business
Study

5. सहकारी समिति // cooperative
Study

6. अपनापन // Shared resources
Study

7. Merchant Banker
Rotating Chit Fund
Moneylender
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E Friends & Family
Study

8. East
India
Company
Study
Original
Corporate
Raiders

9. William Raiffeisen
Study

10. LIMITATIONS // Corruption & Malfeasance
Study

11. AMUL // a success story
Study

12. AMUL // a success story
“When our country fought for its freedom from British rule, it
evolved leadership of a quality that any nation anywhere in
the world would have been proud of…yet, when we look
around, we see that we are dependent almost entirely on our
political and parliamentary system for future leaders. Since
these structures now seem interested only in power and
money, the quality of the leadership that emerges through
them is, to say the least, ignoble. Therefore, today, perhaps
more than at any other period in the history of our nation,
there is a dire need to create a new generation of leadership
through a plurality of truly democratic structures. What we at
Anand and at NDDB tried to do was to create this plurality of
democratic institutions at the village level, underpinning our
democratic structure in Delhi or in the state capital. It is
through such democratic structures, which permeate right
down to the village level, that a dynamic future leadership of
the country will evolve”
(Dr. Kurien, p. 204-205).
Study

13. SEWA // a success story
“It is the women who are the
leaders in change and without
their participation, poverty can
never be removed”
– Ela Bhatt
Study

14. C
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V
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S Action

15. A few simple guiding questions for the visits
Question Observation
What surprised you and why?
What did you think was
working well?
What did you think could be
improved upon?
What were the decision-
making processes and
mechanisms in the
organization?
How are economic
distribution questions
handled?
What financial tools are
available and offered?
Who is included? Who is
excluded?
What are the implications of
the policies and practices
you observed for the most
oppressed members of
society?
What intervention would you
make to improve upon the
overall functioning of the
organization?
Action

16. ACTION // Set up your own co-operative
As a thought exercise, based on what you have learned about the history of cooperatives in India and on
what you have seen in the field, in a group of 3, think about how you would set up your own co-operative.
Pay close attention to:
• Objective: What will you do and why?
• Values: What would you like your guiding values to be? How will you decide them to begin with?
• Governance: What will your governance and decision-making processes be?
• Financing: How will you finance your activities?
• Membership: Who will form your membership and why? Will all employees be members or just some?
• Challenges: What do you think the most salient challenges would be and how do you plan to address them?
• Information: What other information do you need in order to effectively initiative and run this cooperative?
Action

17. Reflection // learnings
Each team can present their ideas and get feedback from the rest of the group
Afterward, the entire team can reflect on what this process has been like for them
Try to also reflect on what steps, if any, we should take differently moving forward
Action