1. DR. MEDHA DUBHASHI,
ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR AND
HEAD OF CENTRE FOR GENDER STUDIES ,
VAIK UNTH MEHTA NATIONAL INSTITUTE OF COOPERATIVE MANAGEMENT,
PUNE,INDIA
Email: medha_dubhashi@rediffmail.com
EMPOWERING WOMEN IN COOPERATIVES
2. 1. WOMEN AS LEADERS, ENTREPRENEURS
AND DECISION MAKERS
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• Women’s roles in cooperatives
• Participation in decision making
• Systems to empower women: micro
finance
3. HUMAN RIGHTS
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• institutional mechanisms and
Legislations
• Dissemination of law among
Transnational Corporations and civic
society
4. INTERNATIONAL COOPERATIVE YEAR
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• The United Nations declared the International
Cooperative Year (ICY) 2012 with the realization
that “cooperatives make a better world”.
• cooperatives have emerged as socio-
economic organizations that would bring
equality in incomes
5. Co-operatives are a reminder
to the international
community that it is possible
to pursue both economic
viability and social
responsibility.
- Ban Ki-moon, UN Secretary
General
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7. COOPERATIVES IN INDIA
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• India is ranked 6th in terms of number of cooperatives
• 72.2% of population live in 6,38,000villages
• Number of cooperatives at all levels 6,10,020
• Membership of 263.6 million
9. GENDER EQUALITY AND GENDER EQUITY
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• Three decades that the united Nations helped focus public attention on the
important role women can play in socio economic development
• From Mexico to Copenhagen and Nairobi to finally Beijing has brought center
stage these issues
• Further enhanced by the Beijing Platform for Action and the MDGs
• India is a signatory to CEDAW
• We have partnered with ICA, ILO-COOPNET in conducting regional
workshops as a step towards gender sensitizing members, cooperators,
leaders and office bearers of cooperative business
10. WOMEN IN COOPERATIVES
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• The report of the National Commission of Self Employed Women and
women in the Informal sector expresses that “cooperative is an
important instrument through which women can get access to credit,
production inputs, marketing facilities and other forms of support.”
• Cooperatives provide a forum for women to come together and acquire
better bargaining power
• women are organized in their economic activities and their produce is sold
for a remunerative price. This can be facilitated through women
cooperatives
• Women are active in most types of cooperatives such as banks, dairy,
consumers, agricultural marketing, fisheries and allied activities, thrift and
credit societies, producer societies and industrial cooperatives
11. WOMEN COOPERATIVES VALUE IN ` MILLION, MEMBERSHIPIN ‘000
MEM,MILLION
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VALUE RS IN
MILLIONS
11
2007-08 2008-09
No. of cooperatives 11,510 11,615
Membership 10, 24,525 10,28,934
Share capital 254.3 261.9
Business turnover 1468.88 1484.51
Deposits 953.14 955.69
Societies incurring profit 37.62% 38.54%
13. EXCLUSIVE WOMEN COOPERATIVES
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• As compared to the total number of
cooperatives, the number of women
cooperatives is still small.
• Exclusive women cooperatives
constitute only 1.7% of the total number
of cooperatives.
14. STRATEGIES FOR MAINSTREAMING WOMEN IN
COOPERATIVES
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• It is therefore, necessary to work out a strategy to bring
women in the mainstream of the cooperative movement.
• The strategy has three components :
• Integration of women in cooperatives through participation
of women in leadership and decision making bodies
• Economic empowerment of women through development of
entrepreneurship, micro finance and
• Mitigation of discrimination and bias against women
15. 97TH CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT
15
• Right to every citizen to form cooperative societies
• Provide for cooperative education and training for its
members
• Challenge to
• Sensitizing management to cooperative values and principals
• Ensuring the competitiveness of cooperatives
• Develop human resource capacities
• form women cooperatives/women dairy cooperatives (WDCS)
16. GOOD PRACTISE
TRAINING ON GENDER SENSITIZATION IN
COOPERATIVES
• A case study of Kolhapur Zilla Sahakari Dudh Utpadak Sangh Ltd.
(Gokul)* highlights how the management took the decision to
integrate the rural women in its business and
• economically empower them by making the bills in their
names.
• For this change to take place in a traditional society, it required
that the men be adequately sensitized to "gender issues" and
• to take their commitment to encourage women to play an
active role in forming Women Dairy Cooperatives (WDCs).
• At the same time capacity building programs for women were
important to give them the confidence and to strengthen their
capabilities.
18. GENDER INTEGRATION IN COOPERATIVES
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# Sub-Regional workshop for Central and South Asia on Gender Integration
in Cooperatives conducted by the author at VAMNICOM (April 1996).
18
• Some notable findings that emerged from a workshop on
Gender Integration in Cooperatives were
• The participation of women is more in middle
management than senior management.
• Women have not been represented on elected bodies
or in top management in numbers proportionate to
their contribution.
• Women have no significant role in the decision making
policies of these federations.
• Because of the above-mentioned points, the qualitative
participation of women in cooperatives leaves much
to be desired
19. NCUI M F T
BOD 38 2 40
EC 9 - 9
TM 28 6 34
NAFED
BOD 40 1 41
EC 10 - 10
TM 133 6 139
NCCF
BOD 16 - 16
EC - - -
TM 120 4 124
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BOD-BOARD OF DIRECTORS, EC –EXECUTIVE
COMMITTEE, TM-TOP MANAGEMENT
19
20. QUANTITATIVE AND QUALITATIVE PARTICIPATION
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• The very meager presence of women in committees.
• In top management level women comprise hardly 17.65, 4.3%
and 3.2%.
• The very less representation of women in the Board of
Committee levels shows that women have no significant role in
the decision-making policies of these federations.
• If we look deeper into the qualitative participation of women
i.e. their involvement in elections, decision-making about
cooperative activities and financial matters, women
representation is negligible ;in the ratio of 1:40.
21. 8/30/2015 21
• Therefore, there is not much headway in the
involvement of more women in cooperatives.
• As a result, the cooperative movement has lost the
benefit of additional human resources which women
cooperators could provide in the successful promotion
of social and economic objectives
• Men and women serving as elected representatives are
accountable to the membership in primaries; and
members have equal voting rights
22. GOOD PRACTICE: POLICY INITIATIVES
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• To involve women in the decision making
processes, the Government of India introduced
the 73rd and 74th Amendment, encouraging
women in local bodies of self government -
Panchayat Raj
23. EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH COOPERATIVES
IN MAHARASHTRA
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• The Government of Maharashtra, was one of the first
state in India which amended the Cooperative Societies
Act by introducing a compulsory provision of 30%
representation of women on the Board of Directors.
• This will enable the women to be a part of the decision-
making process
24. WOMEN REPRESENTATION ON BOARDS
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• The 1992 amendment of the Maharashtra Cooperative Societies Act
introduced reservation of seats on committees of societies for women
members.
• Under section 73 B, committee of each society will have representation of
women members as follows:
• One seat on the committee consisting of not more than 9 committee
members
• Two seats on the committee consisting of 10 or more, but not exceeding 19
committee members
• Three seats on the committee of 20 or more committee members.
25. THE “PUNE DECLARATION”
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# Empowerment of Women Through Micro Credit Programme.
February 17-19, 1999 (in collaboration with NABARD) conducted by
the author at VAMNICOM.
T
25
• The participants at a National Seminar sought to “Empower” women
• through strategies and an Action Plan that enumerated the following :-
• Supporting women’s organizations, formal and informal, to develop self-employment and
entrepreneurship among women.
• Working with organizations to build awareness and ensure their participation in programs
for women.
• AND in pursuance of the broad objectives :-
• To develop micro-credit systems for women entrepreneurs
• To develop best practices in financial services to women entrepreneurs
• Improve data collection on women micro entrepreneurs and enterprise
• To conduct impact studies of support programs including credit to develop women
entrepreneurship.
26. • Formal banking with informal groups
• Micro Finance division
• Mobilizing women into Self Help Groups
• Thrift and savings
• Internal lending for 6 months
• Consumption or productive loans
• Identification of Income Generating Activities
(IGA)
• Opening a group savings account in the Bank
• Micro enterprises
GOOD PRACTICE:
COOPERATIVE BANK
Kallappanna Aawade
Ichalkaranji Janata Sahakari
Bank,, Ichalkaranji, Kolhapur ,
Maharashtra, india
PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
26
27. “The Manchester of the East
”
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#PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
VAMNICOM. 27
28. The Flour Mill
Supplying Wheat flour locally
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# #PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
28
29. Buffalo rearing
Sells milk to the local café shops
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#PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
29
30. The Brick kiln
Breaking stereotypes
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#PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
30
31. Bangle seller
Colorful accessory of women
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# EMPOWERMENT OF WOMEN THROUGH
MICRO CREDIT PROGRAMME. FEBRUARY 17-
19, 1999 (IN COLLABORATION WITH NABARD)
CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT VAMNICOM. T
31
33. Onion: grading
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##PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
33
34. Beauty parlour
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#PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
34
35. Ms Najamabi Gulab Shaikh
Self Help Group Mobilizer
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##PROGRAM ON MICRO FINANCE,
ORGANIZATIONAL DEVELOPMENT AND
OPPORTUNITIES TO URBAN COOPERATIVE
CREDIT INSTITUTIONS (23-26TH SEPTEMBER
,2013) CONDUCTED BY THE AUTHOR AT
VAMNICOM. 35
36. • There are as many as 26 SEWA
sponsored cooperatives of all types –
• the SEWA Sahakari Bank;
• Abina, the Chindi Workers
Cooperative;
• the Bann-san, the cane and bamboo
workers cooperative;
• Aabodana the Handblock Printers
Cooperative;
• Vijay and Utsah – the Weavers
Cooperative;
• Matsyagandha – the Fish Vendors
Cooperative;
• the service cooperatives comprising
of paper pickers group and
• Saundarya, the cleaners
cooperative,
• livestock cooperatives,
• land based cooperatives,
• Sangini – the child care
cooperative;
• Jwala – the kerosene vendors
cooperative;
• trading and vending cooperatives;
the carpenter’s cooperative; the
potters cooperative etc.
SELF EMPLOYED WOMENS ASSOCIATION,
AHMEDABAD,INDIA
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37. BHAGINI NIVEDITA SAHAKARI BANK LTD.
• Traditionally, banking and finance were perceived as the domain of men.
• a bank run by women.
• Founded on 24th March, 1974,
• the chief promoter of the bank was Late Shri.Vivekrao Dadhe. He was by
profession a chartered Accountant. The Bank was initially started in
Ahmednagar as a cooperative bank. One section of this bank was run
exclusively by women. Inspired by this, Shri Dadhe started a bank in
Pune, which would be run exclusively by women.
38. THE INITIAL YEARS
• In the beginning the Bank had to take tremendous
efforts to mobilize share capital. People did not have
faith in the concept of a bank being run solely by
women
• each share was pegged at a modest Rs.100 per share,
39. OBJECTIVE
• financial assistance to women entrepreneurs
• - educate women in particular about management of
their daily finances
• - facilitate finance for women entrepreneurs.
40. MEMBERSHIP:
• Membership is open to men and women. 70% of
members are women.
• Currently there are more than 27,000 regular members
who have contributed to the capital base of over Rs.4
crores.
41. STRUCTURE
• The organizational structure is simple and functional and reflects the
small size of the bank.
• The Bank is governed by an all-woman Board of Directors, out of which
one is from a low income group and one is from the backward class. At
least two of the directors are conversant with finance and cooperative
banking.
• Each Branch is headed by a Branch Manager. At the Branch level there
are mainly the Loans Section and the Deposits Section.
• Many of the functions are centralized like Internal Audit, Administration,
Share services, Accounts and Legal.
42. UNIQUENESS
• Excusive women banks
These banks have only women member and are managed
by women.
By virtue of their structure ,they have far better potential to
bring about social transformation
SEWA, GRAMEEN Bank
43. FINANCIAL INTERMEDIARY FOR LOW INCOME
• Low income people have shown that with responsive
institutions , they can repay the .loans and use their
increased incomes and assets to transform their
enterprises and their lives.
Nancy Berry, President, Women’s World Banking
44. CONSULTATION ON WOMEN EXECUTIVES
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National Consultation on Women Executives in cooperatives- Gender Discrimination in Work places April 1998
44
• A National Consultation on “Women Executives in
cooperatives – Gender Discrimination in Work
places “was organized in collaboration with ILO-
COOPNET.
• A charter was released with the mission of
empowerment of women and advancement of
women in cooperatives.
45. RECOMMENDATIONS
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• The forum made the following recommendation:
• Ensure gender equality and justice
• Enable mitigating discriminatory practices against
women through hostile, intimidating or threatening acts
• Promote an affirmative policy that would encourage
the advancement of women in decision making bodies
46. 8/30/2015 46
• Provide a gender friendly environment with easy
access to information and resources
• Develop net working with national and international
partners in cooperatives
• Conduct training and education programs of women
member’s officer bearers and managers in
cooperatives.
47. GENDER BUDGETING
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• The Ministry of Women and Child development is the nodal ministry
• It is giving financial assistance for training and research
• Challenge: Its implementation by state governments
• Convergence of schemes
• Good Practice:
• Following a workshop for senior officers, Principal secretaries and Policy makers, the
Government of Maharashtra issued a notification in 2011 of setting up “ Gender
Budgeting Cells” in various Departments
• On the basis of its Performance Budget ,the schemes of the Cooperative Department
are being analyzed with a gender perspective
• The “Women Policy” drafted by the State has reserved 10% of funds for Gender
Budgeting
48. HUMAN RIGHTS
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• institutional mechanisms and
Legislations
• Dissemination of law among
Transnational Corporations and civic
society
49. NATIONAL COMMISSION FOR WOMEN
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• National Commission for Women. The apex national level organization of
India with the mandate of protecting and promoting the interests of women
.ncw.nic.in/
• The National Commission for Women was set up as statutory body in
January 1992 under the National Commission for Women Act, 1990 ( Act
No. 20 of 1990 of Govt.of India ) to :
• review the Constitutional and Legal safeguards for women ;
• recommend remedial legislative measures ;
• facilitate redress of grievances and
• advise the Government on all policy matters affecting women.
50. SEXUAL HARASSMENT OF WOMEN AT
WORKPLACES(PREVENTION, PROHIBITION, AND
REDRESSAL) ACT,2013
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51. COMPLAINT MECHANISM
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• Every employer , whether in the government service, private or
multinational companies
a mandatory to set up a Internal Complaints Committee.
• Internal Complaints Committee is to be headed by a senior
woman, and not less than half of its members should be women
• Defined under the act as any unwelcome sexually determined
behavior, whether directly or by implication
54. • 7 sub groups- Education and Training, Hospitality, Hospitals,
Manufacturing, Media, Research Services
• Participants deliberated on legal and organizational framework emerging
in the wake of the Sexual Harassment of Women at Workplace Act
55. GOAL OF THE SURVEY
55
Understand the
perception of employees
on safety of women
employee.
Getting suggestions on
improving safety .
56. 56
Survey conducted across
4 companies.
One survey for women
and one for men.
Quantitative and
qualitative questions were
asked.
58. RESPONSES BY WOMEN
• Low Awareness
• 68% women not aware of help line numbers
• 44% women not aware of formal policies on safety and prevention of
harassment of women at workplace.
• 43% women not aware of the government laws.
58
59. RESPONSES BY WOMEN
• 30% women do not feel safe to work in the night shift
• 30 % women do not feel safe while travelling from work to home post 7:00 pm
• 21% women do not feel safe on tours and trips if there is no other
woman accompanying them
59
60. RESPONSES BY MEN
• 20% men not aware of formal policy on safety and policy
against harassment of women at workplace
• 90% men feel it is important for organization to provide formal training
on prevention of sexual harassmentand
women safety issues to all employees
60
62. IN CONCLUSION
• The year 2015 will mark the 70th anniversary of the founding of the United Nations and it
would be a fitting occasion to strengthen and sustain the reform s in mainstreaming and
empowering women
• October 2nd is the 144th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi ,who also worked for
poverty eradication and improving women’s conditions
• Inclusive development has to be at the core of the post 2015 development agenda
• To this end we have to pursue time bound ,non- discriminatory reforms that will give
opportunities for women to be leaders in the 21rst century
