India - Co-operatives Celebrate Women’s Day
Image source: Indian Cooperative] Ms. Vasudha Mishra,(I.A.S) Managing Director addressing at NCUI auditorium
Men and women came together at the NCUI auditorium in New Delhi to mark the International Women’s Day on March 8, 2017. The National Co-operative Union of India (NCUI) and the National Co-operative Development Corporation (NCDC) organized a national workshop on “Strengthening Women Co-operatives,” that was attended by more than 200 women co-operative leaders.
Mr. Radha Mohan Singh, Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare in his valedictory address expressed his disappointment at the low number of women led co-operatives and said, “nature has made woman superior to us men in so many aspects of life and they are capable of providing better cooperative leadership compared to men”. He added that special funds (30% according to a directive of the Union government) must be allocated for women-led co-operatives and training programmes that focus on skill-development of women must be organized in large numbers. Ms. Mirai Chatterjee, Chairperson of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in her address touched on the power of leadership by women and remarked that when women controlled the affairs, one could notice the difference! Ms. Vasudha Mishra (I.A.S), Managing Director, NCDC reasoned that national workshop is aimed at creating awareness among women co-operators on funding opportunities and simple the procedures to access these at the NCDC and the NCUI. The ICA-AP represented by the EU partnership team presented ICA’s advocacy of gender-equal co-operative practices.
