Union Agriculture Minister Radha Mohan Singh said on Monday that the Centre is in the process of introducing a ‘Sahakari Samiti Bill’ to help the cooperative movement in the country become more self-reliant.
Addressing the fifth National Conference on Cooperative Reforms, organised by Sahakar Bharati, Singh stressed the need for training the cooperative workers.
He said women and youth should be brought into the fold of cooperative societies’ work to help India develop at a rapid pace.
Acknowledging the contribution of cooperative movement in India, especially in sectors such as banking, agriculture and dairy farming, he said it had helped reduce economic disparities in society and facilitated sustainable growth.
Citing examples of the success of the milk cooperative movement in Gujarat and sugar cooperatives in Maharashtra, Singh said the movement had also achieved notable success in the southern States in marine product exports.
He said the country currently had 596,000 cooperative societies, making it the largest cooperative movement in the world.