Cooperative Societies for Sustaining Rural Livelihood: A Case

Cooperative societies in India played an important role in development of agriculture, banking, credit, agro-processing, storage, marketing, dairy, fishing and housing sectors. Cooperatives role in poverty alleviation, food security and employment generation is well established. It is observed that cooperatives may deliver goods and services in areas where both public and private sectors have failed. Several cooperatives were formed in urban and rural areas but the cooperative in village Mulkanoor, demonstrated the possibility of cooperation. As a result of continuous efforts of potential members, Mulkanoor Cooperative Rural Bank was established with 375 members from 14 villages within a radius of 10 km in 1956. Shri A. K. Vishwanath Reddy, the founder, at the age of 30 years collected a total share capital of Rs. 2300. The main objective of society was to provide loans with low interest rate to farmers to increase crop production and to stop male out migration as well as exploitation from money lenders. Today the Mulkanoor cooperative society has 6251 members, 106 employees with 6,968.23 lakhs working capital. Thus, Mulkanoor cooperative society is a successful model in the country and there is a need to strengthen the cooperative societies in the country on the same line to meet the demand of food, fodder, shelter and employment for our increasing humen and live-stock population in days to come. Key words: Cooperative societies; Cooperative structure; Employment generatio