Empowering Voices: The Role of Women Co-operatives in Elevating Weaker Sections

India’s cooperative movement is one of the largest in the world, with over 8.5 lakh cooperatives serving more than 30 crore members. Yet, for a long time, women – who contribute enormously to rural economies – remained at the margins of this movement. Women’s cooperatives emerged precisely to correct this imbalance. By organizing women into collective enterprises built around dairy, industrial production, and thrift and credit services, these cooperatives have become one of the most effective tools for economic empowerment, social justice, and meaningful participation in decision-making – especially for women from weaker sections of society.

What are women’s cooperatives? 🔗

A women’s cooperative is a member-owned enterprise formed exclusively or primarily by women to address their shared economic and social needs. The International Cooperative Alliance defines cooperatives as autonomous associations of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social, and cultural needs through jointly-owned and democratically-controlled enterprises. Women’s cooperatives follow this same structure – but with a deliberate focus on dismantling barriers that prevent women from accessing credit, markets, employment, and leadership roles.

In India, women’s cooperatives broadly fall into three key categories: dairy cooperatives, industrial cooperatives, and thrift and credit societies. Each category targets a different dimension of women’s lives and livelihoods. Together, they form a comprehensive support system that extends well beyond income generation.

Women’s dairy cooperatives 🔗

Dairy has always been a women-centric activity in India’s rural economy. Farm women have traditionally spent significantly more time on dairy tasks than male members of the household – managing milch animals, handling milk collection, and maintaining records. Yet, for decades, their contribution went unrecognized and unrewarded.

Women’s Dairy Cooperative Societies (WDCSs) were formed specifically to change this. Under India’s landmark Operation Flood programme, village-level dairy cooperatives were organized with a deliberate push to include women as active members. Under the National Dairy Plan I (NDP I), over 45% of the new members enrolled were women, and more than 4,000 all-women cooperative societies were established during that period. The National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) also appointed Lady Extension Officers (LEOs) to specifically engage with and train women milk producers.

The impact of these cooperatives goes beyond milk income. Income from women dairy cooperative societies enables members to make household expenditure decisions independently, reducing financial dependence on male family members. A study on dairy cooperative societies in Bihar found that participation in these societies improved women’s socio-economic conditions and increased their intra-household bargaining power. Today, women account for 35% of all participants in dairy cooperatives across India – and the number continues to grow.

The success of Amul, built on the Anand pattern cooperative model, stands as the most cited example. Amul today counts 3.6 million women dairy farmers as members, making it one of the world’s most gender-inclusive cooperative enterprises.

Training, capacity building, and market access 🔗

Dairy cooperatives do not simply collect milk – they also build the capacities of their women members. The Ministry of Cooperation, through institutes like VAMNICOM, conducts skill development programmes for women in dairy, handlooms, micro-credit, rural entrepreneurship, and other sectors. Members receive training in animal husbandry, milk quality testing, and cooperative management. This hands-on exposure strengthens women’s confidence and gives them the tools to make informed decisions both within their cooperatives and at home.

Women’s industrial cooperatives 🔗

Industrial cooperatives for women focus on production-based livelihoods – garment-making, handicrafts, food processing, handloom weaving, and other cottage industries. These cooperatives provide women with a formal structure through which they can access raw materials, receive technical training, produce goods collectively, and sell them through organized marketing channels.

The most celebrated example of a women’s industrial cooperative in India is Shri Mahila Griha Udyog Lijjat Papad, popularly known as Lijjat. Lijjat introduced a decentralised production model for over 45,000 female members, enabling them to produce and earn from their own homes. What began in 1959 with seven women rolling papads in a Mumbai chawl is now a national brand with a turnover of hundreds of crores – entirely managed by women members who call each other “sisters.”

Research on Lijjat’s model found that this collective form of entrepreneurship empowered members through economic security, entrepreneurial behavior, and increased contributions to their families. Crucially, the cooperative model – with its democratic governance and shared ownership – gave women not just income but a sense of agency and belonging.

Women’s industrial cooperatives are particularly significant for two reasons. First, they enable women to earn without leaving their homes or communities, which is important in regions where mobility is restricted by social norms. Second, they link individual household production to organized markets, solving the marketing problem that isolated women producers cannot solve on their own. Cooperatives give women access to resources like credit, training, and marketing facilities on an equal basis – access that formal markets and institutions rarely provide them individually.

Role of SEWA in industrial empowerment 🔗

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), founded by Ela Bhatt in Ahmedabad in 1972, is both a trade union and a cooperative network. SEWA has organized its members into 160 cooperatives, 15 economic federations, and thousands of self-help groups covering sectors from construction and artisanal crafts to agriculture and street vending. SEWA today associates with 3.2 million women workers across 18 states of India, making it one of the most significant grassroots women’s organizations in the world.

SEWA’s model is instructive. It pairs the collective strength of a union – for advocacy, bargaining, and legal protection – with the economic infrastructure of a cooperative, including production support, marketing, and skill training. Its members report greater confidence, reduced domestic violence, and an increased sense of empowerment after joining – outcomes that go far beyond the income numbers.

Women’s thrift and credit societies 🔗

Access to credit is one of the most persistent barriers women in India face. Traditional banks demand collateral, documentation, and formal income proof – conditions that most rural or low-income women simply cannot meet. Women’s Thrift and Credit Cooperative Societies were designed to fill this gap. These are member-owned financial cooperatives where women pool small savings regularly and lend to each other at reasonable interest rates.

The most widespread form of this model in India is the Self-Help Group (SHG), especially through NABARD’s SHG-Bank Linkage Programme, launched as a pilot in 1992. An SHG typically consists of 10-25 women from similar socio-economic backgrounds who save together and extend credit to each other. Once the group builds internal savings and demonstrates financial discipline, it becomes eligible for bank loans – without individual collateral.

India’s SHGs are now collectively regarded as the world’s largest microfinance project. As of early 2024, these groups disbursed loans amounting to ₹1.7 lakh crore, with a bank repayment rate of over 96% – a figure that rivals or outperforms institutional lending portfolios. The Deendayal Antyodaya Yojana-National Rural Livelihoods Mission (DAY-NRLM) today supports nine million SHGs with nearly 100 million women members.

Beyond loans, thrift cooperatives have significantly improved financial literacy among rural women, many of whom had no prior exposure to formal banking systems. Members learn how to maintain accounts, track savings, and evaluate loan applications – skills that translate directly into better household financial management and entrepreneurial capability.

Financial independence and social transformation 🔗

The effects of thrift and credit cooperatives are not purely financial. Research shows that women in savings cooperatives gain greater financial independence and decision-making authority within their households. The economic evidence is equally striking: every ₹1 invested in women’s collectives generates ₹3.50 in local economic activity, and women reinvest approximately 90% of their earnings into family welfare. Microfinance data shows a 98% repayment rate among women borrowers – higher than the 92% rate for men.

At the community level, SHGs have also become vehicles for social change. India’s SHG-BLP programme has demonstrated success in reducing social exclusion alongside financial inclusion, particularly for marginalized women in rural areas. Members gain a platform to discuss not just financial matters but also issues of health, domestic violence, and children’s education – converting an economic institution into a space for social justice.

How women’s cooperatives drive social justice 🔗

Women’s cooperatives are not just economic entities – they are instruments of structural change. The ILO Recommendation No. 193 specifically calls for increasing women’s participation at all levels in cooperatives, recognizing their role in achieving gender equality and decent work. In India’s context, cooperatives have helped dismantle multiple layers of disadvantage simultaneously – poverty, patriarchy, caste discrimination, and geographic isolation.

The cooperative model has been instrumental in enabling women to gain social and political empowerment while also improving access to essential services like banking, housing, insurance, health, nutrition, and education. Women who hold positions in cooperative management committees experience governance firsthand – learning to chair meetings, vote on resolutions, and represent their communities before government institutions. This participatory exposure builds political confidence and leadership skills that extend well beyond the cooperative.

Challenges that still need attention 🔗

Despite the considerable progress, significant challenges persist. Women-only cooperatives account for only 2.52% of all cooperatives in India, and around 50% of them are dormant, largely due to inadequate institutional support, poor financial linkages, limited training, and weak market access. According to a NITI Aayog report from 2023, formal leadership by women in cooperatives remains shockingly low at 2.5% of all cooperatives.

Cultural constraints – such as restricted mobility, unpaid domestic work, and limited decision-making authority within households – continue to limit women’s ability to fully participate in cooperative governance. Financial assistance alone is not sufficient; cooperative growth requires consistent capacity-building, hands-on training, quality control support, and sustained access to markets. Most women’s cooperatives also struggle with low literacy among members, poor infrastructure, and bureaucratic delays in registration and financing.

The way forward 🔗

India’s National Cooperative Policy 2025, under the vision of Sahkar-se-Samriddhi, aims to make cooperatives key drivers of development towards Viksit Bharat 2047. The United Nations has declared 2025 the International Year of Cooperatives, with India taking a leadership role globally. The government is actively expanding PACS (Primary Agricultural Credit Societies) to every Panchayat, deploying Micro-ATMs through dairy cooperative societies as Bank Mitras, and issuing RuPay Kisan Credit Cards to women dairy members – all steps toward deeper financial inclusion.

Digitization is also opening new doors. Online markets, digital payment platforms, and e-commerce channels are helping women cooperatives reach buyers far beyond their villages. When paired with strong training and mentoring support, these tools can decisively bridge the gaps in market access that have historically weakened women’s cooperatives.

The fundamental argument for women’s cooperatives is simple but powerful: cooperatives have the potential to transform rural economies and to empower women – but only if women are placed at the center, not the margins, of cooperative governance and decision-making. The evidence from Amul, SEWA, Lijjat, and millions of SHGs across India shows that when women are given the right structures, support, and trust, they build institutions of extraordinary resilience and impact.

What do you think? Given that around 50% of women-only cooperatives in India are currently dormant, what structural reforms do you think would make the biggest difference in reviving them? And as women’s cooperatives grow, how can they ensure that leadership and governance power actually transfers to women members rather than remaining with external functionaries or government officials?

References

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