Women cooperators at the Seminar
The Gujarat State Cooperative Union (GSCU), India, organised a one-day state level seminar for women cooperators on 8th March 2020. More than 600 women cooperators and leaders from across the state, representing various cooperatives, participated in the Seminar.
The dignitaries at the seminar were, Mr. Nitinbhai Patel, Deputy Chief Minister; Mr. Ishwarsinh T. Patel, Cooperation Minister of Gujarat; and Ms. Bijalben Patel, Mayor of the Municipal Corporation of Ahmadabad. Mr. G. H. Amin, Chairman of GSCU chaired the Seminar and delivered welcome address. He highlighted the role of GSCU in promoting women in cooperatives and enhancing their economic and social empowerment through capacity and skill development initiatives.
Ms. Savitri Singh, Programme Director of ICA-AP participated in the Seminar and made a presentation on the role of cooperatives in women empowerment. Ms. Singh shared information on women in cooperatives at global level, the work of ICA on gender equality, the importance of sex disaggregated data, and some examples of women empowerment and gender equality through cooperatives from the Asia-Pacific region. Ms. Singh also highlighted the current situation of women in cooperatives in Gujarat, particularly, the low numbers in membership and leadership, and highlighted measures to enhance their active participation at all levels of a cooperative business management. Women are mostly segregated in ‘women cooperatives’ organised by the dairy sector and SEWA Federation in Gujarat. It is imperative to bring women into the mainstream, and in mixed membership cooperatives to bridge the gender gap in formal employment and income levels. She also called for a review of cooperative law and policies to create an enabling environment for more women to join coop businesses.
GSCU also launched a significant campaign for environmental sustainability through a collective pledge to discard the use of plastic bags and replace them with cloth bags. The Seminar created the opportunity for networking and knowledge sharing among women cooperators from across the state.
