Women-run milk co-operatives grow 3-fold in a decade in Gujarat

VADODARA: Women milk co-operatives in Gujarat, famous for being cradle of India’s White Revolution, have grown three-fold in the last one decade.
The state counted for 1,871 village dairy co-operative societies (DCS) that were purely managed by women in 2009-10. Today, Gujarat is home to 5,125 such DCS that are managed by women dairy farmers, according to Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation (GCMMF), that markets brand Amul.
Around 20 km from India’s milk city Anand, a decision that Meena Patel, a resident of Ode village took, changed the course of her family. When Meena got married in 1996, the family had only one cow and a buffalo. Meena’s husband – Vasant — a farmer, was keen to purchase a bike. But Meena, who had just passed Class XI, insisted that they should instead purchase a cow. Now, Meena manages a modern ‘tabela’ that is home to 75 cows and buffaloes. The family not just owns a bike but also a tractor and a car!
Meena herself earns Rs one lakh a month just from 400 litres milk, most of which she pours daily at the Ode DCS, a registered society under Amul Dairy and the excess she sells at her own dairy.
“In the initial seven years, I had to struggle a lot. We had financial constraints. But I started from one cow to 15 and from then onwards there was no looking back. I kept on saving and re-investing in animal husbandry,” said 44-year-old Meena, a mother of two, who is proud to be financially independent.
Like her, 56-year-old Suvarna Patel, a resident of Shekhadi village, 35 km from Anand, too has fought several odds to become financially independent.
“After suffering paralytic attack, my husband has been bed-ridden for over a decade,” said Suvarna, who turned her fortunes from the bonus that she accumulated from pouring milk at the village level milk society.
This Patel family too had a cow and a buffalo. “From the bonus that I got by selling milk, I started increasing the number of cattle. Later, I took a ‘tabela’ on rent,” said Suvarna, who single-handedly scaled up the number of cattle to 32.
Suvarna had passed just class nine. But with her ‘desi’ business sense, she started earning Rs 3.75 lakh a month from the ‘tabela’ for which she hired a caretaker.
“Deducting all the expenses, I could save Rs 75,000 a month,” said Suvarna, who with her own savings not only got her two daughters – Archana and Alka married – but also helped her son Abhishek pursue MBA in hotel management from Brisbane, Australia.
Even as she now plans to wind up her tabela and settle with her son in Australia, this mother of three, is content with one of her daughters settled in London.
“Almost 100% in animal husbandry sector is managed by women. In certain families, the membership might have been registered in the name of a male member but actually, women are the ones who handle everything – right from taking care of the cattle to pouring milk at DCS,” said R S Sodhi, managing director of GCMMF.