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In a historic move, a separate ‘Ministry of Co-operation’ has been created by the Union Government for realizing the vision of ‘Sahakar se Samriddhi’.
Background
- In her Union Budget address, the Finance Minister had said that the Union government is committed to the development of multi-state cooperatives and will provide all support to them.
- To further streamline the ease of doing business for cooperatives, the Minister proposed to set up a separate administrative structure for them.
- The NGO Sahakar Bharati first demanded a separate ministry for the cooperative sector at the national level.
More information
- The Ministry of Cooperation will provide a separate administrative, legal and policy framework for strengthening the cooperative movement in the country.
- It will help deepen Co-operatives as a true people based movement reaching upto the grassroots.
- In our country, a Co-operative based economic development model is very relevant where each member works with a spirit of responsibility.
- The Ministry will work to streamline processes for ‘Ease of doing business’ for co-operatives and enable development of Multi-State Co-operatives (MSCS).
- With the creation of the Ministry of Cooperation, there will now be a total of 41 central government ministries.
Second Ministry
- The Ministry of Cooperation is the second ministry to be created since 2019, after the Modi government came to power for the second time.
- The current government earlier created the Jal Shakti ministry.
- It was created by integrating two existing ministries dealing with water i.e Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation, and Drinking Water & Sanitation ministry.
Cooperative movement in India
- The first Cooperative Credit Societies Act was passed in 1904.
- To remove the weaknesses of this Act, the new Cooperative Societies Act was passed in 1912.
- The first co-operative society of India was registered in 1905 at Kanaginahal village, Gadag district of Karnataka. .
- The first co-operative movement in Asia was stated at Kanaginahal under the leadership of Sri Siddanagouda Sanna Ramanagouda Patil (1843–1933), who is known as the ‘Father of Cooperative movement in Karnataka.
Constitutional provision for cooperative society
After the 97th amendment i.e. right to form cooperative societies and including it in Article 19 of the Constitution, the practice of forming cooperative societies has become one of the fundamental rights of an Indian citizen.
Source: PIB
