Prime Minister Narendra Modi today addressed the ICA Global Cooperative Conference 2024. During this, Modi said that today when I welcome you all, I am not doing this work alone, I cannot do it. I welcome you all on behalf of all the farmers, fishermen, 10 crore women of self-help groups, more than 8 lakh cooperative institutions. He said that the Global Conference of the International Cooperative Alliance is being organized in India for the first time. We are expanding the cooperative movement in India.
Modi said that I am confident that through this conference we will get information about the future cooperative journey of India. Also, India’s experiences will provide the global cooperative movement with 21st century tools and a new spirit. He said that the freedom movement has also been inspired by cooperation. This not only helped in economic empowerment but also provided a collective platform to the freedom fighters. Mahatma Gandhi’s Gram Swaraj again gave new energy to community participation. He created a new movement in areas like Khadi and village industries and today our cooperation has taken Khadi and village industries ahead of even the big brands.
The Prime Minister said that cooperatives cover about 98% of rural India. About 30 crore people i.e. one out of every five Indians in India is associated with the cooperative sector. Today there are about 2 lakh housing cooperative societies in India. He said that today there are 2 lakh housing co-operative societies in India. Over the last few years, we have strengthened and improved the cooperative banking sector. Today Rs 12 lakh crore are deposited in cooperative banks. Our government has undertaken many reforms to strengthen cooperative banks. Earlier these banks were outside the purview of RBI. We brought them under RBI.
Narendra Modi said that India sees a huge role for future development in its cooperatives, hence in the last 10 years we have worked to transform the entire ecosystem related to cooperatives. Our effort is to make cooperative societies multipurpose. With this goal in mind, the Government of India created a separate Ministry of Cooperation. The more participation a country and society gives to women, the faster it will grow. India today is an era of women-led development, we are focusing a lot on this and women have a big role to play in the cooperative sector also. Today, women have more than 60 percent participation in India’s cooperative sector.
