"Cooperative movement has supported women, farmers, and poor for over a century": Amit Shah

Mumbai (Maharashtra) [India], June 20 (ANI): Union Home Minister and Minister of Cooperation Amit Shah on Friday attended the National Seminar organised by NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India) on the occasion of International Year of Cooperatives 2025.
Speaking at the event, Union Minister Shah stated that cooperatives are a "philosophy" of traditional Indian living and have been supporting the underprivileged and women in society for over a century.
"Cooperatives may be an economic system for the whole world, but for India, cooperatives are a philosophy of our traditional life. Coming together, thinking together, working together, going together for a single goal and dealing with happiness and sorrow together, this is the soul of India's vision of life. In the almost 125 years old cooperative movement, almost in all ups and downs, the work of becoming a support for the lives of the farmers of this country, the poor, the rural citizens, especially the women, has been done by this cooperative movement... Under the cooperative movement, AMUL, IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFED... all these organisations have created deep success stories..." Shah said.
Highlighting the success story of AMUL (Anand Milk Union Limited), the Union Minister for Cooperation said, "I come from Gujarat. Today, 36 lakh poor sisters are associated with AMUL. None of the sisters has invested over Rs 100 in Amul, but their hard work has induced a turnover of Rs 80,000 crores, and the profit directly goes to their bank accounts."
The Union Minister further said that National Taxi, based on a co-operative model will be started and its profit will go directly to the driver's bank account.
He said, "Based on the cooperative model, National Taxi based on co-operative model will be started, in which the driver of every taxi will not be associated with it but will be the owner of Bharat Taxi Co-operative, the profit made in it will go directly to the driver's bank account."
According to Ministry of Cooperation, based on principles of "Sahakar se Samriddhi", a taxi-service cooperative will be formed by willing taxi drivers and the management will rest with the members of such society.
The objective of this initiative is to ensure democratic management by active participation of all members and to ensure that maximum profit earned by such cooperative taxi society is distributed equitably among the taxi drivers who will be members of that society. Such an initiative will lead to overall prosperity and improving the income, working conditions, and standard of living for such taxi drivers/members of the cooperative society while providing better services to the consumers.
Sahkar or Cooperation is a concept where a group of people voluntarily come together and form a cooperative society or Sahkari society based on mutual benefit and common economic interest. Sahkari models of economic cooperation have been found to be more fruitful for its members, being more equitable and resulting in inclusive growth for all, like in the case of Amul.
Government has promoted and assisted Startups and other enterprises in the past for equitable & inclusive growth of the nation. India is home to over 8 lakh cooperative societies, serving nearly 30 crore members across 30 different sectors.
These cooperatives play a crucial role in promoting self-reliance, financial inclusion, and rural development, particularly in agriculture, dairy, fisheries, banking, housing, consumer services, labour, sugar etc. These cooperatives compete in the market alongside other players including private enterprises. The cooperatives are registered under the cooperative laws of the respective state/UT and societies which work in multiple states/UTs and are registered under the Multi State Cooperative Societies Act. (ANI)