Cooperative sector groomed leaders, ensured jobs

KANNUR: If you take a walk on the streets of Kannur, you will end up counting numerous cooperative establishments. In a sense, the cooperative sector is the backbone of the economic set-up of the district as it provides employment to thousands.Thus it ensures the survival of political parties, especially the CPM.
"If you take a list of the `who's who' of Kerala politics, there were activists who used the cooperative sector as a means of serving the society even before the Cooperative Law came into force during the time of P R Kurup, the cooperative minister in the EMS ministry in 1967," said Panniyannur Bhasi, an author who studied the history of cooperative sector in Kerala.
From K Kelappan and Vagbhadanandan to Pinarayi Vijayan and E P Jayarajan, we can see the cooperative sector grooming leaders. It could also be seen as a platform for employment generation, he said. "When beedi companies in the region, which were exploiting labourers, shifted their base to Mangaluru after the Cooperative Act came into effect in 1968, it was the Kerala Dinesh Beedi Workers' Central Cooperative Society , which rehabilitated them," he said.
The problem today is that such traditional industries are in crisis and the government is not doing anything to revive them, said CITU state secretary K P Sahadevan. "The sector groomed many leaders such as Vijayan, who was associated with local cooperative bank and became the president of the State Cooperative Bank. The role of the cooperative sector was to ensure better wages and work environment to employees, which were denied in the private sector," he said.
Now, such establishments are diversifying into banking and other sectors, Rubco and Pariyaram Medical College are solid examples, he said. However, it was a sense of equality that helped the Indian Coffee House survive, even after six decades, said P V Balakrishnan, president of Indian Coffee House Workers Cooperative Society .
"As a sector that provides employment to hundreds, it had a prominent role in the labour sector.In the absence of cooperative sector, thousands would have remained unemployed," he said.