Table Of ContentREACHING OUT TO THE POOR
Also published by Macmillan
By Geeta Somjee
NARROWING THE GENDER GAP
By A. H. Somjee
DEMOCRATIC PROCESS INA DEVELOPING SOCIETY
PARALLELS AND ACTUALS OF POLITICAL
DEVELOPMENT
POLITICAL CAPACITY IN DEVELOPING SOCIETIES
POLITICAL SOCIETY IN DEVELOPING COUNTRIES
Reaching out to the Poor
The Unfinished Rural Revolution
Geeta Somjee
and
A. H. Somjee
M
MACMILLAN
©GeetaSomjee & A. H.Somjee 1989
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First published 1989
Published by
THE MACMILLAN PRESS LTD
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Companiesand representatives
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Typeset byTecSet Ltd,Wallington, Surrey
British Library Cataloguing inPublication Data
Somjee,Geeta, 1930-
Reaching out to the poor.
1. (Republic) India. (Republic) Western
India.Dairy cooperatives.Socialaspects
I. Title II. Somjee,A. H., 1925
306'344
ISBN978-0-333-46794-7 ISBN978-1-349-20266-9(eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-349-20266-9
To the farmers, veterinarians, dairy techno
logists and socially concerned individuals of
Gujarat who, together, made an effort to zero
in on rural poverty
Contents
Preface ix
1 Amul Dairy: the foundation 1
The Beginnings 1
The Changing Composition of Amul's Milk Producers 6
Some Rural Communities 14
Interdependence of Technocrats and Politicians 28
Some General Observations 35
2 Dudhsagar Dairy: a cooperative miracle 40
The Growth of Dudhsagar Dairy 41
Range of Dairy Activities 45
Involvement of Women 50
Some Rural Communities 55
Some Concluding Observations 67
3 Sumul Dairy: a milk cooperative of the deprived 72
Background and Orientation of Sumul 74
Variety of Mobilisation Efforts 78
Some Rural Communities 90
Some General Observations 100
4 Sabar Dairy: a promising milk cooperative 105
Background 107
Some Special Problems 112
Technocrats and Politicians 117
Some Rural Communities 119
vii
Contents
VllI
Some General Observations 133
5 The Unreached Poor 136
Notes and References 148
Index 151
Preface
This book is about the poor and the constraints of social and
economicrelationshipswithin whichthey are trapped. Itisalsoabout
their inability, given such constraints, to escape from poverty all by
themselves. In their case neither the provisions of public policy nor
specific development stimulus are enough to help them. They need
sociallyconcernedindividuals,whocanmobilizethem,and economic
organizations which can specifically target them for development.
The extent of the effectiveness of such individuals and organizations
would depend on their realistic understanding of the complexity of
cultural, economic, political and human factors which condemn the
poor not only to economic deprivation but also to a many-sided
incapacity to be able to fight back on their own. As such this book
concentrateson the poor, and the complex natureoftheirlimitations,
rather than on abstract notions of poverty.
In different societies the poor are poor for different reasons. Not
allthose reasons are purely economic.Explanationsofthe conditions
of the poor only in terms of their economic deprivation often fail to
take into account the wider cultural, political and human problems
whichgo hand inhand withpoverty. Suchabroad approach becomes
all the more necessary for countries where poverty is sought to be
justified by means of references to social organization, culture and a
deeply internalized belief that the poor are poor not because some
have more than their fair share but because the makers of us all so
ordained.Villageaftervillageinrural India disownsresponsibilityfor
the lessfortunate among them and echoes the deadly conviction that
'there always will be poor'. And if there is someone who can do
something for them, they maintain, it is either the sarkar (govern
ment) or some development agency from outside.
Neither the sarkar nor the bulk of development agencies have had
any appreciable measure of success in fighting poverty. However,
among the economic organizations functioning in rural areas, those
which sprang up by means of grass-roots efforts, and were sustained
by such efforts, have had some measure of success. The milk
cooperatives of western India, with a grass-roots base and with one
weapon at their disposal, namely, dairying, came faceto facewiththe
resourceless poor of their respective districts. And despite the fact
that officially those organizations were supposed to be concerned
IX
x Preface
with 'milk producers' only, a number of their veterinary personnel
and technocrats, without specifically formulated policies, got in
volved, often on their own, in efforts to induct the non-producers
from the poorer strata of rural communities into milk cooperatives.
Much of theireffort was the product of what they felt needed doing.
Some of them succeeded in convincing their superiors of the need to
broaden the scope of their organizations, others did not. Wherever
such socially concernedpersonnel succeededingettingthe supportof
theirsuperiors,the resultswere impressive.In othersthere wasmuch
to bedesired. In this bookweshall examinethe uneven performance,
in that respect, of the four milk cooperatives of western India,
namely Amul, Dudhsagar, Sumul and Sabar.
As we shall see in detail in the following pages, Dudhsagar, in
Mehsana district, probably by now one of the greatest milk coopera
tives in the country, has over 14 per cent of its membership from
among the landless farmers. And although some of those landless
have access to others' farms, either as relatives or as sharecroppers,
a large proportion in this category also consists of the landless
labourers. Given the extraordinary dedication of its veterinary per
sonnel and senior executives to the cause of the poor, chances are
that within the foreseeable future the membership proportion of its
landless may go still higher.
Similarly, Sumul dairy, in Surat district, succeeded in turning its
Adivasis (tribals) - who had neither the culture of drinking milk nor
ofmaintainingmilchanimalsworththe name - into milkproducersto
produce milk. More than seventyper cent of its milk isnowcollected
from its Adivasi villages. Such a double revolution, human and
economic, was brought about by its dedicated veterinary personnel.
A similar move was afoot in Sabar dairy, in Sabarkantha district,
where this youngestof the four dairieswasgettingdeeply involved in
the district's poor, again through its veterinary personnel. And since
its top executive himself was deeply involved in what his junior
colleagueswere doing, Sabarwasable to penetrate nearlyone-fourth
of its tribal villages in the shortest possible time.
Finally, Amul, India's premier milk cooperative. Although it had
generated an enormous liquidity through the sale of milk (Rs161Om
in 1989), and thereby helped the district to improve its agriculture,
stimulated its industrial development of medium-scale industries, of
very high quality, in various small towns including Anand, and
helped build major markets for the sale of grains, vegetables,
agricultural implements, auto parts, etc., its concentration on the
