Evaluation Report on the Working of the Large and Small Sized Cooperative Societies

Abstract

The traditional formula for the organisation of the primary cooperative society—in particular the agricultural credit society—in this country has been “one society to one village and one village to one society”. The formula has not been strictly observed in practice; in fact, the present study by the PEO shows that the average small society covers nearly two villages. But the emphasis in policy has been on the smallness of the area to be covered by the primary society. This is based on two grounds, first that the members of a single village or two small adjoining villages would know one another sufficiently well for every one to act as his brother’s keeper, and second that the village being a community in the true sense, its members would willingly provide the honorary service which is necessary for the inexpensive operation of the cooperative society.