The study is based on data collected from 64 WDCSs and 320 women members drawn from six milk sheds of Orissa. Initially women were discouraged to enter a democratic organization like WDCS (men’s power is at stake and that is going to be questioned in future!). Women, slowly but steadily, realised the importance of coming together and expressed solidarity. Soon after starting WDCS, local cows were replaced by high yielding crossbreds. Assured milk marketing, regular payment, supply of quality inputs at a reasonable rate, and continuous monitoring helped them to repose faith in WDCS. Women are now mastering tricks of managing a business enterprise, and also entering politics. Despite increase in workload, women are happy because their status in the house and village has increased and are more demanding now. Increased incomes helped maintaining a reasonable standard of living. WDP has been successful, to a large extent, in achieving its objectives. Given adequate and timely support, and congenial policy environment women could prove that they are inferior to none.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR V.M. Rao
V.M. Rao (b. 1954) holds a doctorate in Dairy Economics and is currently working as Professor and HOD, Department of Research and Publications at Vaikunth Mehta National Institute of Cooperative Management, Pune. He has earlier worked with National Institute of Rural Development, Hyderabad (1984-88), Ahmedabad (1988-92). On a British Council’s fellowship, Prof. Rao visited Belgium, France, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, and United Kingdom. He has authored/co-authored six books: (a) Dairy Framing Socio-Economic analysis of Milk Production (1991), (b) Castor Economy: A Profile and analysis of India and International Market (1991), (c) International Castor Oil Market: An Econometric Analysis (1994), (d) Developing Agro Enterprises Among Farm Women: A Case of Amul (2000), (e) Empowering Farm Women through Dairy Cooperatives: A Study in Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka (2003), and (f) Socio-Economic Status of Tribal women in Arunachal Pradesh (2003). Besides these books, he has published over 60 research papers in various professional journals/books. Dr. Rao also participated in a number of national and international seminars/conferences. His areas of interest are (a) animal husbandry economics, (b) agri-business management, and (c) gender related issues. He has completed 19 research studies sponsored by Government of India, ICSSR, and other state governments in the above areas during 1980-02. Currently, he is engaged in (a) integrating tribal women into cooperative: an experience of Girijan cooperative corporation, (b) impact of women dairy project in Orissa, and (c) impact of women dairy project (Phase 4) in Bihar.
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