With a view to grappling with the extraordinary challenges being posed by COVID 19, the national apex body of cooperatives in the country, NCUI is trying to usher in an era of “Digital Cooperative Education & Training” in India.
The challenges before cooperatives are manifold as most of the members are from rural parts of the country and marginalized sections of society. This explains why NCUI Cooperative Union has initiated its education/training activities in a big way.
When NCUI’s NCCE found it difficult to carry out its activities due to the lock down, it began optimally utilizing the online apps available for conducting training programs for various sectors of cooperative movement in the country through the CISCO Webex. These programs are being conducted in collaboration with sectoral federations.
From mid-April’20 onwards a total of 12 online webinars/training progs have been conducted successfully by NCCE for SHGs, Women and Credit sectors. Besides, the employees of NCUI and students of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Sonipat are being trained for Certificate/Diploma Courses in Cooperative Management. Thus, this lockdown period has been put to a productive use for these cooperators.
Apart from learning about cooperatives – ideology, management & legal aspects – the cooperators, especially women spread in the rural areas have been digitally empowered as they are being gradually enabled to attend these programs on digital platforms making “Digital India” the vision of the government of India a reality.
During the months of April and May, 2020 more than 500 participants from India and Nepal attended these online training initiatives of NCCE.
Since the COVID 19 pandemic is yet far from over, and people are expected to resume economic activities with social distancing norms, NCCE has contacted the stakeholders to sensitize them with the issue and take a plunge into the digital training era.
NCUI is busy discussing with several national-level sectoral cooperative federations such as IFFCO, KRIBHCO, multi-state cooperative societies, state/district cooperative union/JCTCs to plan such online training programs for their employees, members and leaders to educate them about cooperatives on the one hand and on the other to enable them to take the use of digital technology further down the grass-roots level.
Sandhya Kapoor Dy Director, NCCE captured the new mood very well when she said “Every crisis is an opportunity as it tests your strength to adapt – be it a living being or an organization. NCUI has resolved to adapt and grow”, she added with confidence.
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