The Union Government will soon set up a centre of excellence of skills for cooperatives at Shillong, the first of its kind in the entire Northeast, to help in upgrading the skills of members of cooperative societies in the region.
This was agreed in a meeting between Union Minister for Cooperation Radha Mohan Singh and Meghalaya Minister for Cooperation, HDR Lyngdoh in New Delhi.
According to Shillong Times, Lyngdoh made a strong plea for the centre of excellence with the specific objective to upgrade the skills of members of cooperative societies in the fields of handloom, handicrafts, allied agricultural activities, marketing aspects, industrial activities comprising of small scale and cottage industries and tourism activities in the region.
The Meghalaya government will provide necessary land for establishment of the centre. Lyngdoh told the union minister that the cooperative movement in North East was very weak in comparison to other parts of the country. Apart from institutional problems, lack of proper hands on training and problems of marketing and capital availability are major reasons, he said.
Presently the tribal population of North East needs focused and specific hands on training in respect to updated technological intervention to upgrade their skills and improve business through cooperatives, Lyngdoh said. Unfortunately there are hardly good institutions available in the region to meet this requirement of cooperative members of this region, he added.
Most of the state cooperative unions have also failed to meet the demand of proper education for the cooperative sector and therefore cooperatives are becoming outdated models for younger generations in this part of the country, he said, while expressing confidence that they can still play a vital role in employment and income generation activities for the people of the region.
The felt need of the cooperative sector is to enhance capacity building and skills development in various fields of activities including entrepreneurship skills and management skills, Lyngdoh said.
Meghalaya alone has 1466 registered cooperative societies and there are sizable numbers of cooperative societies in the Northeastern region.
This proposed centre will be a different institute which will cater to the needs and requirements at the grassroots level unlike any type of academic institute in the fields of cooperation and allied subjects, the union minister said.