SCOPE

SCOPE Dairy Development & Women's Self-Help Groups
Project in Khour and Akhnoor Blocks


Top: Meeting of Women's Self Help Groups for dairy production. Above, Left: Meeting of Field Assistants who will be establishing and coordinating milk producers' cooperatives in Tehsils Khour and Akhnoor. Above, right: The commencement of milk production at Chak More on 12 Dec., 2005.

Background:
Since its inception, SCOPE has been concerned for the welfare of consumers and mechanisms to ensure development in rural areas. We have always been disturbed by the fact that it was always the middlemen in the milk trade who skimmed the cream while the producers got a raw deal and the consumers always ended up with water. Recently, we have been working with the National Dairy Development Board to establish model milk cooperatives in Tehsils Akhnoor and Khour, which we hope will be expanded throughout the State. Our campaign since 1999 to establish dairy cooperatives in J&K is chronicled at right.

Since February 2005, we have been working to establish our Dairy Cooperative scheme, developed with technical assistance from the National Dairy Development Board. In July 2005, the Pir Panjal Milk Producers Company was registered under the Producers Companies Act to serve as a marketing and distribution vehicle for the milk producing cooperatives that we are establishing in the villages of Akhnoor and Khour. In December 2005, milk production commenced.

Formation of Self-Help Groups for Dairy Production
As a part of the developmental activities being taken up by us in the area, we are forming Women Self Help Groups which are presently engaged in thrift and credit activities since the last six months. These SHGs would ultimately be integrated into Dairying for income generation. We hope that ultimately with economic empowerment, the status of the women in the area of operation would improve.

We have also partnered with the Centre for Women Studies, University of Jammu in order to handle the gender sensitization as also the awareness component of this activity towards the empowering rural women and improving their status in these rural areas. Since we also feel that along with the thrift and credit activities, awareness, educational and allied activities should also be conducted among these SHGs to enable their members to play a more meaningful role in society.

	Name of SHG	Village
•	Luxmi	Mattoo
•	-Pooja	Mattoo
•	Vaishno	Potha
•	Jai Shri Krishna	Dhaunchak
•	Durga	Pangali
•	Mother India Jattan di	Kothi
•	Jai Shakti	Garar
•	Luxmi Narain	Naryana

Latest Developments in Dairy Development Project:

	•	Dairy Cooperatives' Field Assistants Meet, 6 Aug 2005
	•	Pir Panjal Certificate of Incorporation [PDF]
	•	Pir Panjal, First Board Meeting, 10 Aug 2005
	•	Photos from Commencement of Milk Production, Dec. 12, 2005
	•	Photos from milk production, Dec. 28, 2005
	•	Photos from Women's Self-Help Groups, Sept. 2006.
	•	Photos from 1st SHG Meeting, Sept. 2006

Annual Reports:

	•	1999-2000 Summary
	•	2000-2001 Summary
	•	2001-2002 Summary
	•	2002-2003 Summary
	•	2003-2004 Summary

About the National Dairy Development Board:

The National Dairy Development Board was created by the Government of India, through an Act of Parliament, to promote, finance and support producer-owned and controlled organizations. NDDB's programmes and activities seek to strengthen farmer cooperatives and support national policies that are favourable to the growth of such institutions. Fundamental to NDDB's efforts are cooperative principles and the Anand Pattern of Cooperation. Since it's creation, NDDB has established large-scale dairy cooperatives in over a 172 Districts of India. The NDDB wishes to establish dairy cooperatives in Jammu & Kashmir in partnership with SCOPE.

SCOPE: Society for Consumer Protection and Environement
7 Panj Bakhtar Road, Jammu-Tawi Jammu & Kashmir, INDIA Phone 91-191-2548534 (India)	Web: www.scopeforchange.org E-mail: scope@scopeforchange.org Phone: 1-630-664-1149 (USA)

Site last updated on 02 October, 2006