England’s retail Co-ops raise £100,000 for women self-help group in India

Co-operative retail groups from around the UK have raised over £100,000 which will be used to help women self-help groups in India, stated recent reports.

The funding from retail Co-ops will help India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) which in turn will be delivering a two-year incubator programme to support the development of a media co-operative and a research co-operative.

The emergency response was co-ordinated by Co-operatives UK and the Co-operative College, who worked together as part of the International Working Group to collect and co-ordinate the donations from The Co-op Group, Midcounties Co-op, Central England Co-op, Scotmid, Lincolnshire Co-op, Southern Co-op, East of England Co-op, Channel Islands Co-op, Chelmsford Star Co-op, Heart of England Co-op and Co-op News.

The funding programme was launched when the Delta variant ravaged India last year. The support was first created to provide essential basic supplies, health kits and education.

During the initial crisis period, £70,000 of the donation from the UK co-ops was used to provide emergency support. This included the distribution of 4,000 household health kits, with masks, soap and immune boosters distributed across eight states of India. Lifesaving information about the symptoms and spread of Covid was also provided to families in rural and low-income urban areas – to dispel myths and provide accurate health information.

The remaining £30,000 is now being used to deliver a two-year programme supporting the development of two young women’s incubator co-operatives. A grassroots media co-operative will support young women to build capacity in media, journalism, graphic design, photography and new media, whilst a second grassroots co-operative will focus on research, conducting surveys, focus group discussion and report writing.

Rose Marley, CEO of Co-operatives UK said, “We’re pleased to have been able to galvanise support from our largest members in the UK in solidarity with co-operatives across the world in India. This is true international co-operation in action.

Mirai Chatterjee, Chairperson SEWA Cooperative Federation said: “Women in India mainly work informally meaning their earnings can be unreliable and as soon as the crisis hit many lost their income overnight. Thanks to the vital support provided by our co-operative friends in the UK, we’re helping them to form two grassroots co-operatives to create a sustainable livelihood for themselves.”