Awam R. Karunakaran
Hawassa University, Awassa, Ethiopia
It is often said that Cooperative is an industry where fine rational human beings are produced with the materials of honesty, unity, equality, etc. Moreover, social integration, education and training, community development, gender equality and protection against twin evils of rugged individualism and blatant totalitarianism are the ways in which cooperatives contribute for social development as well as for sustainable human development. Social contribution of cooperatives therefore, cannot be under-estimated. The main objective of the study is to assess the social impact of cooperatives with particular reference to contribution of social benefits, contribution of democratic benefits and contribution of empowerment benefits. The study is based on empirical analysis. Hence field survey method was adopted. As it covers both rural and urban area, multi-stage random sampling procedure has been employed to select the area as well as respondents. As the issues to be addressed in the study are of qualitative and quantitative nature, different tools and techniques of data collection have been used. Besides Personal Interview (PI) for administering the Structured Interview Schedule (SIS) among the respondents, Focus Group Discussion (FGD) and a few Participatory Rural Appraisal (PRA) techniques have been used. Findings reveal that members of cooperatives have high perception on the social, democratic and empowerment benefits of Cooperatives. They view cooperatives as social institutions where economic benefits can also be availed especially by those who are deprived of access to resources. Long years of membership in cooperatives, increased use of services of cooperatives and greater participation in the management of cooperatives have enabled to derive greater social benefits of Cooperatives. Hence, whatever be the lapses and ineffectiveness in the economic achievements of cooperatives, the social, democratic and empowerment benefits extended by cooperatives to individuals, and the society at large are very explicit and appear forefront. There are evidences that cooperative movement in the district has made sustainable social impact among people.