"Impact of Cooperatives on Socio-Economic Development: A Study of Tanahun District of Nepal"
Author: OJHA, ABIN, Ph.D. , abinojha@gmail.com
Department: Sociology
University: Babasaheb Bhimrao Ambedkar University (A Central University), India
Supervisor: Prof. Dr. Bibhuti Bhushan Malik
Year of completion: 2015
Language of dissertation: English
Keywords:
Cooperatives
, Socio-Economic Development
, Inclusion and Capacity Buildin
, Tanahun, Nepal
Areas of Research:
Social Transformations and Sociology of Development
, Economy and Society
, Participation, Organizational Democracy and Self-Management
Abstract
The problem of this research has been identified as "Impact of Cooperatives on Socio-Economic Development: A Study of Tanahun District of Nepal". This research has unveiled some issues such as, role of cooperatives in strengthening the socio-economic conditions of the members, changes in the socio-economic conditions of the members after joining of cooperatives, situation and status of women and Dalits in cooperatives, cooperatives' approach for the capacity building of their members and the perceptions and observations of members on the different aspects of cooperatives through this case study.
The research has set some specific objectives as; a) to study the socio-economic backgrounds of the members of cooperative in the study area, b) to find out how members have been benefited socially and economically from cooperatives, c) to examine the status and situations of women and Dalits in the cooperatives, d) to assess the role of cooperatives in the capacity building of members, e) to explore the perceptions of members on the various aspects of cooperatives, f) to provide relevant suggestions and recommendations for the socio-economic development of Nepal via cooperative movement.
This study has three types of respondents, secretaries of management committee of cooperatives, general members of cooperatives and non-members. Three different sets of semi-structured questionnaire have been made for these respondents. Beside these, key informant interviews, focus groups discussion and observation and field study were made to acquire the required data for the study. Study area consists of 336 cooperatives of various types with more than 70,000 members. Saving and credit, multipurpose, agriculture and dairy cooperatives are dominant cooperatives of the study area in term of numbers and membership. Thus it was expected that these cooperatives have greater influence in the socio-economic development of the members. Therefore, minimum 25% from each of these four dominating types of cooperatives were selected for the study. Randomly 75 secretaries from 75 cooperatives likewise, near about 0.30% of the total members of cooperatives i.e., 200 members and 100 non-members were selected as the respondents for the study. Hence, total 375 respondents consisting 75 secretaries, 200 members and 100 non-members of cooperatives were selected for the study. Here, cooperatives were selected purposively using quota sampling and respondents were selected randomly.
This study has been divided into seven chapters. First chapter is the introduction of the study which has dealt with the conceptual aspects of the study. Second chapter has presented the brief history of genesis, growth and development of cooperatives in Nepal. Similarly, third chapter has given brief introduction to study area 'Tanahun' and socio-economic and demographic backgrounds of the respondents. Chapter four was about the cooperatives and socio-economic development of members. Inclusion, participation and decision making of members in cooperatives were analyzed on the fifth chapter of this study. Socio-economic changes that observed in the members after joining the cooperatives has been assessed in chapter six. Changes in the various social and economical aspects of the members are examined based on the empirical data proceed from the survey. Summary, conclusions and recommendations of the entire study was presented in the last but not least, chapter seven. Besides all this, bibliography and appendices were added at the end of the thesis. APA method has been applied for Bibliography.
