*Bharati Vidyapeeth Deemed University, Institute of Management, Kolhapur
Online published on 7 January, 2012.
Co-operative as agency not only acts as business venture but also center of socio-economic change in rural Maharashtra. Co-operatives has certainly done commendable work in generation of employment opportunities in rural Maharashtra.
Success story of co-operative sugar factories is in production of sugar as well as by-products and in establishment of network of various types of co-operatives under its leadership and guidance. The attempt of study is to evaluate the role of cooperatives in generation of employment opportunities.
There are 36 departments in sugar factory. The data is collected from permanent and seasonal employees working in these departments by adopting census method.
Data is collected by using Quota and Purposive sampling techniques from 105 villages out of 115 villages as rest of villages were not important from the point of view of study. Important findings are:
In sugar factory under study, in case of permanent employees when they are retired, no fresh recruitment is done against the vacancy. In case of seasonal workers, number is reducing due to computerization and atomization of plant.
In sugar factory there is negligible number of female employees. In case of permanent employees only 2.66% candidates were from female category. There is not a single female candidate engaged in seasonal employment.
The sugar co-operative provides an employment opportunity to people from all categories and casts represented within region by adopting reservation policy issued by Government.
Due to sugar co-operative the self-employment has been generated in 37 different economic-activities in command area.
Direct Employment, Indirect/Self Employment, Sugar Co- operative/Karhana
