Gandhinagar: Gujarat accounts for more than a tenth of India’s primary cooperative societies, making it the state with the second-highest number of such institutions after neighbouring Maharashtra. However, official data tabled in Parliament shows that nearly one in four of the state’s functional cooperative societies are running at a loss.According to information provided by the Union govt in response to a question in the Rajya Sabha on Wednesday, Gujarat has 88,119 primary cooperative societies, second only to Maharashtra’s 227,177. Across the country, there are 8.53 lakh primary cooperative societies, indicating that Gujarat alone accounts for more than 10% of the national total.Data provided by the Union govt said that of the 88,119 cooperative societies in Gujarat, 79,823 are functional, while 6,959 are non-functional and 1,341 are under liquidation.Among the functional societies, 56,977 are profit-making and 18,404 are loss-making, while profitability data is unavailable for 4,442 societies. This means that 23.06% of the state’s functional cooperative societies are incurring losses, pointing to financial stress within a sizable section of the cooperative sector despite Gujarat’s strong cooperative network.Officials said the figures underline the mixed health of Gujarat’s cooperative movement, which has traditionally been regarded as one of the country’s strongest, driven by successful dairy, agriculture and credit cooperatives. While the state continues to have one of the largest cooperative ecosystems in India, the data suggests that a significant number of societies continue to face operational and financial challenges.In a written reply, the govt said that the Union cooperation ministry has taken measures to convert primary agricultural credit societies (PACS), along with dairy and fisheries cooperatives into multipurpose cooperative societies: “This initiative aims to enhance business diversification, strengthen financial sustainability, and prevent closures by enabling cooperatives to engage in a wider range of economic activities,” the written reply said.
