NCUI gears to usher in Digital era of cooperative training in India

With a view to grappling with the extraordinary challenges being posed by COVID 19, the national apex body of cooperatives in the country, NCUI is trying to usher in an era of “Digital Cooperative Education & Training” in India.

The challenges before cooperatives are manifold as most of the members are from rural parts of the country and marginalized sections of society. This explains why NCUI Cooperative Union has initiated its education/training activities in a big way.

When NCUI’s NCCE found it difficult to carry out its activities due to the lock down, it began optimally utilizing the online apps available for conducting training programs for various sectors of cooperative movement in the country through the CISCO Webex. These programs are being conducted in collaboration with sectoral federations.

From mid-April’20 onwards a total of 12 online webinars/training progs have been conducted successfully by NCCE for SHGs, Women and Credit sectors. Besides, the employees of NCUI and students of Bhagat Phool Singh Mahila Vishwavidyalaya, Sonipat are being trained for Certificate/Diploma Courses in Cooperative Management. Thus, this lockdown period has been put to a productive use for these cooperators.

Apart from learning about cooperatives – ideology, management & legal aspects – the cooperators, especially women spread in the rural areas have been digitally empowered as they are being gradually enabled to attend these programs on digital platforms making “Digital India” the vision of the government of India a reality.

During the months of April and May, 2020 more than 500 participants from India and Nepal attended these online training initiatives of NCCE.

Since the COVID 19 pandemic is yet far from over, and people are expected to resume economic activities with social distancing norms, NCCE has contacted the stakeholders to sensitize them with the issue and take a plunge into the digital training era.

NCUI is busy discussing with several national-level sectoral cooperative federations such as IFFCO, KRIBHCO, multi-state cooperative societies, state/district cooperative union/JCTCs to plan such online training programs for their employees, members and leaders to educate them about cooperatives on the one hand and on the other to enable them to take the use of digital technology further down the grass-roots level.

Sandhya Kapoor Dy Director, NCCE captured the new mood very well when she said “Every crisis is an opportunity as it tests your strength to adapt – be it a living being or an organization. NCUI has resolved to adapt and grow”, she added with confidence.

Source: Indian Cooperative

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COVID-19: Moroto Municipality loses millions in revenue from closed businesses

Moroto Municipality has lost millions of shillings in revenue collection as a result of the current lock down imposed to stop the spread of COVID-19.

The municipality, which used to collect between Shs 9 to 10m monthly before businesses were closed only managed to collect Shs 800,000 for the month of April from the municipality’s North and South divisions.

Isaiah Tumwesigye, the Town Clerk, Moroto Municipality, says these collection figures are unusually low, even in Moroto which has historically struggled with revenues due to a dearth of vibrant businesses in the area.

Nevertheless, the council usually utilises the monthly revenue to maintain hygiene within the town and cover the power bill for street lights in the Municipality.

With revenues even further reduced, Tumwesigye says the council’s ability to offer garbage collection services and bury unclaimed dead bodies within the municipality has been seriously handicapped, a situation he blamed on the ongoing lockdown.

“We are hit badly by the current lockdown because all the areas where we used to get revenue such as lodges, restaurants, bars, bus parks, and markets are closed,” Tumwesigye said.

He noted that the situation has been worsened by the outbreak of cholera disease that has killed five people leaving dozens hospitalized.

In a bid to curb the spread of a cholera outbreak that has hit the district, officials in Moroto municipality last week shut down several rental properties operating without pit latrines, blaming the deadly disease’s spread on the widespread practice of open defecation in the Municipality.

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