Dressed in diffident Khadi—and similar disparaging expressions used by poetasters as well as sartorial experts—was in keeping with the myth that Khadi, the rough-hewn textile, symbolised village bumpkins. That Khadi was embraced by Mahatma Gandhi, who every day spun yarn for his spartan wardrobe, was remembered and talked about more in the rhetorical sense until Prime Minister Narendra Modi took charge, and his confidant and able administrator Amit Shah threw his weight behind the policy of revitalising the cooperative sector as a means of making rural India prosper through swadeshi.

Shah’s efforts aim to increase cooperative membership by 30 per cent—from 8.3 lakh—and to establish a primary cooperative unit in every panchayat. He has set a massive target: cooperatives contributing three times more to India’s GDP by 2034. Shah is spot on when he says successive governments have at best paid lip service to Khadi and at worst neglected it, thereby accentuating the unemployment problem.

In 2014-15, sales of Khadi fabrics and village industry products were Rs 33,000 crore, which have now increased to Rs 1,70,000 crore. But a lot more needs to be done in a milieu where swadeshi, or self-reliance, is catching the imagination even of the gung-ho economists who till recently swore by unbridled imports and exports on the basis of the relative advantage theory of international trade—until US President Donald Trump threw a spanner in the works of exporters.

That Khadi is a shorthand expression for village produce is by now trite—including within its sweep beekeeping, pure oils, spices, and cosmetics. Khadi can do for rural artisans what Amul did for dairy farmers. Today, Amul is the only Indian brand adorning the shelves of big retail stores in the US and Europe. Headquartered in Anand, Gujarat, Amul is an example of what producers’ cooperatives can do to uplift small producers in particular and the economy in general. A producers’ cooperative is what the doctor has ordered for those lacking storage, distribution, and marketing expertise. Each dairy farmer is a member of Amul, and no other person can become its member. After deducting administrative, storage, distribution, and marketing expenses, Amul distributes the remaining profits as dividends to its members. It is a virtuous cycle for the dairy farmers who double up as producers-cum-shareholders.

Shah inaugurated the second phase of the Sabar Dairy (Amul Plant) in Rohtak. Its expansion, at a cost of Rs 325 crore, has had a transformative impact in the region, according to CM Saini. The Haryana dairy facility is reportedly the largest producer of curd, yoghurt, and buttermilk and plays a significant role as an employment generator and catalyst for the region’s rural economy.

The Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC) has not only advanced the “Khadi for Nation" initiative but also embraced PM Modi’s mantra of “Khadi for Fashion". KVIC needs to replicate the Amul modus operandi and constitute itself on the lines of a producers’........

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