Aporna Das was a medical nurse for 19 years before she launched a hospital herself at Chankarpool, in the southern part of the Bangladeshi capital Dhaka in 2015.
The 55-year-old woman built her 30-bed Royal Care Surgical Hospital with some 2.77 million taka (U$25,481).
Half of the construction cost came from a loan from the Christian Cooperative Credit Union Limited (CCCUL), a laypeople-run cooperative bank based in Dhaka, the largest in the country.
Altogether Das owes about 5 million taka in debts to various cooperatives and individuals, but she is not much worried about the repayments.
I’ll be relieved from the loan in the next three to four years. I was encouraged to start the hospital thanks to support from the Christian cooperatives, Das, a member of the neo-Christian Fellowship Church, told UCA News.
Das said she comes from an impoverished family in the southern coastal district of Bagerhat and prospered in life thanks to her hard work and support from various cooperatives.
Our livelihood is modest in many ways. Yet, my husband and I could help our children flourish with higher education which was not possible in our [earlier] life, she said.
Her husband Dilip Halder, 60, is a musician. The couple’s two children are yet to complete their education.
Cooperatives change lives
Aporna Das’ story is an example of how cooperatives are transforming the lives of tens of thousands in Bangladesh, said Nirmol Rozario, 62, a Catholic and former CCCUL president.
American Holy Cross missionary Father Charles J. Young founded the cooperative in 1955. Currently, it has about 50,000 Catholic and Protestant members.
Despite various challenges, cooperatives offer many opportunities for socio-economic advancement of people, Rozario told UCA News, on the sidelines of the state-sponsored International Cooperatives Day celebration in Dhaka on July 9.
Yet, [Christian] cooperatives have not only reduced poverty in the society but also created hundreds of entrepreneurs like Aporna Das, said Rozario.
The national program drew about 2,000 cooperative unionists from various parts of the country.
Swapan Bhattacharjee, the state minister of rural development and cooperatives who was the chief guest at the event, applauded Christian-run cooperatives for working credibly with morality and humanity and becoming models for other cooperatives in Bangladesh.
He said that cooperatives can greatly contribute to sustainable development, and urged all to follow the policies, strategies, management models and ethical practices of the Christian cooperatives.
The cooperative system began in 1904 in then-British Bangladesh aiming to facilitate an agricultural credit system, published documents show.
Father of the nation, Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, worked to establish co-operatives considering them the basis of the village economy.
A cooperative is a member-owned and democratically controlled business venture but unlike traditional business, every member has a voice in its functioning. It collects small amounts from members as savings and provides loans and other services to them. The profit is shared among members.
Currently, there are about 190,360 various types of cooperatives in the country with more than 10 million members, according to the Cooperatives Department website.
There are about 250 cooperatives based in the Christian community, according to credit unionist Rozario.
Big push out of poverty
Golap Banu, 61, has never had any formal education. In the late 1980s, she started living in a slum in the northern part of Dhaka.
Her life changed when she received informal education from the Christian charity, World Vision Bangladesh. She later joined the Baridhara Women Cooperative Society initiated by the organization.
Eventually, Banu was elected chairperson of the society, which now has 64,000 members and a share capital of 7 billion taka (US$ 64.3 million).
The organization has its multi-floor head office on its own land in Baridhara, an upscale area in Dhaka’s diplomatic enclave, and has a total of 172 staff.
Banu’s contributions brought her various awards.
In 2014, she received the National Cooperative Award from Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina.
Selina Islam, 36, a Muslim mother of two, dreams of one of her sons becoming a medical doctor.
She is a member of Morning Star Cooperative Credit Union Limited based in the Maghbazar area of Dhaka.
Islam runs her home-based business providing lunch boxes to various offices in Maghbazar. And her father, husband, and elder son together run a small restaurant in the same area.
The couple started the lunch box business after their first business, a grocery store, funded with their own capital, folded up due to loss in 2014.
Islam said despite being frustrated, she become a member of Morning Star and it helped her stand up again.
I followed the rules, took loans, and started this business, which is much more profitable, she told UCA News.
Islam took six loans together worth about 680,000 taka and paid them back in monthly installments.
Now, the family’s monthly average income ranges from 100,000 – 150,000 taka.
Her elder son, Mohammad Siam, 20, who completed college studies, now runs the family restaurant business.
The younger son, Sifat, is in grade four and aspires to become a medical doctor.
Now, as a family our dream is to improve the businesses and build a sustainable and better future, Islam added.
Another member, Beauty Khanam, 40, is a mother of three daughters who runs two clothes stores in the city.
She took her first loan of 20,000 taka (US$ 185) from the cooperative in 2013 to start the business. Her last loan in 2023 was 300,000 taka (US$2,778).
We run two shops in the local community for a decent livelihood and managed to empower our daughters, Khanam told UCA News.
Weathering challenges
Rozario said a major problem of the cooperatives is loan defaulting by members as well as irregular practices such as corruption.
In 2007, Rozario led the formation of the Central Association of Christian Cooperatives (CACCO), which among other things introduced software to monitor loan systems and control corruption within the Christian cooperatives.
He pointed out that recent changes in cooperative rules pose more financial challenges for cooperatives.
The cooperatives distribute net profits and dividends to members every year, but the amount is plummeting as they are now required to deduct 15 percent for a Statutory Reserve Fund, 10 percent for Bad Debts Reserve, and 3 percent for the Cooperative Development Fund, he explained.
Already 28 percent of the profit was being slashed, he said, adding that from the 2014-15 fiscal year, the government has imposed a 15 percent income tax on the cooperatives.
But that’s not all.
In June, the government passed a law, the Finance Act 2023, which brought cooperatives under the Companies Act, categorizing them as commercially traded companies.
This will increase the tax burden on the cooperatives. The members will be discouraged to continue their ties with the cooperatives, Rozario lamented.
He said that while the government encourages cooperatives for socioeconomic development, such unexpected moves do not bode well for the future of these organizations.
The government must re-think and reconsider these policies to encourage the common members in cooperatives, he insisted.
Alphonse Pankaj Gomes, the chief executive officer of the Morning Star Cooperative, said most of their members are women who came to Dhaka after losing their village homes because of natural disasters like floods and river erosion.
It now has about 5,000 women members and a majority of them are Muslims.
I feel happy as I see our women members live happily with their cheerful children. They have a satisfactory livelihood, sufficient food, better homes, and can fulfill their daily needs, Gomes, 57, told UCA News.
But the government’s paradoxical cooperative policies pose challenges, he said.
Besides, issues like divorce, polygamy, high living costs in the city, and the presence of micro-finance agencies that provide loans without collaterals also pose risks.
At times, these challenges de-motivate our members whom we alert in our regular motivational training, counseling, and good governance, Gomes added.
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