Today is the 92nd birth anniversary of Dr. Verghese Kurien. He was known as “The Milkman from Anand” and the “Father of White Revolution”. He was the architect of India’s White Revolution, which helped India emerge as the largest milk producer in the world.
His life-long purpose of work can be summed up in one word: ‘empowerment’ – empowerment of small and marginal farmers and landless labourers. Apart from the Milk Revolution that he spearheaded so successfully, his work has greatly impacted on the lives of millions of cooperative dairy farmers — socially, politically, and most importantly, economically. In Dr. Kurien’s words, he was not in the business of milk. Milk was only the ‘medium’ that he used to empower the farmers.
The World Bank in its Operation Evaluation Department’s Report on Operation Flood has stated that it was the ‘ownership’ that made the programme a grand success. The owner of the entire milk chain (procurement, processing and marketing) is the farmers; no middleman is involved in the entire operation.
In 1964 our former Prime Minister, late Shri Lal Bahadur Shastri visited a village near Anand to see for himself the reasons for the success of ‘Amul Cooperative’, he also had asked Dr. Kurien as to what was the ‘secret’ behind the success of Amul Dairy when large Milk Schemes of the Government (Bombay Milk Scheme, Delhi Milk Scheme, Calcutta Milk Scheme, etc.) were all huge loss making disasters. Dr. Kurien’s reply that it was the ‘ownership’ of the dairy that made the difference.
Dr. Verghese Kurien was the founder-Chairman of several world-class organizations like NDDB, GCMMF (Amul), IRMA and so on. He has been a great institution builder. He has held several positions in past such as – Founder Chairman of the National Dairy Development Board (NDDB) from 1965 to 1998, Chairman the Gujarat Co-operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd. (GCMMF), from 1973 to 2006, Vice President of International Dairy Federation from 1991 to 1992, the Member of Executive Committee of International Dairy Federation, Belgium from 1974 to 1986, the Chairman of Sabarmati Ashram Gaushal and the Institute of Rural Management (IRMA) from 1979 to 2006.
He has held very high positions in Government organizations as well, as the Chairman of GEB, the Vice Chancellor of GAU, the Director and Central Board of Reserve Bank of India (RBI) from 1972 to 1983, the Director of Life Insurance Corporation of India (LIC) from 1970 to 1974, the Director of IDBI and the Director of Bank of Baroda to name a few.
His work has received tremendous national and international recognition. The Govt. of India conferred him by numerous National Awards like:
- Padmashree (1965)
- Padmabhushan (1966)
- Krishi Ratna (1986)
- Padma Vibhushan (1999)
And International Awards which include:
- World Food Prize in 1989
- Carnegie Foundation’s Wateler Peace Prize in 1986
- International Person of the Year Award by the World Dairy Expo in 1993
- Ordre duMerite Agricole by the Government of France in 1997
- The Regional Award from the Asian Productivity Organization of Japan in 2000
The past 60 years has transformed the dairy scenario of India. Today, India’s milk economy is valued more than Rs.200, 000 crores annually; dairying is the single largest rural employment provider in the country. Most of this huge amount of money is actually going into the hands of our rural milk producers. At Dudhsagar Dairy, Mehsana. In the year 2005-06, the top 10 women dairy cooperative members of the Dairy had supplied milk worth a combined total of Rs.1.66 crores! In the same year, the top ten milk collecting village societies of Mehsana Dairy had paid out Rs.52.56 crores to their farmer members as price of milk.
Dr. Kurien has received around 15 honorary Doctorates and more than 10 ‘Fellowships’ from leading foreign and Indian Universities / Academic Institutions. The only National Award that has eluded him is the ‘Bharat Ratna’.
On the first death anniversary of Dr. Kurien, Shri Vipul Chaudhary, the present Chairman of GCMMF and Dudhsagar Dairy Mehsana, demanded Bharat Ratna for Dr. Kurien. He said that Contribution of Dr. Kurien towards the socio-economic upliftment of milk producers was immense and that is why he should be awarded Bharat Ratna. This will be of great honor for dairy farmers of the country.
Our Salute to the Revolutionary!