AHMEDABAD: In a big leap for gender empowerment through grassroots economics, Gujarat’s cooperative dairy model is emerging as a powerful engine of women-led growth.
Women now make up 32% of the state's 36 lakh dairy members, with their presence rapidly expanding across both production and governance.
In a striking indicator of this transformation, women led milk societies have seen a 39% surge in daily milk collection, now touching 57 lakh litres per day.
At the governance level, 82 women have taken director roles on the boards of various dairy unions in 2025 making up 25% of all board members and marking a decisive shift in representation.
This momentum is mirrored in earnings: women run milk societies clocked a phenomenal 43% growth in annual income, pushing their collective revenue past Rs 9,000 crore. The overall rise 21% in the number of women’s dairy societies cements Gujarat’s model as a blueprint for cooperative driven women’s economic empowerment nationwide.
In the last five years (2020–2025), women run dairy cooperatives in the state have jumped by 21%, growing from 3,764 to 4,562 societies.
This shift is not just numeric, but transformational. Data from the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation Limited (GCMMF), released on International Cooperative Day, reveals that milk procurement by women run cooperatives surged by 39%, from 41 lakh litres per day in 2020 to 57 lakh litres per day in 2025.
These women led units now contribute 26% of Gujarat’s total milk procurement.
The impact is financial as well as social. The estimated daily revenue of women run dairy societies has leapt from Rs 17 crore in 2020 to Rs 25 crore in 2025 pushing annual turnover past Rs 9,000 crore. That’s a sharp Rs 2,700 crore rise, marking a 43% growth in five years.
Beyond profits, women are taking the reins of power. As of 2025, 25% of board members 82 out of the total in Gujarat's milk unions are women, playing an active role in decision making. Female membership in dairy cooperatives has climbed steadily too; of the 36 lakh total milk producers, 12 lakh (32%) are now women.
Leadership is expanding in rural cooperative governance as well. The number of women in the management committees of rural cooperative societies rose by 14%, from 70,200 to 80,000. These women now play key roles in policy formulation, operations, and oversight at the grassroots level.
Together, the data highlights Gujarat’s cooperative model as not just a production engine but a catalyst for women's empowerment, economic independence, and structural change.