Q.In a village, twenty small farmers are each borrowing money from a local moneylender at a very high rate of interest, and many are falling into deeper debt every year. A social worker suggests that instead of borrowing individually, they should join together, register a society, contribute small amounts of capital, and lend to one another at a reasonable rate, managing the society themselves on the basis of one vote each.

Weak individuals being crushed by a moneylender are being advised to unite, pool capital, and lend to themselves democratically — this is exactly the situation co-operation was invented to solve.

This case is a textbook example of why the co-operative movement began — small farmers trapped by a moneylender, advised to help themselves by acting together.

1. Form of organisation being suggested: The farmers are being advised to form a co-operative society — more precisely, a co-operative credit society, since its purpose is to give members loans at a reasonable rate and free them from the moneylender. Freeing farmers from moneylenders is exactly the need that gave birth to the co-operative credit movement in India (the Co-operative Credit Societies Act, 1904).
2. Basic principle: The suggestion rests on the basic principle of co-operation — 'self-help through mutual help'. The farmers, individually weak, improve their own condition by their own united effort, each helping all and all helping each.
3. Two features seen in the suggestion:

• Voluntary association — the farmers are choosing to join together on their own; no one is forcing them.
• Democratic management (one member, one vote) — the case says the society is to be managed by the members themselves 'on the basis of one vote each', which is the co-operative principle of democratic control. (Other features also visible include members contributing capital, a separate registered society, and a service — not profit — motive.)

Students sometimes answer only part (i) and stop — read a multi-part case carefully and answer every numbered part; here you must name the form, state the basic principle, AND pick out features that the case itself actually describes (not just any features from the textbook).