Meaning and Definition of Service Co-operative Society

A Service Co-operative Society is a voluntary association of persons — most often the residents of a village or a compact rural area — who join together to obtain, at fair prices and on reasonable terms, the various services they need for their day-to-day living and their farming or occupation, which they could not conveniently or economically arrange as isolated individuals. As the name itself suggests, the primary object of such a society is not to trade for profit but to render service to its members — hence it is also commonly described as a multipurpose co-operative society, because a single society undertakes several kinds of service under one roof.

In the Maharashtra countryside, the typical example is the Village Service Co-operative Society (sometimes called a Primary Agricultural Service Co-operative Society, or Vividh Karyakari Sahakari Society — a "multi-work" co-operative). A small farmer, on his own, finds it hard to get timely credit, to buy good-quality seeds and fertilizers at a fair rate, to store his produce safely, and to sell it without being cheated by middlemen. By pooling their small resources and their collective bargaining power through a service society, the same farmers can secure all of these facilities together, close to home.

The society is registered under the co-operative law of the State — in Maharashtra, the Maharashtra Co-operative Societies Act, 1960 — and, once registered, it becomes a body corporate with a separate legal existence, a common seal, and the power to hold property and enter into contracts in its own name. Its funds come mainly from members' share capital, entrance fees, deposits, and reserves, supplemented where necessary by loans from the District Central Co-operative Bank and government assistance.

In simple words: a service co-operative society is a self-help organisation formed by ordinary people — chiefly farmers and villagers — to make available to themselves, on a co-operative and non-exploitative basis, the essential services of credit, supply of farm inputs and consumer goods, storage, and marketing.

Maharashtra's Std-XI Co-operation syllabus draws on the same well-established principles of co-operation and rural economics that underpin commerce and business-studies courses across India — the co-operative form studied here is simply that general theory applied to the everyday service needs of a village community.