He made the ordinary, neighbourhood ‘doodhwala’ (milkman) a key player in the country’s struggle for economic development and progress at the grass roots. Verghese Kurien, the man who the brought milk revolution to the country, died early on Sunday at Anand in Gujarat.

He was instrumental in laying the foundation of democratic enterprises in remote villages and far-flung hamlets, ensuring economic justice. More importantly, it was with the people’s participation.

Empowering farmers

Honoured as the architect of India’s White Revolution, that made India the world’s largest milk producer, Kurien managed the feat in the 1970s at a time when the country faced grim uncertainties over its food security.

Kurien, the founder-chairman of National Dairy Development Board (1965-98) and also chairman of Gujarat Co-Operative Milk Marketing Federation Ltd (GCMMF) from 1973 to 2006, dedicated his life to the cause of empowering humble Indian farmers through co-operatives, said current GCMMF Managing Director R S Sodhi. He also contributed to education as the chairman of the Institute of Rural Management, Anand  (IRMA) from 1979 to 2006 and developed it as India’s premier institute devoted to rural and co-operative management.

His beginning

Born on November 26, 1921 at Kozhikode in Kerala, Kurien — who was destined to become India’s top ‘milkman’— graduated from Loyola College, Madras,in 1940 and later completed his engineering from Guindy College of Engineering, Chennai. But it was after a brief stint at TISCO that he obtained a Government of India scholarship to study dairy engineering.

Engineer-turned-dairyman

Having acquired specialised training at the Imperial Institute of Animal Husbandry and Dairying in Bangalore, Kurien went to the USA and completed his masters in Mechanical Engineering with dairy engineering as a minor subject from Michigan State University, in 1948. A year later, he was assigned to a government creamery in Anand, Gujarat as part of his bond commitment. Arriving at Anand on a hot May morning in 1949, Kurien was a harried man, only waiting to be released from his bond and leave the place as quickly as possible.

He got his release orders after six months and was all set to pack up and go to the city of big bucks, Mumbai, but a minor incident halted him in his tracks.

Lucky stay in Gujarat

Just as he was preparing his exit, Tribhuvandas Patel, the then chairman of Kaira District Co-operative Milk Producers Union, popularly known as ‘Amul’, with whom Kurien had developed a good friendship, requested him to stay back in Anand for some more time and help him organise his co-operative society’s dairy equipment. Kurien stayed back for a few more days... going on to become a legend through Operation Flood, launched in 1971.

“His forced tenure at Anand changed the destiny of the entire Indian dairy sector. He helped the fledgling dairy co-operative movement and was forced to stay there to see it flourish. The rest is history,” Sodhi said. Today, the Amul model of development through cooperatives is followed in dozens of countries. 

The dairy co-operative movement had a modest beginning with the first dairy co-operative union in Gujarat formed in 1942 with only two village co-operatives joining as members. Around 65 years later that figure has grown to a staggering 16,100 with 3.2  million milk producers pouring millions of tonnes of milk into GCMMF containers twice daily.

Model replicated

NDDB, formed by Kurien’s efforts, replicated the Amul model all over India with remarkable results dramatically increasing the country’s milk production.

Through Kurien’s efforts vide the Amul model, the country’s milk production shot up from a mere 20 million metric tonnes (MMT) per annum in 1960 to 122 MMT last year. Kurien’s main contribution was to design systems and institutions, which people could develop themselves, as he believed development of man can best be achieved by putting in his hands the instruments of development.
 
He proved it by Operation Flood in 1971— creating a national milk grid — which was implemented in three phases. It resulted in making India the world’s largest producer of milk and milk products. The world took note of Kurien’s efforts and showered honours on him, including India’s Padma Vibhushan, the World Food Prize, Magsaysay Award and Carnegie-Wateler World Peace Prize. 

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