Can cooperatives be a tool for poverty reduction? Social capital perspectives of fisher's cooperatives in India

The study examines cooperatives' role, contribution, and challenges for poverty reduction among small-scale fisher communities using the social capital approach. Social capital is being used as a popular and low-cost strategy for poverty reduction among marginalised communities. The study mainly covers the reflections of the small-scale fishers as experiential narratives on the role of cooperatives. The structures and processes of cooperatives in addressing the vulnerability and socio-economic development of small-scale fishers have been analysed in the study. The study conducted in fishing villages of Kerala, India, predominantly used a qualitative paradigm to understand how social capital favours cooperative membership and influences cooperatives' functioning to help fishers develop coping mechanisms as a poverty reduction strategy. The study finds the significance of cooperatives as a supplier of material and non-material resources, namely livelihood opportu-nities, credit support, protection from middlemen exploitation, awareness creation, and development of savings habits to cope with everyday challenges. At the same time, political authoritarianism, pre-conditioned criteria for cooperative membership, and power structures within the cooperatives mediated fisher's access to and uti-lisation of cooperative services. As a result, the influences mentioned above dampened the fishers cooperatives' images to promote voluntary participation, democratic management, and network building, which were the prime challenges identified in the functioning of cooperatives for poverty reduction.