A true visionary who made India the world’s largest milk producer,
Verghese Kurien, 90, passed away on September 16, 2012. India’s best known
milkman, Kurien had his last breath in a hospital in Nadiad town. His death was
due to the complication arising out of the kidney ailments. The body of Dr.
Varghese Kruien was shifted to Amul Dairy’s Sardar Patel Hall where it was kept
in a glass casket for visitors before it was cremated as per his wishes.
Verghese Kurien was born on Nov 26, 1921 in Calicut to a Syrian Christian
family. His father was a civil surgeon and, mother an accomplished pianist. He
graduated in physics from Loyola College. Immediately after graduation he
joined TISCO technical institute as graduate apprentice. Later in the years, he
completed his masters in engineering from Michigan State University, U. S.
This Syrian Christian who could not speak Gujarati found it difficult to
find a paying guest accommodation when he first reached the city of his
destiny, Anand to serve out bond period for scholarship which he had taken for
his studies. Kurien being not happy with the bond failed to realise the turning
of small Gujarat town into the heart of India’s white revolution. Kurien was about to leave Anand, the Chairman
of District Cooperative Milk Producers Union Ltd, Tribhuwandas Patel requested
Kurien to stay. In the process, Krurien stitched together a cooperative
movement of millions of women and farmers into owning a brand which generations
of Indian would be unable to forget- Amul (Anand Milk Union Limited).
At that time, the cooperative he joined managed just a few 100 litres of
milk a day. By the time Kurien was ready to hand over the baton in 2006, the
Amul brand was selling over 90 lakh litres a day. Awarded the Padma Vibhushan,
Magsaysay award beside numerous others accolades, Kurien gained respect and the
space to run the cooperative movement as he knew best.
His model of cooperative dairy development today links over 10 million
farmers at 200 dairy across India producing over 20 million litres of milk
every day. India’s milk procurement has increased from 20 million metric tons
per year in 1960 to 122 MMT in 2011. Ad agency ASP created iconic Amul girl as
a response to rival Polson’s butter- girl.
This extraordinary agent of social transformation as Chairman of the
National Dairy Development Board began ‘Operation Flood’ that spanned 26 years
and eventually ushered in the white revolution. He began it all by turning
buffalo milk into milk powder: a feat that experts worldwide at that time was
not possible.
His model of cooperatives spun networks of farmers that first brought milk
from Gujarat to Mumbai and then hooked up farmers across several states. The
business multiplied in areas beyond milk- bringing a sense of ownership and control
to farmers.
Dr. Varghses Kurien did not like drinking milk, but as the father of White
Revolution, he turned India into a nation of milk drinkers. In the 6 decades he
spend in Anand he insured India’s transformation from a milk- deficient country
into one of the world’s biggest milk producers.
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