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Verghese Kurien: Know all about the man and the movement on World Milk Day
Any conversation around milk cannot ignore the contribution of Verghese Kurien, aptly named 'the milkman of India', and the 'Father of the White Revolution'. Every year on World Milk Day, Indians remember Kurien for his contribution.
World Milk Day has been observed on the first day of June every year since 2001 by countries around the globe. The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), a United Nations body, commemorates this day to celebrate the contribution of dairy farmers and to recognise the importance of milk as a global food. The theme of this year is 'sustainability in the dairy sector with messages around the environment, nutrition, and socio-economic'.
Any conversation around milk cannot ignore the contribution of Verghese Kurien, aptly named 'the milkman of India', and the 'Father of the White Revolution'. Every year on World Milk Day, Indians remember Kurien for his contribution.
Who was Verghese Kurien and what did he do?
In the late 1940s, after Independence, India was largely a milk deficient country where people survived on imports from abroad. That is before a man named Verghese Kurien arrived at the country’s only experimental creamery in Gujarat's Anand. Kurien had studied abroad on a government scholarship and had been deputed to the Anand plant as a dairy officer for five years. Indians were heavily reliant on imported milk powders from abroad as a popular belief during that time was that buffalo milk was unsuitable for producing any dairy products, be it skimmed milk, condensed milk, or cheese. The dairy industry was extremely euro-centric and Europe, unlike India, had a sufficient supply of cow milk. Indian dairy farmers were reliant on buffalo milk.
Kurien wrote in his memoirs that the supposed impossibility of converting buffalo milk into powder was propagated by the west, which wanted other nations, like India, to continue to import its milk powder. However, Kurien with the help of his friend HM Dalaya, a dairy engineer, was able to turn buffalo milk into powder and condensed milk, and later to cheese, helping India compete against brands like Nestle and Glaxo. Through converting buffalo milk into powder Kurien was also able to solve the issue of milk wastage during flush seasons.
Cutting the middleman
Kurien’s stint at Anand also ushered in the elimination of the middleman as local dairy farmers were able to sell directly to consumers through the formation of dairy co-operatives. The first dairy cooperatives in Anand were formed in the early 1940s, and one of their leaders asked Kurien to help them expand which led to the formation of the Gujarat Cooperative Milk Marketing Federation, popularly known as Amul, whose mascot the Amul Girl, has been delighting and educating Indians on socio-economic and political events of the country.
National Dairy Development Board
In 1965, the government created the National Dairy Development Board to expand Anand’s cooperative model across the country. Kurien was the board’s founding chairperson. This came to be known as ‘Operation Flood’ and ‘White Revolution’ for it turned India from a milk deficient country to a sufficient one and on July 18, Amul’s turnover surpassed Rs. 52,000 crore.
Kurien passed away on September 9, 2012, at the age of 90. He was born a Christian but remained a life-long atheist, and was cremated as per his wishes, according to his daughter Nirmala Kurien. The brand created by the man and his movement endured, and Amul girl continues to serve a taste of India.
