The passage of time has taken away another legend. Verghese Kurien, affectionately known as the “Milkman of India”, was the father of a revolution that shaped the procuring and processing of milk into a wondrous enterprise benefiting society as a whole. There is a Chinese saying that if you give a man a fish he gets just a meal, but if you teach him how to fish you give him a life. Kurien was the embodiment of this spirit of empowering poor farmers while tapping India’s vast natural resource in milch cattle.
The methodology by which he melded dairy cooperatives at the prompting of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel was far more important than the brand he built. As chairman of the National Dairy Development Board, he replicated the Gujarat model so successfully at the national level that he multiplied at least six times India’s milk procurement in the 1960s. Apocryphal as the story may be of his not drinking milk as he didn’t like the “white gold” he helped reach a wider market; there is no denying the huge impact he had as India became the biggest milk producer in the world while the farmer got his fair share.
The finest tribute anyone can pay Kurien is by designing a delivery model that can supply daily proteins, vitamins and nutrients to India’s entire population. This is an area that demands attention as the poor and malnourished get stamped for life with weaknesses due to their impoverished backgrounds, which is no fault of theirs.