A Cooperative Society is basically an independent organization of people who have come together voluntarily to meet a common economic, social or cultural needs. The organization is jointly owned and democratically controlled. It can also be defined as a business firm which is owned and controlled by the people who use it on equality basis.
Its features are as follows:
- It is a legal entity.
- It is owned and democratically controlled by its members,
- The members have a close association with the enterprise as producers or consumers.
-They are normally organized as non-capital stock corporations under state cooperative laws.
- The earnings are shared by members as dividends.
- They are based on self help, self responsibility and democracy.