Butterflies is an NGO working with street children in New Delhi, India, founded in 1989 by Rita Panicker, whose daily commute took her past children living at railway stations.
Today, the organisation reaches over 2,000 street-connected children annually in Delhi and supports a further 1,200 children in remote areas of Uttarakhand. It has earned international recognition for its programmes for street and working children, aiming to equip them with the knowledge and skills to break the cycle of generational illiteracy and poverty. In 2020, Panicker received the International Cooperative Innovation Award from the US Overseas Cooperative Development Council (OCDC).
Butterflies believes children need to be educated in democratic participation, enabling them to grow into adults who know how to translate equality and social justice into practice. This tenet shapes its structure: it doesn’t just run programmes for children – it structures those programmes as co-operatives, because it sees co-operative practice as the training ground for democratic citizenship, not just a delivery mechanism for services.
Related: How do we build youth participation in co-operatives?
From the start, Pannicker “knew that the organisation that I would start would be based on democratic principles – an organisation that would respect children’s voices and children’s participation,” she said in a 2018 Ted Talk.
Butterflies has two flagship co-operatives: the Child Health & Sports Cooperative (CHSC, formerly the Child Health Cooperative) which has been running since 1995, and provides a space where children discuss their health problems and plan strategies to tackle them; and the Children’s Development Khazana (CDK), a financial-management co-op where children aged 9-18 deposit their earnings/savings and manage the fund themselves under adult guidance. Launched in 2001, it has over 40,000 members and operates in seven countries.
It also runs Butterflies Broadcasting Children (BBC – India’s first radio programme produced by children, airing on All India Radio FM Rainbow Delhi), night shelters for homeless children, the Butterflies School of Culinary and Catering, an advocacy and research centre, and a 24-hour crisis helpline.
In June, Butterflies hosted the National Conference on Children’s Cooperatives, bringing together child leaders, co-operative practitioners, academics and development professionals to explore how children’s co-operatives can promote participation, inclusion, and lifelong learning. It also marked the launch of two publications, Learning to Fly: Stories of Dreams and Resilience and Voice, Agency and Participation: Children at the Centre of the Cooperative Movement, highlighting the importance of spaces where children can lead, learn, and contribute meaningfully to society.
The event’s chief guest was Balasubramanian Iyer, regional director of the International Cooperative Alliance – Asia and Pacific (ICA-AP).
“When I first heard about children’s co-operatives and a national conference dedicated to them, I was genuinely intrigued,” he says. “It is not every day that one has the opportunity to learn directly from children who are practising co-operation. It proved to be one of the most inspiring conferences I have attended.
“I spent time with children aged between 12 and 18, many of whom were not part of the formal education system. Yet they spoke with remarkable confidence and maturity about their co-operative way of working. They explained how they save together, make collective decisions, elect their own representatives, resolve conflicts, manage their activities and support one another.
“The experience reinforced an important lesson for me: some of life’s most valuable lessons cannot simply be taught in a classroom – they have to be experienced. Through children’s co-operatives, these young people were learning democracy, responsibility, financial literacy, teamwork, and leadership.”
For Iyer, the conference highlighted the need to create more opportunities for children and young people to experience co-operation.
“Too often we speak about young people as the leaders of tomorrow,” he said. “I believe they are leaders today; they simply need opportunities, trust and space to contribute.
“If we want co-operatives to remain relevant, we must invest in co-operative education, youth leadership, mentorship, and meaningful participation. We should introduce children to co-operation in schools, communities, and families, encourage youth-led initiatives, and ensure that young voices are represented wherever important decisions are made. Because when young people learn to co-operate, they do far more than build successful co-operatives – they build stronger communities, more inclusive economies, and more resilient societies.”
In his conference address, Iyer commended Butterflies for its pioneering efforts and shared other examples from across the Asia and Pacific region. Drawing on the experiences of Rah-e-roshd educational co-op in Iran, university co-ops in Japan, laboratory co-ops in the Philippines, and school co-ops in Malaysia, he illustrated how young people can actively participate in co-ops while developing leadership, democratic decision-making, and a sense of collective responsibility.
The ICA-AP Youth Committee serves as the primary platform for promoting youth participation and leadership in co-operatives in the region. In its recent regional assembly, ICA-AP granted the representatives of the Youth Committee and the Women’s Committee full voting rights on the ICA-AP Regional Board.
“This sends a powerful message that young people should not simply be consulted,” says Iyer. “They should participate in decision-making. However, our objective extends beyond supporting a dedicated youth committee. We want young people to be represented across the entire co-operative movement, participating in our thematic committees, contributing to discussions, leading projects, and serving on the boards of co-operative organisations.”
This year, ICA-AP hosts the fifth Asia-Pacific Cooperative Youth Summit in Hangzhou, which also marks 10 years since the inaugural summit. Organisers expect to gather 70 young co-operative leaders from across the region to exchange ideas, build networks, and explore how co-operatives can respond to the challenges and opportunities of a rapidly changing world.
“Today’s young people are growing up in a world shaped by unprecedented uncertainty,” Iyer adds. “They face the realities of geopolitical conflict, erosion of values, degradation of institutions, climate change, rapid technological disruption, and the growing influence of artificial intelligence. Many are questioning whether education alone will guarantee meaningful employment or whether the jobs they are preparing for today will even exist tomorrow.
“The Deloitte Global Gen Z and Millennial Survey 2025 found that younger generations are seeking a balance of ‘money, meaning, and wellbeing’. This means young people are seeking purpose alongside employment. They want work that contributes to society, protects the environment, and allows them to participate in decisions that affect their future. This is where co-operatives have much to offer through our values and principles as enshrined in the Statement of Cooperative Identity.”
In the Philippines, the National Confederation of Cooperatives is sharing financial knowledge and skills with young people to help them make informed decisions and build long-term economic resilience. The Vietnam Cooperative Alliance is equipping young people to become key drivers of digital transformation within co-operatives and local communities. In India, the Unnati Agri Allied & Marketing Multi-State Cooperative is using drones to create new livelihood opportunities for rural women and youth. And since 2023, the Singapore National Co-operative Federation has been running the Emerging Leaders Programme to strengthen the pipeline of future co-operative leaders.
“The Asia-Pacific region has one of the youngest populations in the world,” says Iyer.
“Young people are not only the co-operative movement’s future members, they are its
future leaders, innovators, entrepreneurs, and board members.”
