As the world prepares to celebrate 2025 as the United Nations’ International Year of Cooperatives—and with this year’s Coops Day (July 5) themed around “Driving Inclusive and Sustainable Solutions for a Better World”—there is no better time to turn the spotlight on one of India’s oldest, yet often overlooked, cooperative success stories.

In the quiet, green stretches of Kerala’s Kozhikode district, the Uralungal Labour Contract Co-operative Society (ULCCS) has stood for more than a century as a living example of what grassroots empowerment can achieve. More than just a worker-led infrastructure powerhouse, ULCCS is built on the belief that true progress begins with community, compassion, and a commitment to education.

In 2024, this philosophy took on new meaning when ULCCS revived the 131-year-old Muttungal LP School—an institution that had once shaped generations faced closedown. What unfolded was not just a renovation, but a powerful act of remembrance, reinvention, and revival.

A School Born from Social Reform

Muttungal LP School is an institution with a proud legacy of 131 years. It was established three decades before Guru Vagbhatananda established Atmavidya Sangham School at Karakkat.  In 1893, the school was founded by Kayakkool Sankaran Adiyodi, an Ayurvedic physician and Sanskrit scholar.

At a time when caste, religion and poverty often dictated access to knowledge, this school opened its doors to all. It became a symbol of inclusive education, decades before it was formally recognized in national policy. For years, it flourished not just as a center of academic learning, but as a cultural and moral compass for the local community.

But like many such legacy institutions, the Muttungal LP School faced the slow erosion of relevance. Infrastructure crumbled. Admissions dwindled. By the early 2020s, it had become a shadow of its former self, demolished due to land acquired for national highway development.

A Cooperative Steps In

When the school’s future seemed uncertain, it was the people of Muttungal – many of them former students, residents, and workers who sounded the alarm. Community leaders, local panchayat members and concerned alumni came together, forming a School Protection Committee. But the challenge ahead required more than sentiment, it needed land, structure, funding, and vision.

This is when the committee approached the ULCCS. Founded in 1925 by a group of labourers inspired by the teachings of Guru Vagbhatananda, ULCCS has always believed in putting collective strength to purposeful use. Over the past century, the society has built roads, bridges, and IT parks—but it has also built futures, often quietly, through education initiatives, scholarships, and learning infrastructure for the children of its workers.

Among its most celebrated initiatives is MAPLE (Madappally Academic Project for Learning and Empowerment), which goes beyond textbooks to nurture confidence, communication, creativity, and soft skills in school children. One of MAPLE’s finest moments came when Hindi film director Ajay Govind, in search of authentic young actors for his sports drama Madappally United, found his cast at Madappally Government School—thanks to the MAPLE programme. The film featured students trained through MAPLE, many of whom had excelled in sports and the arts.

Madappally United went on to receive international acclaim, being screened and awarded at prestigious platforms such as the Roshd International Film Festival in Tehran, the Kenya International Sports Film Festival, Indian Film Festival of Cincinnati, Singapore World Film Carnival, Toronto Independent Film Festival, and the Kolkata International Cult Film Festival, among others. In Kenya, former cricket captain Asif Karim was so moved by the children’s performance that he personally reached out to congratulate the young actors and their mentors.

Such stories are not isolated. ULCCS’s Guru Vagbhatananda Edu Project, currently being implemented across Kozhikode district, aims to bring equitable, inclusive education to underserved communities—especially where mainstream educational access remains limited. These projects uphold the cooperative’s belief that education must be a tool for liberation, not competition.

The cooperative also runs skill development programs in partnership with NSDC and supports young tech talent through incubation, internships, and innovation training at UL Cyberpark. These initiatives are not just CSR—they are central to ULCCS’s philosophy that building people is just as important as building infrastructure.

A School Reimagined

What emerged from this partnership was not just a renovation but a reinvention. The Muttungal LP School was re-established as the ULCCS Centenary LP School, a creative school with a 21^st century vision rooted in 20^th century ideals.

The school has been thoughtfully designed to support the envisioned learning activities, drawing inspiration from modern school models across several countries and incorporating the recommendations of renowned educationists. The curriculum now includes theatre, music, free writing, coding, agriculture, and even space science which was made possible through UL Space Club, which has already partnered with institutions like ISRO.

The pedagogy is student-centred, aiming to identify and nurture each child’s unique abilities—whether in the arts, academics, sports, or sciences. While priority is given to the children of ULCCS workers, the school ensures that children from the local and coastal communities are equally welcomed, reflecting the Society’s larger commitment to regional development and equity.

A Community That Writes Its Own Future

In a particularly heartwarming chapter of the school’s revival, something remarkable unfolded in the homes of its students. In a quiet Kerala neighbourhood, mothers—many of whom had never written for an audience—picked up pens and wrote enchanting stories for their children, all students at Muttungal LP School. These stories weren’t just whispered at bedtime; they were collected, published, and unveiled at a public ceremony where proud children heard their mothers’ words read aloud.

Each student also received brand-new children’s books as part of a reading festival designed to open young minds to the magic of literature. More than a one-off event, the initiative includes regular reading activities and storytelling circles to nurture lifelong literacy and imagination.

This literary movement wasn’t just about books—it was about belonging. The mothers’ story-writing initiative created a powerful bridge between home and classroom, turning everyday storytelling into a shared educational act. It deepened parental involvement and reaffirmed that education is not the sole domain of schools, but a collective act of love, care, and creativity.

The Power of One Story

In many ways, the revival of Muttungal LP School is more than a single institution's rebirth, it is a metaphor for the cooperative spirit itself.

Just as ULCCS was born when a group of illiterate workers decided to take control of their destiny, this school has been reborn because a community refused to let it die. It represents how cooperatives can do more than build infrastructure, they can build people, nurture talent, and help forgotten places dream again.

As India celebrates its cooperative movement on the global stage in 2025, we must look beyond statistics and success stories. We must look at stories like this—of a forgotten school, of mothers who became authors, of students who became actors, and of a cooperative that dared to dream beyond roads and bridges.

Beyond the Classroom

The ULCCS Centenary LP School is only the beginning. Plans are already underway to expand it to include upper primary, high school, and higher secondary levels. The school’s research and academic committee, supported by UL Research and experts from SCERT along with a network of experienced scholars, is guiding its evolution into a national model for inclusive and creative education.

And perhaps most importantly, the school continues to be guided by the vision of Guru Vagbhatananda, that education must empower not only minds but spirits. That knowledge should break chains, not reinforce hierarchies. In a time when education is often reduced to metrics, rankings, and exams, the ULCCS model reminds us that learning is also about dignity, identity, and hope.

This Coops Day, let us celebrate cooperatives not just for what they build, but for what they rebuild. In addition, in the quiet classrooms of Muttungal, let us hear the echoes of a movement that’s still very much alive.