Employees of fraudulent cooperatives hung out to dry

As they grapple with lost savings, unpaid salaries, anger, and threats from desperate depositors, their lives highlight the collateral damage of a broken cooperative system.

Every work day, Kumari would leave her house at BP Chowk in Itahari-1, at 10 am and head to her office, Ambekoshi Saving & Cooperative Limited at National Galli. A collection agent, Kumari, 36, who spoke on condition of anonymity, would then spend the day visiting clients in around 50 shops in Itahari.