SEWA
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About
- Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was set up in 1972 by Ela Bhatt.
- She belonged to a family of freedom fighters; her grandfather had walked the Dandi March with Mahatma Gandhi.
- Her ideology was shaped by the freedom movement, she was a trained lawyer, and She associated with the Textile Labour Association.
- In 1968, the closure of two major textile mills in Ahmedabad gave Bhatt her first understanding of the importance of women’s involvement in running homes.
- As the men agitated for reopening the mills, the women worked to earn their families’ livelihoods. “They sold fruits and vegetables in the streets; stitched in their homes at piece-rate for middle-men; worked as labourers in wholesale commodity markets, loading and unloading merchandise; or collected recyclable refuse from city streets”.
- SEWA was born out of the Textile Labour Association founded by Anasuya Sarabhai and Mahatma Gandhi in 1920, but it could not register as a trade union until 1972 because its members did not have an “employer”, and were thus not seen as workers.
- SEWA has built many institutions for the poor on the principle that “the poor do not need charity, they need an effective tool to aspire and come out of the vicious circle of poverty and vulnerability”.
- According to Ela Bhatt, SEWA is a trade union of women who “did not need to come together against anyone, they just needed to come together for themselves”.
- SEWA allows any self-employed woman to become a member with an annual membership fee of just Rs 10. The organisation took a conscious decision to keep men out.
- The network of SEWA is spread across 18 Indian states, in other countries in South Asia, South Africa, and Latin America.
- It has helped rehabilitate women in person, and even in political or social crises, by empowering them through skilling and training.
- In 1974, SEWA Bank was established to provide small loans to poor women; it was recognised by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) as a microfinance movement.
- The Unorganised Workers Social Security Act (2008), the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (2011), and the Street Vendors Act (2014), are seen as successes of SEWA’s struggle. The PM Street Vendors Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi) scheme is seen as being inspired by SEWA’s microfinance model.
- It has changed the lives of over 2.1 million members and has been recognised as a model for the world.
- Former United States first lady Hillary Clinton, and Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have visited SEWA and partnered with it.
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