The
Self Employed Women’s Assoication. SEWA was born in 1972
as a trade union of self employed women. It grew out of the Textile
Labour Association , TLA, India’s oldest and largest union
of textile workers founded in 1920 by a women, Anasuya Sarabhai.
The inspiration for the union came from Mahatma Gandhi, who led
a successful strike of textile workers in 1917. He believed in
creating positive organised strength by awakening the consciousness
in workers. By developing unity as well as personality, a worker
should be able to hold his or her own against tyranny from employers
or the state. To develop this strength he believed that a union
should cover all aspects of worker’s lives both in the factory
and at home.
Against
this background of active involvement in industrial relations,
social work and local, state and national politics, the ideological
base provided by Mahatma Gandhi and the feminist seeds planted
by Anasuya Sarabhai led to the creation by the TLA of their Women’s
Wing in 1954. Its original purpose was to assist women belonging
to households of mill wokers and its work was focussed largly
on traning and welfare activities. By 1968, classes in sewing,
kniting embroidery, spinning, press composition typing and stenography
were established in centres throughout the city for the wives
and daughters of mill workers.
The
scope of its activities expanded in the early 1970’s when
a survery was conducted to probe complaints by women tailors.
of exploitation by contractors. The survey broght out other instances
of exploitatation of women workers and revealed the large numbers
untouched by unionisation government legisation and policies.
In
1971, a small group of migrant women working as cart-pullers in
Ahmedabad's cloth market came to the TLA with their labour contractor.
He had heard of a transport workers' union organised by the TLA
and thought they might be able to help the women find some housing.
At the time, the women were living in the streets without shelter.
They were sent to see Ela Bhatt, the Head of Women's Wing. After
talking with the women in her office, she went with them to the
areas where they were living and to the market area where they
were working. While there, she met another group of women who
were working as head-loaders, carrying loads of clothes between
the wholesale and retail markets. As she sat with them on the
steps of the warehouses where they waited for work, they discussed
their jobs and their low and erratic wages.
Following
the meeting, Ela Bhatt wrote an article for the local newspaper
and detailed the problems of the head-loaders. The cloth merchants
countered the charges against them with a news article of their
own, denying the allegations and testifying to their fair treatment
of the head-loaders. The Women's Wing turned the release of this
story to their own advantage by reprinting the merchant's claims
on the cards and distributing them to use as leverage with the
merchants.
Soon
word of this effective ploy spread and a group of used garment
dealers approached the Women's Wing with their own grievances.
A public meeting of used garment dealers was called and over hundred
women attended. During the meeting in a public park, a women from
the crowd suggested they form an association of their own. Thus,
on an appeal from the women and at the initiative of the leader
of the Women's Wing, Ela Bhatt, and the president of the TLA,
Arvind Buch, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)
was born in December 1971.
The
women felt that as a workers' association, SEWA should establish
itself as a Trade Union. This was a fairly novel idea, because
the self-employed have no real history of organising. The first
struggle SEWA undertook was obtaining official recognition as
Trade Union. The Labour Department refused to register SEWA because
they felt that since there was no recognised employer, the workers
would have no one to struggle against. We argued that a Union
was not necessarily against an employer, but was for the unity
of the workers. Finally, SEWA was registered as a Trade Union
in April 1972.
SEWA
grew continuously from 1972, increasing in its membership and
including more and more different occupations within its fold.
The beginning of the Women's Decade in 1975 gave a boost to the
growth of SEWA, placing it within the women's movement. In 1977,
SEWA's General Secretary, Ela Bhatt, was awarded prestigious Ramon
Magsaysay Award and this brought international recognition to
SEWA.
By
1981, relations between SEWA and TLA had deteriorated. TLA did
not appreciate an assertive women's group in its midst. Also,
the interests of TLA, representing workers of the organised sector
often came into conflict with the demands of SEWA, representing
unorganised women workers. The conflict came to a head in 1981
during the anti-reservation riots when members of higher castes
attacked the Harijans, many of whom were members of both TLA and
SEWA. SEWA spoke out in defense of the Harijans, whereas TLA remained
silent. Because of this outspokenness, TLA threw out SEWA from
its fold. After the separation from TLA, SEWA grew even faster
and started new initiatives. In particular, the growth of many
new co-operatives, a more militant trade union and many supportive
services has given SEWA a new shape and direction.
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