Gujarat
State Mahila SEWA Cooperative Federation
The federation
is a state – level organisation of 84 women’s cooperatives
as its members. Registered in 1993, it is the first of its kind.
SEWA-sponsored cooperatives took the initiative to form this apex
level federation of cooperatives, in order to obtain training,
marketing, capacity-building and support for policy action with
the government.
In the past six
years, the federation’s outreach and range of activities
has grown considerably. It is very actively assisting producer’s
groups to export their crafts. In 1999, Rs. 20 lakhs worth of
crafts were exported with the Federation’s assistance. In
particular, the Federation helped two district-level associations,
Kutchcraft Association and Banaskantha DWCRA Mahila SEWA Association
to export and sell their patchwork embroidery in Paris.
A new and important
venture, linking vegetable growers directly with vendors, thereby
cutting out exploitative middlemen, was initiated this year. The
Federation obtained a shop ( Shop No.40) in the main vegetable
wholesale market of Ahmedabad after considerable struggle and
pressure from SEWA. The wholesalers, generally themselves middlemen,
were reluctant to permit the Federation to break into their tightly
controlled trade. But the collective strength of growers and sellers,
the Federation SEWA Bank and SEWA prevailed. The shop is now operating
and its business expanding. Both vegetable growers and sellers
(vendors) are obtaining better prices for their produce, having
got rid of the exploitative middle layer of contractors and middlemen.
Now the federation is working on providing transportation to reach
the produce from SEWA’s rural producer members to the city
for sale to SEWA’s retail vegetable vendors.
In 1996, the Federation
became a member of the National Cooperative Union of Inida. It
has obtained an ‘A’ grade by government auditors for
the quality of its services and efficient management.
