1.   INTRODUCTION

SEWA is a trade union registered in 1972. It is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labour or small businesses. They do not obtain regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organised sector. They are the unprotected labour force of our country. Constituting 93% of the labour force, these are workers of the unorganised sector. Of the female labour force in India, more than 94% are in the unorganised sector. However their work is not counted and hence remains invisible. In fact, women workers themselves remain uncounted, undercounted and invisible.

SEWA organises women to ensure that every family obtains full employment through the strategy of struggled and development. The struggle is against the many constraints and limitations imposed on them by society and the economy, while development activities strengthen women’s bargaining power and offer them new alternatives. Practically, the strategy is carried out through the joint action of union and cooperatives. Gandhian thinking is the guiding force for SEWA’s poor, self-employed members in organising for social change. SEWA follows the principles of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), sarvadharma (integrating all faiths, all people) and khadi (propagation of local employment and self reliance)

In order to achieve the goals, SEWA identifies the needs and issues of its members and identifies interventions that address these issues. Very often there is a need to create alternative employment opportunities to strengthen the bargaining power of these women workers.

2.   GOALS, THE INNOVATION, OBJECTIVES & STRATEGY

2.1   Goals

SEWA’s main goals are to organise women workers for full employment and self-reliance. Full employment means employment whereby workers obtain work security, income security, food security and social security.

Poor women’s growth, development and employment emerge when they have work and income security and food security. It also occurs when they are healthy, able to access childcare and have a roof over their heads. In a membership-based organisation, it is the member’s priorities and needs which necessarily shapes the priorities and direction of the organisation. Hence, members themselves develop their own yardstick for evaluation. The eleven questions emerged from the members continuously serve as a guide for all members, group leaders, executive committee members and full-time organisers of SEWA. It is also proves useful for monitoring SEWA’s progress and the relevance of its various activities and their congruence with member’s reality and priorities.

2.2   Objectives & Strategy

By dealing with the multiple dimensions of its members’ needs, SEWA supports women’s efforts to overcome poverty. Using an integrated approach, SEWA helps its members achieve full employment and self-reliance through self-governance. SEWA members have created several cooperatives and producers' groups, thereby forging market linkages and enhancing their bargaining position. The efforts have had so much success that, from 1994 to 1998, members increased employment income by 600 percent. SEWA Bank, with 202,706 savers, has issued loans to 50,849 members. To provide for its members' health care, SEWA has helped them start health cooperatives and developed an insurance program that provides members’ coverage for health care, emergencies and loss of life. A SEWA-affiliated team of 270 midwives and health workers serve the health care needs of 71,027 individuals.

Through its University, the SEWA Academy, members learn together, gain information, knowledge and confidence, important in equipping them with the skills to become strong and capable leaders and managers. The SEWA Academy also communicates the concerns, struggles and experiences of poor self-employed women to the public and to policy makers through its Research and Communication services. Today, SEWA is also working through video, telephone, computer, and satellite communications to provide Information Technology to the working class. To address legal issues such as housing and wage disputes, police harassment and other exploitation issues, SEWA provides its members with legal aid services. Currently, Bhatt and other SEWA leaders dedicate their time to influencing national and international policies in support of the informally and self- employed individuals around the world.

3.   MOVEMENT

SEWA is both an organization as well as a movement. The SEWA movement is enhanced by its being a sangam or confluence of three movements: the labour movement, the cooperative movement and the women’s movement. It is a movement of self-employed workers with women as leaders. Through their own movement, women become strong, visible and their remarkable economic and social contributions become recognized.