ORGANISING FOR OUR RIGHT TO SOCIAL SECURITY

5000 workers representing 21 unions and other unorganized sector workers’ organisations gathered outside the Indian Parliament to press for a bill for social security for unorganized sector workers.. The workers came from Gujarat, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi.

Excerpt from May Day Resolution

We demand a bill for the 37 Crore unorganized sector workers that incorporates the following features:

-		Registration and identity cards for all unorganised workers.
-		Life and disability insurance
-		Health insurance
-		Maternity benefits
-		Old age pension
-		Adequate financial provision from the union budget to the National Social Security Fund that will be set up for the purpose.
-		Clear implementation machinery, which will be participatory through Worker Facilitation Centers.

This “dharna” was organized by SEWA and the Hamal Panchayat (head loaders union) on August 13th, 2007, We demanded that the bill be tabled in the current monsoon session of Parliament. Seventy workers from Maharashtra drove on motorcycles from Pune to Delhi to express their solidarity.

Earlier in the day, a delegation led by Elaben, Founder of SEWA, and included Baba Adhav of Hamal Panchayat, Renana Jhabvala and Hamidaben of SEWA, met with Mrs. Sonia Gandhi, Chairperson of the ruling coalition government—the United Progressive Alliance. She expressed her strong commitment to ensuring that unorganised sector workers obtain social security, and that the bill would be tabled as soon as possible. The delegation requested that an announcement be made to this effect on our Independence Day, the sixtieth year of our freedom.

Several members of Parliament and prominent citizens addressed the workers at the rally, and expressed their support and solidarity. In fact, more than 60 eminent persons signed a letter to the Prime Minister for basic social security for the unorganized workers. These included the writer Khushwant Singh, Supreme Court lawyer Indira Jaising, Human Rights activist Swami Agnivesh, economist and Ex-Minister Yogendra Alagh, actress Shabana Azmi and historian Ramachandra Guha.

After the “dharna”, a delegation of unions met Mr.Pranab Mukherjee, Leader of the Lok Sabha and Minister. He also expressed his support for social security for unorganised sector workers, and was particularly concerned as to how the benefits would actually reach workers in all corners of the country.

Later in the evening, we had a long meeting with the Minister of Labour, Mr.Oscar Fernandes, who not only stated his commitment to bring in the bill on social security, but also his willingness to keep up the dialogue with us. He asked us to prepare a short note on how social security could be implemented.

On August 15th,2007, India’s Independence Day, the Prime Minister directly addressed the issue in his speech:

While we have moved ahead in the last three years on many fronts, there is one area where considerable work remains to be done. Millions of our fellow citizens are not engaged in any formal employment in the organized sector. They work in small establishments, run their own little shops or offer their services on a daily basis.

They have neither a social safety net nor a sense of economic security. They become destitute or indebted when they fall ill or suffer accidents. We are committed to their welfare and are taking steps to provide this sense of security.

We will provide an old age pension to all citizens above the age of 65 and living below the poverty line. We will also provide life and disability cover to the heads of all poor families or to one earning member in each family so that they and their families can get over the consequences of injury or death.

We are also working on a health insurance model so that our poor do not have to bear the high cost of medical care. These programmes will be launched shortly.

Heavy Rains Cause Flooding Yet again.

SEWA's rural members bore the brunt of heavy rains in this year's monsoon. In early July, continuous torrential rain led to several villages being cut off in Sabarkantha, Patan, Gandhinagar, Anand, Kheda, Vadodara and Ahmedabad districts.

In Sabarkantha, 75 villages were affected. Cattle, stored food grain and crops were destroyed. One of our young members died in the floods. In Patan district, several flocks of sheep and goats were swept away. In Bakutra village, a girl was swept away.

In Gandhinagar, 400 'kutcha'(mud) houses were destroyed. In all the districts there were heavy losses of crops, livestock and homes. Our members' stocks of foodgrains were also destroyed.

Our members and our local organisers' teams have been working with the local authorities for relief and rehabilitation, including distributing food packets, compensation and providing health services to prevent epidemics.

Gyan-Vigyan Kendra (IT Centres) provide information to our members

SEWA has set up IT centres called Gyan-Vigyan Kendras to provide information on farming techniques, health care and animal husbandry, among other topics. Using satellite linkage, our members obtained useful health information, especially on some diseases, by linking with Apollo Hospital. Our members also obtained follow-up care from the hospital.

SEWA’s radio—Rudi no Radio—completes 100 episodes

Rudi no Radio airs its programmes through All India Radio. It reaches 5 lakh listeners in 26 districts of Gujarat. The workers themselves are the producers, editors and broadcasters. They are also avid listeners and provide their feedback regularly by phoning in and writing postcards. Rudi no Radio’s programmes include do’s and don’ts on health, including HIV/AIDS prevention, water, agriculture, animal husbandry and the environment.

Street vendors in Madhya Pradesh demonstrate to protect their livelihood

In 2004, the central government developed a national policy on street vendors. SEWA was part of the task force that prepared this policy. In 2006, Madhya Pradesh (M.P.) became the first state in India to implement a state policy on street vendors. SEWA MP organised a protest against the entry of large retail chains like Reliance Fresh which are threatening the livelihoods of streetvendors .

Streetvendors in Delhi develop a model market

Our members in Delhi have developed a model women streetvendors’ market at Velodrome, Delhi. Each vendor contributed Rs 550 towards the setting up of this market which would be customer-friendly and clean. This initiative by our members is particularly significant as there is a massive attempt to evict vendors in the context of preparations for the Commonwealth Games in 2010.

Elaben urges the inclusion of streetvendors in Ahmedabad’s “mega city” plans

“ Mega means big. When our city becomes big, why can’t we have street vendors as well? Surely there is space enough for all of us in this fast-developing mega city with widened roads and supermalls. If we don’t include streetvendors, then we will have widespread hunger and violence in our city.

SEWA-promoted Cooperatives’ have their Annual General Meetings

96 cooperatives promoted by SEWA with a total of 90,604 share-holders, all SEWA members, organised their annual general meetings in June of this year.

Our different cooperatives are :

-		12 artisans' coopearatives with 850 members
-		7 land-based cooperatives with 192 members
-		57 dairy cooperatives with 9000 members.
-		7 trading and vending cooperatives like fish cooperatives with 2200 members
-		12 service cooperatives with 23,051 members including midwives cooperatives, child care and cleaners' cooperative and our SEWA Bank with 55,311 members.

Ten thousand workers, participated in annual general meetings this year. The boards of the cooperatives, run by worker-leaders, presented their activities and their balance sheets to their share-holders. All the cooperatives made surpluses this year and distributed dividends to their members.

SEWA's midwives use the Right to Information Act

SEWA has organised traditional midwives in our union and into their own cooperative, Lok Swasthaya SEWA Cooperative. These women called dais, provide ante-natal and post-natal care in addition to conducting home-based child births. The government gives them Rs. 25 per birth. Local people pay them between Rs. 50 and Rs. 1000 for each child birth conducted. They also are health educators and provide primary care.

For months, SEWA's dais had been trying to obtain their outstanding dues from the government for deliveries conducted. They decided to file applications under the Right to Information Act, inquiring why their monies were still outstanding. Within a month, dais of 4 talukas (blocks) of Ahmedabad district obtained written replies and their outstanding dues of Rs. 1,77,000.

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INDIA