Self Employed Women’s Association, SEWA, was invited by Honourable Union Finance Minister Shri. Nirmala Sithraman to make submissions for poor women of the informal sector in Pre-Budget Consultations in November 2025 for the year 2026.  SEWA made key recommendations focusing on increasing productivity of women workers through enhanced social protection and better employment opportunities for young workers of this sector.

Key SEWA submissions to the finance minister include reinstating and allocation of funds from Central Budget support for Beedi Worker Welfare (health, scholarships, ID formalisation) after the Beedi Welfare Cess repeal, use unspent BOCW cess to link registered construction workers with ESIC and cover employer/employee contributions for comprehensive healthcare,  expand climate protection for informal workers by scaling sector-specific climate insurance, waiving 18% GST on such products, and creating a blended-finance “Climate Fund” for adaptation/mitigation and insurance access and strengthen NAMASTE for waste pickers with hybrid (digital + physical) registration, enhance scholarships for waste-picker children, reform Solid Waste Management Rules to reserve key work (door-to-door collection/MRFs) for registered waste pickers/cooperatives.

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