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REDEFINING INFORMAL POWER :

SEWA’S EXPERIENCE

SEWA – From Union to Movement

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SEWA – EvolutionSelf Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a labour union, established by Shri Ela R. Bhatt in 1972, has now taken shape of a movementIt is a confluence of three movements

Labour movementCo-operative movementWomen’s movement.

It a member-based movement of 7,70,000 Poor, informal sector women workers of India.SEWA’s presence is in Asia, Africa, Europe and the USA.SEWA works in 7 states and 11 districts of IndiaRural membership – 3,72,041 members from 713 villages in 11 districts of GujaratUrban membership - 1,63,633 members from Ahmedabad city.

OBJECTIVES

Full Employment

Self Reliance

SEWA’s GoalTotal empowerment of women through full employment and self reliance

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SEWA’s PhilosophyGandhian ApproachSocial Empowerment through Economic EmpowermentLeadership of women

SEWA’s Integrated Approach

Organizing women for collective strength; bargaining power Capital formation at the household level through access to financial servicesCapacity Building to stand firm in the competitive market- access to market infrastructure, access to technology information, education, knowledge, relevant skillsHealth care and child care, shelter and insurance to combat chronic and acute risks faced by members and their familiesAsset Building

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SEWA’S STRATEGYAwareness CreationOrganizing- Unionizing - Advocacy and Lobbying for Policy Change at Local, National, International levels.Demand driven and need based programmes (Instead of parallel programmes)Participatory approach (Members involved from village planning, implementation, analysis till evaluation.)Integrated ApproachBuilding upon available community resources/ heritage/ cultureCapital formationLinkages with markets – Gram Haat & TFCBridging linkages of Government schemes and with members Contd.

Effective use of resource persons/link institutionsLivelihood promotion/Ensuring Backup employmentSocial Security- H.C., C.C.,Insurance, Housing, SavingsStruggle and development through joint action and union and co-operatives or any type of structure for economic activities which are viable and sustainable.Capacity building trainingsResearch and documentationCoping up with the calamities through long term livelihood security programmes

SEWA’S STRATEGY

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SEWA’S 11 QUESTIONS –given by our members.

• Employment• Income• Nutritious Food• Health care• Child care• Housing

AssetAssetOrganised strengthOrganised strengthLeadershipLeadershipSelf RelianceSelf RelianceEducationEducation

PROFILESMember Profile

Home based workers – working from their homes for a trader, contractor, are own account, piece rate workers.Vendors or Hawkers – who invest their labour in vending and earn their living.Manual labourers and service providers – like agricultural labourers, construction workers, contract labourers, handcart pullers, head-loaders, domestic workers and laundry workers.Producers – who invest their labour, skill and resources and take the risk of production and marketing to earn their living.

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AREAS OF ACTIVITIESEconomic Activities

AgricultureForestryNurseryWater and Soil managementAnimal HusbandryReadymade Garment WorkLabour and Service ProvidingPaper picking

Fodder developmentGum activitiesSalt productionHandicraftConstructionBidi Rolling(Traditional Smoke stick)Incense Stick rollingVendors/Hawker's ActivitiesHead Load Worker’s Activity

AREAS OF ACTIVITIESSocial Security/Service Activities

Organising and managementDisaster proneness(Natural & manmade)Social securityFood securityEducationInsuranceHealthcare

ChildcareGovernance TrainingsSanitationCapacity BuildingSavings & credit facilityMarketingLegalEco-regeneration

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Vendors7%

Producers and services

8%

Labour & Services

59%

Home based26%

Livelihood : By Membership

39460 Members

40511 Members

314245 Members

141458 Members

Vendors10% Producers and

services14%

Labour & Services

35%

Home based41%

9 types of Activities 12 types of

Activities

30 types of Activities

35 types of Activities

Livelihood : By No. of Activities

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Membership by Area

Rural69%

Urban31%

ACTIVITY REACHSEWA works in 7 states and 11 districts of India

Members represents more than 125 different kind of trades.

Formation of 3500 local producer groups

Formation of more than 100 Micro-enterprises in form of cooperatives, associations, unions, federations etc.

Members consists of Agricultural labourers, gum collectors, salt workers, artisans, rag pickers, vegetable vendors, etc

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RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979

• About 63.3% or 2/3rd of total Membership resides in rural parts

• Organised 713 villages in 11 districts of Gujarat• Major Issue: Survival of Laborers as less employment

opportunities• Strategy : Initiated organising by the traditional union

/organising strategy– Started organising workers as producers-

empowerment– Creation of alternative employment opportunities-

Strengthen bargaining power• Major Activities

– Organising into primary groups like district associations/federations/ unions which has direct

Members: 3,70,000

RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979grassroot links

– Economic Interventions based on existing skills – Building Competitiveness

– Many struggles were fought to have minimum wages for agricultural workers, recognizing midwives.

– SEWA in joint efforts with Government of India has undertaken community based, 7 year interactive village level integrated development programme.

Major Campaigns• Agricultural Campaign• Forestation Campaign• Water Campaign

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RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979AchievementsAgricultural issues of informal sectors got international platform at round table conferences.Government of Gujarat announced the minimum wages for agricultural labourers.Obtained recognisation to 80 Trades and 123 occupations of informal sectorChange of procedure for the basis of obtaining higher wages from older “capacity and power for bargain”to latest “working ability and capacity for bargaining”.Availability of work throughout the year.Decreased migrationDisaster proneness

SEWA FAMILYBanaskantha DWCRA Mahila SEWA Association (BDMSA)Kutch Craft Association (KCA)Kheda District Women’s Savings and Credit AssociationAhmedabad District Women’s Savings and Credit AssociationGandhinagar District Women’s Savings and Credit AssociationSukhi Mahila MandalSabarkantha Kheda Mandal

Surendranagar District Mahila and Bal Vikas Mandal (SMBVM) Cont.

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SEWA FAMILYVanlakshmi MandalShri Mahila SEWA Anasooya TrustGujarat Mahila Housing SEWA TrustSEWA Gram Mahila HaatGujarat State Mahila SEWA Cooperative FederationSEWA AcademySEWA Trade Facilitation CenterSEWA Cooperative BankVimo SEWA (Insurance)Video SEWA

Why a Natural Resource Management Campaign?

• Women’s lives are related to Fodder,Fuel, Water and employment.In arid and semi-arid areas these problems directly and grossly affect them as they are under the influence of cyclic droughts.

• Therefore, SEWA has initiated three campaigns: Water, Forestry and Agriculture.

• A campaign is mandatory to strengthen our natural resources which form the life line for existence.

• The campaigns also result in policy changes which strengthen theworkers and their movement.

• Agriculture is the major occupation of two-thirds of SEWA’s members.

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Jeevan ShalaThe concept

“Life School” based on what the members want to learn. Emphasis is on demand for learning.

1. It is not only just about literacy, but learning about the issues relevant to their life and work.

2. An education, which teaches lessons of value and builds a person to be able to participate in development of new village economy and culture.

3. Education/ learning related to life skills.

SEWA Barefoot Managers’School

A barefoot manager is an entrepreneur, owner-manager, supervisor or a grassroot worker. A Barefoot manager is likely to be less educated and would be lacking professional management exposure. She is a manager by role but lacks the managerial skills and knowledge. I future, the role of a barefoot manager will become more complex and more demanding. As per SEWA’s ideology a worker or producer just does not remain a worker or producer, but also becomes an owner and manager of their own traders, enterprises and economic organisations. With this objective, SEWA has formed the Spearhead Teams. These spearhead teams in eleven area, with 750 members, has been provided both on the job as well as classroom trainings. Through these trainings the spearhead team – SEWA’s Barefoot Managers”.

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SEWA’s Approach to Disasters

• Women centred.• Linking Disaster with Development.• Focus on livelihood.• Seeking opportunities.• Integrated but decentralised.• Women decide the agenda.• Leverages government resources.

Strategy

Strengthen Livelihood

Security Fund

(Resources)

Community Learning Centres

(Community Based)

Operationalise Livelihood

Security Task Force

(Mechanism)

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Preparedness

• Multi hazard: mainly drought, flood, earthquake, cyclone and riots.No. Year Flood Drought Earth-

quakeRiots Cyclone

1. 1998 - - - - 18000members

2. 1999 - 15000members

- - 7000members

3. 2000 3000members

20000members

- - -

4. 2001 - 40000members

35000members

- -

5. 2002 - - - 60000members

-

New Challenges andSEWA’s Intervention

The Challenges: • Globalization of the finance and national economies • Information technology revolution• Continued poverty.

SEWA’s Intervention:

SEWA studied the impact of these challenges

SEWA realized it must benefit from these challenges.

SEWA is for increasing economic opportunities for poor women workers.

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Introduction to JeevikaIntroduction to Jeevika• Jeevika is a comprehensive, integrated livelihood security project

undertaken by SEWA in partnership with IFAD, GoI, GoG, and WFP after the 2001 earthquake

• It is demand driven and need based

• In a highly decentralized model Village Development Committees (VDCs), and Self Help Groups (SHGs) play the central role in program planning, implementation and monitoring

• It will cover clusters of 400 villages in approximately 14 blocks of three districts in Northern Gujarat: Kutch, Surendranagar and Patan

• Approximately 40,000 households are expected to benefit directly from the project

Jeevika’s Aims and Objectives

• Empower and build capacity of marginalised groups

• Increase livelihood security to economically vulnerable households

• Improve the productivity of the natural resource base in a sustainable and equitable manner

• Create effective mechanisms to involve communities in decision-making

• Strengthen capabilities of communities to establish and manage their own development projects and assist other communities to do the same

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The SEWA Trade Facilitation CenterCrafts From Local Production To Global Market

• A corporate Entity owned and manage by artisan shareholders

(a) Main objectives - Capacity building, product development and exploring new markets.

(b) Follows integrated marketing approach backed by research, data management, production related services and networking with wider national and international markets.

(c) Strategically targets the markets, thereby influencing the local wages and increasing the bargaining power of the poor artisans.

(d) Uses the best available in the formal sector for informal sector

(e) Helps SEWA’s member access formal structures of the government and the corporate sector at national and international levels.

SEWA Gram Mahila Haat (SGMH)Local Products in Local and Global Markets

SGMH:

It has more than 2323 groups, with 14,612 producers and 11

local economic organizations as its members.

Provides market facilitation and linkages for farm, non farm,

forest produce and off farm produce such as salt, gum.

It ventured into setting up Rural Marketing Distribution

Network to benefit from the formal sector

State Level Apex Marketing Organization

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Grassroots Trading Network(GTN)

Objectives:

To link poor producers with national and global markets, thereby offering

access to both domestic and external trade as well as employment

opportunities.

A contact point in a world wide network; will act as a gateway to global

networking and integrate trade in the favor of poor.

They emphasis is on Trade integration and Market Access.

SEWA decided to go to the pillars of formal sector: the Government of

India and the World Bank.

To strengthen, support and expand market opportunities for grassroots producer organization with the particular focus on women.

Empowerment Through IT

• Vignan SEWA – School of Science and Technology

• SEWA plans to use IT as tool for Empowerment of the poor women by strengthening their work efficiency and increased access to information

SEWA plans to train about 2000 organisers and grassroots leaders and also 1000 children over a period of 3 years.

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From Debt to Capital: Developments at Personal Front

Reforms are possible only by brainstorms. Following development were seen among members on personal front:Women became leadersDevelopment of dignity and self-respectStarted participating in the social and economic structuresKnowledge & Skill enhancementEmpowered with management skillsTurning Disaster into Development Secured & compatible culture & heritage in competitive environment

Lessons Learnt……Development work, by it’s very nature, is slow, intangible and challenging process. Requires investment of time and resources.Organising is a stepping stone for development work thus Strategy should be reaffirmed by organising Organising strategies depends on following factors

Type of Informal economySize of informal economySpread of livelihood activities

Cont.

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Lessons Learnt……

Cont.

Some of the significant features that account for SEWA’s success in mobilizing large numbers of poor women and encouraging them to empower themselves can besummarised as follows :

Organizing members (as opposed to offering services at the outset) helps to ensure “ownership” and that subsequent activities are based on members’ needs, while providing a firm foundation for future growth. Most importantly, it leads to collective strength and increased bargaining power of the workers, their Organisation and Movement.Values at the core of an organization help establish

consistency in its purpose and perseverance in its efforts, and serve to attract and retain highly motivated staff and members

Lessons LearntLessons Learnt…………Flexibility in an organization’s style and structure encourages experimentation and learning, and a willingness to take advantage of partnerships with othersLeadership is crucial not only in defining an organization’s vision, but also in establishing management and behavioral practices that reduce social distance between corporate management and grassroots members – moreover, effective leadership skills can be taught to and learned by poor and uneducated women. Poor women are Bankable.Producers who are self-employed poor women as also Owners and Managers of their own micro-enterprises. Globally competitivePolicy Action at local, national and international levels towards just and equitable policies and legislation gives SEWA and its members hope and strength to organise further, thus boosting the movement overall.

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THANK YOUThank you