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Self-employment among rural women gets a boost through the efforts of SEWA.
Shantaben of Mehsana district, Gujarat, could never dream of owning land, let alone earning a decent income, till she discovered Vanalakshmi, a landless agricultural women’s co-operative, initiated by the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). Today, Vanalakshmi members grow food for cash and domestic use and plant trees for fodder and fruit. “The co-operative has given me a chance to own land. It is our collective property,” remarks a proud Shantaben. SEWA, founded by Ela Bhatt, has pioneered an economic revolution amongst the poorest women of Gujarat since 1972. Providing much-needed financial independence and ownership of economic resources, SEWA has been organising rural and urban impoverished women into workers’ groups and co! -operatives. Members are engaged in jobs as diverse as head-loading goods in markets, stitching clothes at home, rolling beedis and weaving cloth. Initially, women were organised in specific trades and encouraged to demand better wages. However, SEWA soon realised that agitation and negotiation for better wages was not always the best solution. It was more important to strengthen its members through awareness programmes and to provide them with alternative sources of livelihood. SEWA’s rural development programmes are active in nine dry, drought-prone districts of Gujarat, where lack of employment, very low wages, poor health, crushing debt and high rates of migration are rampant. SEWA programmes are need-based and demand-driven. In the tobacco-producing area of Kheda, for instance, women were organised into a local co-operative, and alternative employment opportunities were provided through weaving, wastepaper pick! ing, etc. Savings and credit groups were also organised. Mass mobilisation through campaigns strengthens the SEWA movement and highlights pressing issues identified by women and local leaders. As part of the water campaign between 1995-1999, 80 rainwater-harvesting tanks were constructed in Surendranagar district. The rural women of Sabarkantha district have trained themselves and have taken full responsibility for handpump repair in 11 villages. Today SEWA is not a localised movement. Its all-India membership has steadily grown from 320 in 1973 to 3,18,527 in 2000. This vouches for their successful journey towards empowering and organising the invisible and unorganised female labour force that forms 94 per cent of India’s total female labour force. Contact: Self-Employed Women's Association
SEWA! Reception Centre
Opp. Victoria Garden, Bhadra
Ahmedabad - 380 001
Gujarat, India
Tel: 91-79-550 6444/550 6477,
Fax: 91-79-550 6446
Email:
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