SEWA
Founded By: Ela Bhatt.
Stands For: Self-Employed Women's Association.
Founded In: 1970's.
A
RAY OF LIGHT FOR DESTITUTE WOMEN:
Eighty-nine percent of women who work in India are self-employed.
Existing outside the protection of labour laws and the minimum wage, they
are particularly subject to exploitation often at the hands of
unscrupulous banks and money lenders.
Ahmedabad ,
however, has maintained a tradition of self-help since the days of Gandhi,
and has achieved world recognition as the home base of the ground breaking
Self-Employed Women's Association, or SEWA, founded in the early 1970s by
Ela Bhatt.
Originally set up to offer legal advice, to provide training and
childcare, to negotiate with police and local government for vendors'
licences and to provide education for members children, it soon grew. To
enable the women of Ahmedabad
to buy basic materials and tools, and use their income to live on rather
than to pay off loan sharks, SEWA opened its own co-operative. Mahila
Bank, the first to offer women low interest loans, savings and deposit
accounts, and insurance.
A
MAJOR BREAKTHROUGH:
In 1984, a major textile industry slump affected 35,000 families, most of
them Harijans and Muslims. Many had to resort to rag and paper picking,
collecting grimy scraps of paper, polythene and broken glass for
recycling, a task which threatened their health and brought in pathetic
wages. Setting up training centres in weaving, sewing, dyeing and
printing, and providing efficient machinery, SEWA helped to re-establish
many women in the textile labour force, and provided an outlet for their
products.
Contracts with government institutions guarantee a place of work for
cleaners and vendors; members now provide vegetables, fruit and eggs to
all government hospitals, jails and municipal schools in
Ahmedabad .
ALL ROUND DEVELOPMENT:
SEWA also trained its members in accountancy, management and office
skills, and its management committee includes farmers, rag pickers and
bidi-makers. By the 1980s, members felt confident enough to bring their
personal grievances to this approachable team, voicing complaints of
verbal and sexual assault in the workplace and at home. Two thousand women
registered a protest against 'Sati' in 1987.
A committee was formed to investigate crimes against Muslim women,
particularly 'talaq', a practice sanctioned by the Quran that allows a man
to divorce his wife by uttering the words " I divorce you "
three times, often leaving them destitute. Verbal divorce and polygamy,
still common elsewhere in India, were banned in Gujarat in 1988. SEWA also
strongly opposes sex determination tests that lead to female foeticide, a
widespread practice in Gujarat, and its work has now spread to nine other
Indian cities.
The SEWA craft shop on the east side of Ellis Bridge, a few doors from
the organization's reception centre, is well worth a browse for clothes.
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