Saturday 4th July. We met Pratibha Pandya, one of the people in charge of SEWA (Self Employed Women Association), in the office of the organisation in Ahmedabad (Gujarat). For 22 years, she has been working for this syndicate of self-employed women.



In India, the ‘informal’  sector represents 60% of the economic income and more than 90% of workers. Most of the women are hired in this sector: these ‘independent workers’  are farmers, street saleswomen, dressmakers, they roll biddies (Indian cigarettes), etc. A lot of them also work at home for the manufacturing industry that pays them by the piece.

These women are often exploited by managers and suppliers who do not hesitate to take advantage of their professional isolation. Their income is very irregular and they must also face the vagaries of life without the social welfare from which paid workers benefit.
                A market in Ahmedabad

SEWA was founded in 1972 by Ela Bhatt, who was then an executive of TLA (Textile Labour Association) which is the syndicate of textile workers created by Ghandhi himself in 1917. She drew her inspiration from the work of the Mahatma to build a model that would help destitute women in the long term, without assisting them.
 
SEWA wants to regroup these independent workers in order to help them regain confidence in themselves and hold their heads up. By uniting within a syndicate, they learn how to organise themselves and break the vicious circle of poverty. SEWA has two objectives: allow these women to earn their economic autonomy through their work, and supply them with the same advantages from which paid workers benefit.

To allow them to augment their income, SEWA helps the workers of the informal sector to associate in cooperatives. The regrouping offers numerous advantages: pooling their money (for purchase of tools, of stocks, etc.), division of work (which makes these women more productive), sharing of risks, etc. And above all, it gives them real resilience against other economic factors.

We were invited to visit a cooperative of women fishmongers created by SEWA in Ahmedabad. Suruchi Mehta, the coordinator of the activities of the cooperative, showed us the work done since 2003. At that time, the women fishmongers of Ahmedabad worked separately and were not respected by the merchants supplying them with fish. They were badly served and had to do with varying quality fish offered to them at a fixed price. Once on the market, they engaged in hard competition between themselves, and at the end earned practically nothing.
                                Suruchi Mehta

With the help of Suruchi Mehta, the women fishmongers organised themselves in a cooperative and created a central buying office for fish. By grouping the orders, the cooperative was in the position to negotiate price and quality with the merchants. Out of the 200 women members, two are in charge of buying the fish on the central market in the morning, and transporting it back to the building opened by SEWA on the local market. The transporting costs are reduced, and the women fishmongers do not have to get up at the crack of dawn anymore. They buy better quality fish directly from the SEWA shop and at a lower price. The cooperative only takes 2 rupees (€0.03) of profit margin per kilo of fish in order to cover the rent, buy the ice and pay the two workers in charge of buying wholesale.

The results are palpable. In 2003, these women fishmongers earned an average of 80 rupees (€1.20) per day, starting their day at four in the morning. Today, they earn an average of 120 rupees (€1.80) per day, and up to 200 rupees (€3) on Sundays, only starting to work from seven in the morning. Even though the amounts seem derisory, it is an increase in income of more than 50%, in better work conditions. It allows these women to improve their quality of life and notably to finance their children’s education. Moreover, these women are not confronted anymore by the daily humiliation they suffered when buying their fish individually; they have regained their dignity.

                               Shanta Ben, one of the paid workers of the central buying office.

When buying fish on a market in Pondicherry, a month before, we had been shocked to notice how the women fishmongers were competing savagely between themselves. The quality of fish was poor, and the women cut the prices to sell their meagre merchandise and earn enough to survive. On the market we visited in Ahmedabad, the atmosphere was radically different. The women fishmongers, radiant, showed us big pieces of appetising fresh fish. Regrouped within a cooperative, and earning their life in a better way, they have become interdependent.

Suruchi Mehta has other projects to continue to increase these women’s economic autonomy. She wishes to take advantage of her experience to open SEWA shops on the other markets of Ahmedabad. She also dreams of building a real covered market that would allow more sales in better work conditions. She is already looking further: organising the fishermen and buying the fish directly from them without having to go through the merchants of the central market. The profit margin earned would then be redistributed between the workers: the fishermen and the women fishmongers.

                  The women fishmongers of SEWA

SEWA is the source of 102 similar cooperatives in different industries. They accompany the independent workers in the creation and the follow up of their jobs.

The organisation provides its members with training to teach them how to manage their cooperatives in an autonomous way. Sessions of personal development are also organised to help these women gain confidence in themselves and assert themselves in the economic world. Finally, other technical training is also offered and allows the women workers to increase their productivity.

in 1992, SEWA founded a federation of cooperatives: the ‘Gujarat State Women’s SEWA Cooperative Federation Ltd.’. The objective of this federation was to give the cooperative SEWA greater capacity by offering them specialised services in administration, marketing, labelling, professional training, etc. It did not however aim to create a big company: this ‘super cooperative’ posed as a service provider; the cooperatives kept their autonomy, and women remained their own boss.
                  A SEWA textile shop 

The other objective of SEWA is to offer the women workers of the informal sector social welfare and services that they were excluded from until now. 

SEWA organised a real social insurance for its members. After having paid a subscription, the workers of SEWA benefit from health insurance for them and their children, including maternity. Work accidents are also covered. A child minding service is available to allow the women to work in serenity.

The SEWA Bank, one of the biggest successes of the organisation, allows its members to avail of a bank account to save, and to subscribe for ‘micro credits’. Thanks to small loans, the workers can invest without having to use the outrageously expensive services of usurers. These micro credits can be used to buy tools or stock of raw material; it often consists of agricultural loans destined to buy seeds. 


SEWA’s vocation is to be self-financing in order to remain viable and independent. The syndicate is organised in cooperatives whose beneficiaries are shareholders (the SEWA Bank has 100,000 shareholders). All the services offered (including training) have to be paid for, and the objective of the cooperatives that run them is profitability. The members of the syndicate also pay a subscription of 5 rupees (€0.08) per year to cover the costs of structure, and the organisation also deducts a percentage from the sales of the cooperatives.
                                     The 10 objectives of SEWA for its members.

Today, SEWA has more than one million members across India (500,000 in the Gujarat and 500,000 in the rest of the Indian Union), which means as many households, making it the biggest Indian syndicate.

Now, SEWA is spreading its activities to Afghanistan, in Kabul. In 2005, the Indian government appealed to the organisation to train more than 1,000 Afghan women in horticulture and agriculture. This is an official acknowledgement of its work in India.


The success of SEWA may be explained through its philosophy: the organisation does not look to assist people in difficult positions, but counts on the unused capacities of the workers of the informal sector. By giving them the means to earn a decent life through their jobs, SEWA helps these women to gain confidence in themselves and use all their potential.


How to help

The best way to help the women of SEWA is probably to buy their products. The organisation is interested in potential buyers aware of the approach of fair trade.

Donations and volunteers are also welcome.


Contacts

Website : www.sewa.org


François
(Translation: Yolene Dabreteau)