SOIL Report 2008 - ACCESS Development Services

Chapter VILivelihood Promotion by SEWA 14Case Study 6 :SEWAaims at fullemployment ofpoor women− assuredwork, income,food and socialsecurity (includinghealthcare,child care andshelter).Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a labour union of women engaged in the informal sectorin rural and urban areas since the last 30 years. SEWA aims at full employment of poor women − assuredwork, income, food and social security (including healthcare, child care and shelter). Based in Gujarat, itworks with nine partner organisations in seven other states v . SEWA Gujarat’s membership as of January2008 is 551,764 women, of which 62 per cent are from rural areas, and 38 per cent are urban. While allof SEWA’s members belong to the SEWA union, many also belong to other membership-based organisationsestablished by SEWA such as SEWA bank, SEWA cooperatives vi , SEWA Cooperative Federationand rural member-based organisations such as producer groups, SHGs, SEWA district associations viiand SEWA marketing organisations such as Gram Mahila Haat and SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre.There are different sister organisations of SEWA that provide various services to members and to takeinitiatives for policy advocacy.SEWA’s approach to building livelihoods is encouraging as well as challenging to replicate. There are nopre-determined set of deliverables or rigid framework. At the same time there is absolute clarity thatthe aim is to secure full employment for SEWA members. (Also see Box 6.1)Some key initiativesSEWA’s model of livelihood promotion has four pillars which contribute to higher income for the members– a four-level training for members, microfinance services, marketing services and support servicesfor social security. ix In urban Ahmedabad, SEWA organises its members into trade groups which fightfor the rights of members and enable policy changes at the state, national and international level.SEWA rural presently works with poor women engaged in the following occupations – agriculture, saltfarming, weaving, non-timber forest produce and craft. For example, SEWA set up one of its first childcare centres in the salt pans of Surendranagar in 1992, building first a platform of credibility and trustamong the salt workers and then launched the institutional drive through savings groups. The periodfrom 2000 to 2001, the three important pillars – credit (for working capital), marketing linkages (tie-upwith Gujarat Alkalies and Chemicals Limited) and technical training for producing industrial salt – werebuilt. The access to working capital from SEWA Bank and the marketing tie-ups freed them from theclutches of traders. SEWA’s financial and marketing services have produced dramatic results with thesehouseholds rising above poverty.Craft in Banaskantha: SEWA’s objective in Patan was to provide the rural craftswoman with a market.Trainings went hand-in-hand with market-linkages. Savings groups and credit for asset building werestarted around the same time. Successive disasters in subsequent years – cyclone, drought and earthquake– resulted in craft being the only source of livelihood for the women in Banaskantha and Kutch andsubsequently SEWA’s artisan base burgeoned to nearly 15,000. The challenge before SEWA was to providework to thousands of these artisans. To achieve this, SEWA realised that it had to convert the economicdevelopment programme into a business organisation and compete in the mainstream market.SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre: In 2003, the SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre (STFC) x was initiatedin Ahmedabad as a Section 25 company, where the artisans themselves are the suppliers and shareholders− 15,000 member artisans are also the shareholders of STFC. It plays a facilitator role by providinga whole range of business development inputs ranging from market readiness, market linkages, market14214Case developed by Girija Srinivasan on the basis of discussions with Ms. Reema Nanavaty, Rural Co ordinator, SEWA and her paper “LivelihoodFinance – SEWA’s experience” which she made available for this work. To condense SEWA’s experience in a case would have been very difficultbut for this support from her.