REDEFINING INFORMAL POWER : SEWA S EXPERIENCE

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Nathaniel Stevenson
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1 REDEFINING INFORMAL POWER : SEWA S EXPERIENCE SEWA From Union to Movement 1

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.

2 SEWA Evolution Self Employed Women s Association (SEWA) is a labour union, established by Shri Ela R. Bhatt in 1972, has now taken shape of a movement It is a confluence of three movements Labour movement Co-operative movement Women 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 India Rural membership 3,72,041 members from 713 villages in 11 districts of Gujarat Urban membership - 1,63,633 members from Ahmedabad city. SEWA s Goal Total empowerment of women through full employment and self reliance OBJECTIVES Full Employment Self Reliance 2

SEWA s Philosophy Gandhian Approach Social Empowerment through Economic Empowerment Leadership

Capital formation at the household level through access to financial services Capacity

technology information, education, knowledge, relevant skills Health care and child care,

3 SEWA s Philosophy Gandhian Approach Social Empowerment through Economic Empowerment Leadership of women SEWA s Integrated Approach Organizing women for collective strength; bargaining power Capital formation at the household level through access to financial services Capacity Building to stand firm in the competitive market- access to market infrastructure, access to technology information, education, knowledge, relevant skills Health care and child care, shelter and insurance to combat chronic and acute risks faced by members and their families Asset Building 3

4 SEWA S STRATEGY Awareness Creation Organizing- 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 Approach Building upon available community resources/ heritage/ culture Capital formation Linkages with markets Gram Haat & TFC Bridging linkages of Government schemes and with members Contd. SEWA S STRATEGY Effective use of resource persons/link institutions Livelihood promotion/ensuring Backup employment Social Security- H.C., C.C.,Insurance, Housing, Savings Struggle 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 trainings Research and documentation Coping up with the calamities through long term livelihood security programmes 4

5 SEWA S 11 QUESTIONS given by our members. Employment Income Nutritious Food Health care Child care Housing Asset Organised strength Leadership Self Reliance Education PROFILES Member 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. 5

6 AREAS OF ACTIVITIES Agriculture Forestry Nursery Water and Soil management Animal Husbandry Economic Activities Readymade Garment Work Labour and Service Providing Paper picking Fodder development Gum activities Salt production Handicraft Construction Bidi Rolling(Traditional Smoke stick) Incense Stick rolling Vendors/Hawker's Activities Head Load Worker s Activity AREAS OF ACTIVITIES Social Security/Service Activities Organising and management Disaster proneness (Natural & manmade) Social security Food security Education Insurance Healthcare Childcare Governance Trainings Sanitation Capacity Building Savings & credit facility Marketing Legal Eco-regeneration 6

7 Livelihood : By Membership Members Home based 26% Members Vendors 7% Producers and services % Members Labour & Services 59% Members 35 types of Activities Livelihood : By No. of Activities Home based 41% 9 types of Activities 12 types of Vendors Activities 10% Producers and services 14% Labour & Services 35% 30 types of Activities 7

8 Membership by Area Urban 31% Rural 69% ACTIVITY REACH SEWA 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 8

9 RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979 Members: 3,70,000 About 63.3% or 2/3 rd 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 producersempowerment Creation of alternative employment opportunities- Strengthen bargaining power Major Activities Organising into primary groups like district associations/federations/ unions which has direct RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979 grassroot 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 9

10 RURAL UNION: A Journey Since 1979 Achievements Agricultural 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 sector Change 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 migration Disaster proneness SEWA FAMILY Banaskantha DWCRA Mahila SEWA Association (BDMSA) Kutch Craft Association (KCA) Kheda District Women s Savings and Credit Association Ahmedabad District Women s Savings and Credit Association Gandhinagar District Women s Savings and Credit Association Sukhi Mahila Mandal Sabarkantha Kheda Mandal Surendranagar District Mahila and Bal Vikas Mandal (SMBVM) Cont. 10

SEWA FAMILY Vanlakshmi Mandal Shri Mahila SEWA Anasooya Trust Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust SEWA Gram Mahila Haat Gujarat State Mahila SEWA Cooperative Federation SEWA Academy SEWA Trade

11 SEWA FAMILY Vanlakshmi Mandal Shri Mahila SEWA Anasooya Trust Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust SEWA Gram Mahila Haat Gujarat State Mahila SEWA Cooperative Federation SEWA Academy SEWA Trade Facilitation Center SEWA Cooperative Bank Vimo SEWA (Insurance) Video SEWA Why a Natural Resource Management Campaign? Agriculture is the major occupation of twothirds of SEWA s members. 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 the workers and their movement. 11

12 Jeevan Shala The 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. 12

Women decide the agenda. Leverages government resources.

13 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) 13

14 Preparedness Multi hazard: mainly drought, flood, earthquake, cyclone and riots. No. Year Flood Drought Earthquake Riots Cyclone members members members members members members members members - New Challenges and SEWA 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. 14

15 Introduction 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 15

The SEWA Trade Facilitation Center Crafts From Local Production To Global Market A corporate Entity owned and manage by artisan shareholders (a) Main objectives - Capacity building, product

16 The SEWA Trade Facilitation Center Crafts 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 State Level Apex Marketing Organization 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 16

17 Grassroots Trading Network(GTN) To strengthen, support and expand market opportunities for grassroots producer organization with the particular focus on women. 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. 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. 17

18 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 leaders Development of dignity and self-respect Started participating in the social and economic structures Knowledge & Skill enhancement Empowered with management skills Turning 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 economy Size of informal economy Spread of livelihood activities Cont. 18

19 Lessons Learnt 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 be summarised 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 Cont. and members Lessons Learnt Flexibility in an organization s style and structure encourages experimentation and learning, and a willingness to take advantage of partnerships with others Leadership 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 competitive Policy 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. 19

20 Thank THANK YOU you 20

Building membership-based organizations of women workers

Building membership-based organizations of women workers SEWA believes that the basis of development and progress is organization. Self employed women must organize themselves into sustainable organizations