This book draws information from various papers, case studies, surveys, discussion papers and workshop presentations by SEWA members – many of them unpublished. It is basically about crises which are a recurrent feature in the lives of the unorganized sector workers, especially women, and which drives the family to destitution. To enable the poor to come out of the vicious cycle of indebtedness and poverty, insurance is offered to cover the various crises. It covers all issues under insurance for women workers in the informal economy.

This is a publication that examines poverty in a micro rather than a macro context with the help of North South Dialogue, and NGO based in Germany. Poverty is looked at in depth with the methodology of an Exposure and Dialogue Programme which is essentially an attempt to understand poverty first hand and record some of the factors that lead to the overcoming of it. The life stories of three Sewa members, a bidi worker, and agarbatti roller and a midwife are examined by a team of national and international delegates, and the learnings are analysed and recorded.

This booklet traces the story of SEWA Bank’s initiating technological advancement which began in 1986. The Bank’s current focus is on computerizing and networking its nine extension centers and creating an integrative database with full information on all its clients. Information is also given about the Bank’s financial counseling service with a software program that identifies suitable savings and credit products based on individual client initiative. Barriers to adoption of information technology, and recommendations are also discussed. The conclusion reached is that appropriate technology can be used in an efficient - way even by semi literate women in the informal sector.

This publication gives detailed information about the various housing finance, infrastructure finance and slum upgradation options offered by the Sewa Bank. This is a valuable document on how empowerment of poor self employed women can step out of abject poverty with just a few well thought out and enduring propositions tailored to their needs. The Parivartan project which has the Bank working in collaboration with the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation is also detailed with case studies to illustrate its working.

In this document, in addition to the financial data, the aims and objects of the Bank are given along with important information on Handholders which is essentially an outreach to help poor women to save without having to travel to the bank. Rural banking, micro-finance, insurance and progress after Sewa bank loans are topics illustrated with case studies and analysis. Lessons learnt at Sewa Bank by Ela Bhatt, Founder, appear at the end of the report.

Multiple Status of Women in the Informal Economy

This booklet takes up the ongoing debate on how to deal with poverty in the liberalization of the economy era, where solution being proposed do not necessarily correspond with the to existing situation, not by intention but by default. Workers in the informal economy cannot ‘fit in; as many of them are not confined to one sector as their type of work varies on seasons, engaging them in various types of work over the year, just to make two ends meet. Classification of such women becomes a problem, as also how to cover them by social security funds for home based workers

Basic Security – Case Studies

Thirteen life stories of self employed women workers are recorded here with case study methodology tracing their socio economic background, through childhood and marriage, financial ordeals, how they face the ups and downs, mostly downs of life, and how they overcome these. Their first brushes with SEWA are recorded with the strong bonds that develop with the organization over the years. Many of these beneficiaries themselves become leaders and show the way out of deprivation to more afflicted sisters.

Transforming Water Into Money

This paper is an assessment of Gender Specific Impacts from Improved Water Supply in Banaskantha District in Gujarat. This is a joint effort by the IRC International Water and Sanitation Centres & Partners, Delft, and Foundation of Public Interest, and Self Employed Women’s Association, Ahmedabad. This is a pilot research which assesses in the field, and with the women and men concerned, the relevance of the productive use of water and time, their impact on gender relations and the implications for policies, project design and operations management.

Reaching Out by Reaching In
Sewa Academy (2001)
Price: Rs.100

This paper is an account of SEWA’s action oriented research and grassroot research programme. The aim is to make women’s work visible, organize workers, understand and adjust to a changing environment, design, assess and improve programmes, support advocacy efforts, link to existing government programmes, develop staff awareness and support the SEWA movement. Quite simply SEWA organizers are determined that none of their research will ‘sit on a shelf’.

This book is an account of the social security programmes of SEWA and how they evolved in response to the needs and demands of members. Detailing the schemes for childcare, health and nutrition, housing and insurance, this book draws on surveys and the voices of SEWA’s members to bring alive how work and social security are intrinsically linked in the lives of women in the informal sector.

With the twin goals of Full Employment and Capacity Building, SEWA has often found the need to build up leadership capacities among the self employed women workers. Towards this end SEWA Academy has been organizing training to bring about economic empowerment. This booklet gives details about the types of training, preparation of future leaders, urban and rural, training of trainers, and issues emerging from SEWA’s capacity building experiences.

This booklet discusses how street vendors are an integral part of urban economy and details SEWA’s experiences in organizing them with a table of activities from 1972 to 1997. Street vending is one of the ways of generating own employment, and shows entrepreneurial spirit, yet they suffer harassment from authorities under laws designed to protect new urban development schemes. There is no need for a hawker to be replaced by the supermarket; we need city plans of our own kind.

This booklet details SEWA’s main goals and highlights the issue of health security for women workers. Discussing the key elements that link health security to work security, as all economic activities have a health component. It gives information about women centred health care led by local women and capacity building of local women especially traditional midwives so that they become the barefoot doctors of their communities.

The Fragrance of Hard Work –Women Incense Stick Rollers of Gujarat

This booklet discusses the lives and problems of women who roll agarbattis from home in the slums on a piece rate basis. The efforts of SEWA to organize them for cover under minimum wages and social security and better health are outlined. Stories of Agarbatti rollers are given in their own words. Their occupational health problems are discussed and SEWA’s recommendations for the issues before them are also stated.

Our Barefoot Doctors: The Midwives of SEWA

This booklet explores SEWA’s efforts to organize and train traditional midwives in India, known as dais who both serve poor women, and are often poor, self employed women themselves. The training affords the supply of better, safer health services while improving their own incomes. The important role for dais to promote is: health for all.

The booklet explains the basic elements of SEWA’s philosophy with the Gandhian approach which places emphasis on consensus rather than conflict, of the movement approach of bringing as many people along as possible. The endeavour is for full employment and self reliance to all. This includes social security, food and water security, and assets in her own name, capacity building, education, organization and leadership.

The Gum Collectors: Struggling to Survive in the Dry Areas of Banaskantha

This is the story of the organizing of women gum collectors of Banskantha district, one of the driest and poorest areas of the country where SEWA began work in 1990. In an area where basic survival was the issue, forest produce collection was the sole means of livelihood. Gum, which is collected from the babul trees in this area, is an important ingredient for the manufacture of chemicals and eatables. The women who collect this gum face work related injuries and live in a state of indebtedness and poverty. The booklet outlines SEWA’s efforts in mobilizing them to obtain government licenses, protective equipment and access to new markers to raise income levels.

Self employed women experience loss of income when they cannot work. This happens because of biological circumstances, economic crises, and calamities, which shows that they need social security to confront critical survival challenges. SEWA’s experience in organizing food, healthcare, childcare, insurance and housing options is outlined in this booklet with information about implementation and financial security also through insurance.

Reclaiming Childhood: A Case Study of Child Care Centres for the Children of Salt Pan Worker

The health and education of saltpan workers children are adversely affected when they migrate to the coastal regions for six to eight months of the year. This booklet explores the problems faced by saltpan workers and the efforts of SEWA to establish childcare facilities to provide better health and educational opportunities.

Women form a very large portion of the self employed workface and because they are generally home based workers, they are invisible and vulnerable. This booklet is an effort to explain Sewa’s commitment to increasing the bargaining power of the poor, self employed women in the informal sector by organizing them in cooperatives and trade unions.

In this booklet, SEWA chronicles the struggle from 1978 to 1999 in Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh; to organize the women home based bidi rollers to obtain benefits that they are entitled to by law, but which they are often denied. The organizing process is explained as also are legal actions initiated by SEWA on behalf of its members.

Labouring Brick by Brick: A Study of Construction Workers

In this booklet, the concerns and issues facing construction workers in Ahmedabad and Gujarat are presented along with efforts made by SEWA to organize them. Over a period of 28 years, SEWA has organized women workers in 72 different trades, of which construction trade is one. The findings of SEWA’s survey are also given with a profile of a woman construction worker.

This booklet chronicles SEWA’s efforts to make service delivery to the poor a demand driven rather than supply driven approach. The endeavour is to let the service user, the poor women decide what service, when and in what form they want it. And that it is relatively easier and more effective to provide services to the poor when they are organized. SEWA rates performance of these services periodically. Current demand from women calls for investments in service delivery development for micro credit, barefoot management, insurance and health.

Women Water and Work: SEWA’s Millennium Campaign

This booklet shows the relationship between women, water and work and that by integrating these, women’s capacity and effectiveness to fight poverty is enhanced. Some selected examples of SEWA’s work in this integration are given with the presentation of four crucial points of the millennium campaign. It campaigns for women’s work in the water sector and hopes that India’s global plans for the next millennium do not bypass the women again.

Our Health is Our Only Wealth

This booklet is a study of the health of members of the SEWA conducted by the authors with members of SEWA’s Grassroot Research Team. This report focuses on members’ morbidity patterns, utility of health services, reproductive health and response to SEWA’s health services. The study takes into account socioeconomic status, awareness and addresses dominant health needs with emphasis on reproductive health through the life cycle. A summary of overall implications is also included.

Making the Poor Women Reach Markets: SEWA’s Journey

This booklet is the paper presented at Bank-Fund Annual Meetings in Prague, IMF, and World Bank. SEWA’s strategy to make markets available for poor women from the informal sector is outlined with case studies. The Artisan Support Programme in Banaskantha District is detailed along with lessons learned. The forest produce collectors and agricultural produce members of SEWA are also covered in this report.

Does Empowerment Matter for Economic Development?

This booklet is a paper presented to Poverty Reduction and Economic Management, Lourence, World Bank. It examines the meaning and power of empowerment vis a vis security, organization building, stepping out, standing up, deciding and that it takes time. Through interviews, what empowerment means to SEWA leaders is also examined. The other issues discussed are what lead to empowerment, SEWA’s approach, and how to monitor it. The role of global agencies and how important it is to for the poor women to have their own organizations is also touched upon.

This booklet contains the deep thoughts and innermost wishes of the author who records her search and actions for the Second Freedom, which is economic empowerment of the poor and toiling women of India. As she understood Gandhiji, economic self reliance is equally importance as political freedom, as the problem of poverty and loss of freedom are not separate. She also covers areas of examining the voluntary sector and voluntary spirit, and encourages striving for finding ways of moving gender issues on to important agendas. Accountability of voluntary work is examined with regard to a positive nationalism.

Subcontracted women workers in the global economy: Case Study of Garment Industry in India

This report supported by the Women’s Economic and Legal Rights Programme of the Asia Foundation, selected the case of garment manufacturing industry and for detailed micro-level analysis the garment industry in the city of Ahmedabad. The approach is comprehensive, right from tracing the background and macroeconomic analysis, to policies related to garment industry, with analysis of sub-contracting chains, focuses on the women workers, their position vis a vis men and finally discusses the organizing strategies for garment workers and policy implications emerging from the study.

This paper was submitted to the UNDP for the Country Programme which envisaged a more direct thrust on poverty alleviation. The key concepts are Centrality of Food Security in Sustainable Livelihoods, Empowerment: Feminizing Food Security Programmes and Sustainable Human Development: Developing the ‘People’s Sector’. Programmes and Policies are reviewed regarding food, nutrition, and employment generation. It also shares experiences of poor women in alternative distribution systems.

This study was carried out to map the garment segment in terms of the levels of sub contracted units in the garment sector of Ahmedabad, backward and forward linkages, identification of all the production and distribution links in the chain of the Garment Sector, winners and losers, SWOT analysis in each link and for the whole chain, and changes if any in the production process. It includes literature review, focus group discussions, case studies of chains, and interviews/discussions of factory and home-based workers. The study was basically an input to the report on ‘Sub Contracted Women Workers in the Global Context.

The Department of Statistics, Ministry of Planning and Programme Implementation, Government of India sponsored this study. The main purpose of the study is to develop a methodology, sampling design and survey instruments for the measurement of informal sector employment and output. This study is a small effort in demonstrating the need and feasibility of collecting such information, and the authors hope that their model could be adopted with necessary changes by other developing countries for estimation of the contribution of the informal sector.

This booklet traces the origin of home based agarbatti rolling work in Ahmedabad, which is an occupation mainly of poor self employed women. Topics under discussion are social security for agarbatti workers,struggles for minimum wages, occupational health problems, and details about SEWA's negotiations, conventions and campaigns for them. Recommendations for running this trade of agarbatti rolling on the lines of the bidi trade are made with detailed suggestions illustrated with case studies.