Women's Trade Unions-SEWA (A) Personal Details
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PAPER-4 MODULE-4 Best Practices- Women's Trade Unions-SEWA (A) Personal Details Role Name Affiliation Principal Investigator Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University, Allahabad Paper Coordinator Dr. Vibhuti Patel DIRECTOR, CSSEIP Professor & Head, Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate, Mumbai Content Writer/Author (CW) Dr.Ceena PauL Shri M.D.Shah Mahila College of arts and Commerce , Malad, Mumbai Content Reviewer (CR) Dr. Vibhuti Patel DIRECTOR, CSSEIP Professor & Head, Department of Economics, SNDT Women’s University, Churchgate, Mumbai Language Editor (LE) Prof. Sumita Parmar Allahabad University, Allahabad Description of Module Subject Name Women’s Studies Paper Name Women and Economics Module Name /Title Best Practices- Women's Trade Unions-SEWA Module Id Paper-4 Module-4 Pre-requisites The Reader should have knowledge of the problems of women workers in the unorganised sector Objectives To make the reader understand the activities and achievements of SEWA Keywords SEWA, Ela Bhat, Organizing, Collective Strength operates in society, with special reference to India Best Practices- Women's Trade Unions-SEWA Introduction The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) was born in 1972 as a trade union with the purpose of organizing self-employed women workers. These women earn their living through their own labour (working as agricultural labourers, construction workers, papad rollers etc), or doing small business(vegetable, fish vending etc). They neither receive regular salary nor welfare benefits and they also constitute an unorganised labour force. Accordingly SEWA’s membership differs from the traditional trade unions in a number of ways. First, the traditional union generally organize workers from one trade, whereas SEWA brings together workers operating in different occupations, extending from urban street vendors to rural livestock breeders. Secondly, it organizes workers who tend to work in non-factory settings: such as, in their own homes as home-based workers, in other’s homes as domestic workers; in fields as agricultural labourers; or in public places as street vendors. History The establishment of SEWA was patronised by the Textile Labour Association, TLA, which was founded in 1920 by Anasuya Sarabhai under the inspiration of Mahatma Gandhi. It is India's oldest and largest union of textile workers. In 1954 the Women's Wing of TLA was established with the purpose of assisting women belonging to the households of mill workers and its work largely focussed on training the wives and daughters of mill workers for various skills like sewing, knitting embroidery, spinning, press composition, typing and stenography and conducting welfare activities. In 1955 Ela Bhat, professionally a lawyer joined the Women’s Wing of TLA and by 1968 she was heading the wing. Inspiration behind SEWA Ela Bhatt As the head of the Women's Wing of TLA,Ela Bhat came in touch with wives and daughters of textile workers who often worked in the informal sector in order to supplement family’s income. These women workers worked as cart-pullers, head-loaders, vegetable vendors, biddi(tobacco leaves)rollers, and construction labourers. From her interactions with the women she realised that women workers in the informal sector worked with no specific contracts, no regular wages, no job security or recognition. On the basis of her work on the women workers in the informal sector in 1971 Ela Bhat wrote an article in a local newspaper highlighting the plight of head-loaders in Ahmedabad’s cloth market. The cloth merchants denied the allegations made against them in another article and insisted that they were paying the women fair wages. Ms. Bhatt and the self-employed women workers used the cloth merchant’s article as a bargaining tool. They printed and distributed it to the women in the form of cards where the “fair claims” of their employers were stated in a written form, and used these cards to demand the stated wages and job security. Every time the merchants went back on their word on wages or work hours, the women produced these cards to remind them of their public claims. The news of this effective strategy spread and a group of used garment dealers approached the Women's Wing with their own grievances. A public meeting of used garment dealers was called and over hundred women attended. During the meeting in a public park, a woman from the crowd suggested they form an association of their own. Thus, on the appeal from the women and at the initiative of Ela Bhatt, the Women’s Wing of TLA and TLA, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) was born in December 1971. However, SEWA was not registered as a trade union till April 1972 as Indian labour laws had trouble accommodating a trade union where no formal employer-employee relationship existed. After operating in Ahmedabad city for 15 years, it spread its area of operation into the rural areas of Gujrat and further beyond the boundaries of the state. This enlargement in the area of operation resulted in an increase in the membership of SEWA from 1070 in 1972 to 1.75 million women in 2012.Today, membership from the rural area constitutes 66 per cent of SEWA’s membership. SEWA now works in 12 states, 50 districts and 700 villages in the country (ILO 2014). SEWA Activities SEWA activities are steered to achieve objectives such as full employment and self-reliance for its members. For SEWA, full employment and self-reliance for its member’s means helping its members to achieve work security, income security, food security and social security and similarly to be empowered both economically and in terms of decision making abilities through its activities. To achieve these objectives SEWA has embraced an integrated approach which comprises:(a) organizing women for collective strength (b) enhancing capital formation among women members through access to financial services (c) building new skills and capacities among women members (d) providing social security (essentially health care, childcare, shelter and insurance) to its women members. To offer this range of support and development services, SEWA has developed diverse structures, including a trade union with rural and urban branches, 130 cooperatives, and 181 producers groups, numerous service organizations, networks, alliances, federations and self-help groups (SHGs) (ILO 2014). SEWA’s sisterhood of institutions consists of the following: SEWA Union ( SwashreeMahila SEWA Sangh): Recruits and organizes SEWA’s urban and rural membership around issues of concern to its membership. SEWA Bank ( ShriMahila SEWA Sahakari bank Ltd.) : Provides financial services. SEWA Cooperative Federation (Gujarat Mahila SEWA Cooperative Federation):Responsible for organizing and supporting women’s cooperatives. SEWA District Associations: Provide services to SEWA-organized village groups and link SEWA members for other services. SEWA Social Security: Provides health care, child care and insurance services. SEWA Academy: Provides research, training and communication services. SEWA Marketing (Gram Haat and Trade Facilitation Centre): Helps women producers, through their cooperatives, associations and groups to directly reach local, domestic international markets. SEWA Housing (Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust): Provides housing and infrastructure services. Organizing Women for Collective Strength To organize women for collective strength SEWA’s strategy is to mobilize and unite women workers into trade union activities, and help them own and run cooperatives. SEWA Union– As mentioned earlier SEWA started its trade union operations for self-employed workers in Ahmedabad .The purpose of the union is to assist its women members to bargain collectively, increase their wages and also provide them protection against police harassment and extortion. SEWA has undertaken and won legal battles against attempts by municipal authorities to evict women street vendors from areas where they have been traditionally selling their merchandises. Some of the campaigns organised by SEWA includes Street Women tobacco workers win historic wage increase in Ahmedabad, India 12-04-2013 More than 15,000 women workers employed as home-based beedi (cigarette) workers in Ahmedabad in the north western state of Gujarat have won a 15% wage increase through collective bargaining. The women beedi workers are members of the IUF- affiliated Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA). In the neighbouring state of Rajasthan SEWA successfully organized beedi workers in 2010, negotiating an initial 78% wage increase and progressively raising wages each year through collective bargaining. This year beedi workers organized by SEWA in Rajasthan won a 12% wage increase. Vendors Campaign, Waste Paper-Pickers Campaign for Livelihood, Manual Labourer’s Livelihood Campaign, Water Campaign, Agriculture Campaign, Feminise our Forests Campaign etc. SEWA also provides legal support and training to its members on labour laws, worker’s rights, and employers’ duties. The union's strategies include satyagraha, demonstration, informal negotiation, lobbying with government officials, strikes and litigation. The union membership is open for self-employed women workers all over India over the age of 15. The women workers can be broadly categorized as Hawkers, vendors like vegetable, fruit, fish, egg and other vendors - food items, household goods and clothes Home-based workers like weavers, potters, bidi and agarbatti workers, papad rollers, ready-made garment workers, women who process