Power to a million women

AHMEDABAD: Dhaniben Parmar has a pucca house and pays Rs 50,000 a year as fees to the engineering college that her younger son Paresh studies at. Her older son Jayesh, a civil engineer, works in a reputed firm. Sounds like the ideal middle-class family, except that Dhaniben is a daily wage construction labourer. She's been able to build a stable future for herself and her family because she is part of the Self Employed Women's Association, an NGO that creates self-help groups to empower women.

Dhaniben is part of Rachaita, Sewa's cooperative of women construction labourers, the only one of its kind in the country. Rachaita has organized 1,000 workers who now get contracts to build offices from multinational companies. They procure regular work, get money on a par with male workers and learn advanced skills.

This is just one of the 3,200 self-help groups (SHGs) Sewa runs in every sector of the informal economy. Dhaniben is one of 1.4million Sewa members across 14 states.

Sewa was started as a trade union with 1,070 members in 1972 by Gandhian activist Ela Bhatt to organize women in the informal sector . Close to 93% of India's workforce is in the informal economy, of which 97% are women involved in agriculture, salt farming, food processing, handicrafts and construction. As head of the women's wing of Textile Labour Association, Bhatt realized that the wives of textile mill workers found it hard to get loans as they had no documents. This sowed the seeds of the idea called Sewa.

"Sewa's biggest impact is that women are self-reliant . They understand their work's worth and can fight the factors that make them poor," said 79-year-old Bhatt, who has received the Padma Bhushan and Magsaysay awards.

Sewa also runs 120 sister organisations, 102 cooperatives, three marketing organisations, 15 economic federations, three producer companies and one bank. There is hardly a sphere in women's lives that it has not touched with microfinance, legal services, healthcare, capacity building, childcare, housing, infrastructure and insurance. Sewa Women's Co-operative Bank has 86,651 shareholders with Rs 5.7cr share capital. The 4.3lakh account holders have deposits of almost Rs 113cr and availed credit of Rs 52cr in 2011. On average, five lakh women avail microfinance from the Sewa bank each year.

"Our impact lies in our sheer numbers and the strength of unity. When a Sewa woman works, she knows she can take on the village, district, national or international forces. The removal of middle-men and knowledge of trading functions empower them. The men appreciate the women contributing to the family income," said Bhatt.

"Sewa is helping women in the informal economy find a social and economic foothold," said Sanjay Dave of Charkha, a development communication network in Gujarat. "Rural women backed by Sewa can manage their families singlehandedly ."

Sewa president Kapila Vankar, a tobacco industry worker from Rasnol village in Anand, joined Sewa 19 years ago because she was tired of the factory owner paying her less than the men though she worked more than them. Her responsibilities include ensuring that village and government officers remain accountable . "The canal and high school in Rasnol were started through our efforts," she says. "We got 366 pucca houses built under Sardar Awas Yojna. The houses are jointly owned by the wife and husband."

Sewa has extended its services to Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan and Maldives . It's the expert that helps others in the Saarc region roll out facilitation centres. "In Pakistan, we are organizing craftswomen from Rawalpindi, Lahore and Peshawar to build a value-chain based on their embroidery work," said Reema Nanavaty, director, economic and rural development, Sewa.