The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a trade union of over 300,000 women in India. Of these, more than 200,000 are poor, self-employed women working in the informal sector in Gujarat. Founded by Elaben Bhatt, SEWA was registered in 1972 with the two-fold objective of providing full employment to its members and making them self-reliant. SEWA has members in 11 of the 25 districts of Gujarat. Two thirds of its members are based in rural areas. SEWA’s membership broadly comprises three types of self-employed women:

1. Hawkers, vendors, and small businesswomen who buy and sell vegetables, fruits, fish, eggs, other food items, household goods, and clothes.

2. Home-based workers like weavers, potters, bidi and agarbatti workers, papad rollers, ready-made garment makers, women who process agricultural products, and artisans.

3. Manual laborers and service providers like agricultural laborers, construction workers, contract laborers, handcart-pullers, hand-loaders, domestic workers, and laundry workers.

Women belonging to different occupations are organized either as unions or cooperatives. These groups are then federated at the district level into “local associations” run by district-level executive committees. At the state level, SEWA is led by a 25-member executive committee made up of representatives from various districts and occupations. The executive committee is elected every 3 years.

SEWA is both an organization and a movement to empower poor, illiterate, and vulnerable women. It organizes women to ensure that through full employment its members obtain work security, income security, food security, and social security (at least healthcare, child care, and shelter). SEWA often works like an NGO for the welfare of its members. But because it is a trade union, all its activities are mandated by the members themselves.

SEWA has offshoots in other states in India. In the northern state of Uttar Pradesh, for instance, SEWA-Lucknow works with women embroiderers who export their exquisite work. SEWA has also spawned similar organizations in other developing countries in A frica, East Asia, and South America, and has established a strong global network that has lobbied international decision-making bodies such as the International Labour Organization, for the rights of home-based workers.