1. SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1972 in India to empower low-income women working in the informal sector. 2. SEWA has grown to over 2 million members across India and provides support through cooperatives, unions and other services like healthcare, childcare, housing and microfinance. 3. The organization addresses challenges like lack of social security, access to credit and childcare by organizing women into cooperatives and providing training, markets and other resources to support entrepreneurship and livelihoods.

1. PRESENTED BY: PRESENTED TO:
Dr. SATISH PANDEY,
Associate Professor,
SPM, PDPU
MBA (Gen. Mgmt.)- GROUP D
Ambarish nigam 20135005
Ankita parmar 20135008
Hitesh kankaria 20135021
Jenil mehta 20135024
Nilay dave 20135043
SCHOOL OF PETROLEUM MANAGEMENT
PANDIT DEENDAYAL PETROLEUM UNIVERSITY

2. INTRODUCTION
• A membership organization
• Formed in 1972 in Ahmedabad.
• Objective is to empower women working in informal
sector, so that they can achieve secure employment
and self reliance.
• Mobilized large no. of poor self –employed women
for empowerment.
• 535000 member in Gujarat and 700000 throughout
India.

3. SISTER ORGANIZATION
1970-79
• SEWA Cooperative Bank
(1974)
• First Milk Cooperative
(1979)
1980-89
• Anasuya (newsletter)
(1982)
• SEWA National
Association (1982)
• First Artisans.
Cooperative (1982)
• Video SEWA (1984)
• First Child Care
Cooperative (1986)
• First Tree Growers.
Cooperative (1986)
• BDMSA (first rural
program, in a drought-prone
area) (1987)
• First Vegetable and Fruit
Vendors. Cooperative
(1989)
1990 –2014
• SEWA Academy (1990)
• First Health Care Cooperative
(1990)
• First Salt Farmers.
Cooperative (1991)
• Vimo SEWA (Insurance)
(1992)
• SEWA Cooperative Federation
(1993)
• Gujarat Mahila Housing Trust
(1994)
• First Midwives Cooperative
(1994)
• • Kutch Craft Association
(1995)
• SEWA Gram Mahila Haat
(local marketing) (1999)
• • SEWA Trade Facilitation
Center (2000)

4. The SEWA Tree - A Women's Support Network
Union
•Social Security
•Implementation &
enforcement
•Protective Legislation
•Policy Support
Cooperatives
S
E
W
A
•Markets
•Raw materials
•Skills & Management
•Training
•Contracts
Banks
•Savings
•Credit
•Life insurance
•Mortgage recovery
and asset titles
Services
•Child care
•Training
•Communications
•Legal Aid
Vendor Cooperatives:
Kerosene vendors
Vegetable suppliers
Fish vendors
Artisans Coops.:
Weavers
Bamboo workers
Block printers
Patchworkers
Embroiderers
Service Coops.
Child care providers
Industrial cleaners
Wastepaper collectors
Community health
workers
Land & Animal Coops
Wasteland and
agro-forestry
Diary
Tree growers
Group rallies
Establishing nexus
Negotiations
Lobbying
Social security
Protests
Identity cards
Count cases
Trade Groups
Garment stitches
Bidi rollers
Head loaders
Cart pullers
Used garment dealers
Vendors
Domestic workers
Incense workers
Scrap collectors
Construction workers
Papad rollers
Carpenters
Smiths
Agricultural Laborers
Tobacco processors
Fuel traders

5. SEWA Support Services
SEWA BANK
SEWA
Support Services
Capacity
Building
Health care
Video SEWA
Housing
Infrastructure
Child care
Legal Services
Work Security
Insurance

6. ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
SEWA has three levels of staff outside corporate
management at its headquarters
1. District Coordinator:- responsible for coordinating all
SEWA activities in a rural district in Gujarat typically have a
population between from one and two million.
2. Team Leader:- who organizes the women in the village.
3. Volunteer:- Recruited by team leaders and handles all
the further SEWA activities.

7. ORGANIZATIONAL
STRUCTURE
• Registered as a Trade Union under the Indian Trade Unions Act of 1926.
• Two-tier level of elected representatives
 Trade Council (PRATINIDHI MANDAL)
 Trade Committees (DHANDHA SAMITI)
• SEWA ensures that there is transparency in elections.
• Executive Committee of 25 members – elected by Trade Council every 3
years
• Office-bearers elected from among Executive members
• President elected from trade with largest membership
• All elected members are working class women
• Regular rotation of office holders.

8. MEMBERSHIP
Self-employed workers
Hawkers, vendors, small business women
like vegetable, fruit, fish, egg and
other vendors of food items
Home-based workers like weavers,
potters, bidi and agarbatti
workers, papad rollers,
ready-made garment workers
Manual laborers & service providers
like construction workers,
contract laborers, handcart pullers
Agricultural workers

9. SEWA-AN INNOVATION
SEWA CAFE
• SEWA cafe experiments in “Peer to Peer Generosity”
• Driven by volunteers and operated by modest staff, the
meals are cooked and served with love, and offered to the
guest as a genuine gift.
• It begins with a single gift: first given, then received...
multiplied, and given again, in a growing chain of
kindness and care.

10. SEWA-AN INNOVATION
•Integrated and Comprehensive Approach: Increase farmers’
economic, human and social capital and enable them to overcome
poverty.
SEWA’s STEPS IN ORGANIZATION AND INSTITUTION BUILDING
• Awareness about the opportunities
• Building the self-confidence
Awareness
Raising
• Organization of SELF HELP GROUPS
(SHGs)
• In 2010, there are about 2,140 SHG of
SEWA with a focus on agriculture
development.
Creation of
Organization
• Capacity Building
• Financial and Support services
• Marketing Linkages
Strengthening of
Organizations through
Linkages

11. ELA BHATT – A LEADER
•Ela Bhatt graduated with a law degree in 1954
•Joined the Textile Labour Association, a union founded
by Mahatma Gandhi in 1917
•Recipient of the Magsaysay Award, the Right Livelihood
Award and other national/international honours, and is
a current member of the Council of Elders led by Nelson
Mandela.
•She was deeply influenced by Gandhi.
• Ela Bhatt led to transformation of more than 17 lakh
people in the last four decades.

12. An Action‐Learning Approach
The Grass‐Root Leader as a Change Agent : AAGEWAN
Linkages to improve small‐scale women farmers Human
Capacity
Linkages to improve small‐scale women farmers’ access to
productive assets and markets
• SGH’s : SELF- HELP GROUPs
• VRC : VILLAGE RESOURCE CENTERS
• RUDI : RURAL DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS

13. SEWA – THE SCHOOL FOR LEADERSHIP DEVELOPMENT
SEWA ACADEMY
•Brings out the two SEWA newsletters,
‘Anusooya’ and ‘Akashganga’
•Conducts research on issues related to
Self-Employed Women workers
Train grass‐roots members in
Managerial and Leadership skills,
Vocational Skills and Capability Building
to the members, Literacy Training
Courses at the Academy include very
basic Self-Presentation Skills (e.g.
talking into a microphone, and telling
people who you are),
More advanced courses to build Self-
Confidence and quite sophisticated
courses that include, for example,
material on how to deal with Politicians.

14. ISSUES & CHALLENGES
• Major challenge was to overcome the assumption that
organizing workers in the informal sector just can't
be done
• initial start-up were in part problems with the policy
environment
• SEWA had to struggle for two years, for example, before it
could initially register as a union, because the Registrar was not
convinced that self- employed women were legally entitled to
for a labour union who were the corresponding employers?

15. OTHER
MAJOR
CHALLENGES
RESISTANCE TO
ORGANIZING
ACTIVITIES OF
SEWA
FINANCIAL
VIABILITY
GROWTH

16. GROWTH

17. ORGANIZING
organizes them
into a trade
union
collective
strength
SEWA activities
are “demand
driven
VALUES
Gandhian beliefs
and practices of
Ela Bhatt and her
associates
Strong values of
inclusion and
participation are
encouraged
FLEXIBILITY
Decentralized
style
Staff are highly
motivated,
energetic,
committed &
risk-taking
No set of rules
telling them in
any specific
terms what to do
LEADERSHIP
Ela Bhatt
nurtured
leadership at the
grass roots as
well as at the
centre
transparency in
elections
corporate
management
Offices are
treated as one-term
posts

18. FINANCIAL SUSTAINABILITY
>Over 55% of total costs are covered by membership
fees
>Grants and donations accounted for the other
45% which are mainly for education and
publications
>International affiliations - Forming affiliations to
international labor bodies
>4,000 women members of SEWA contributed
share capital of Rs.10 each to establish the Mahila
SEWA Co-operative Bank in May 1974.
> Currently, SEWA Bank has 125,000 self-employed
women depositors and has disbursed loans without
the need for traditional collateral, of over Rs.350
million.

19. IMPACT
• 3 lacs people obtained
Healthcare primary health facility
• 128 child care centre, catering
Child care to 6300 children
• 1 lacs members were covered,
Insurance over 3000 claims were paid
• SEWA housing trust, 2600
Housing houses were build

20. IMPACT
The urban branch of the union, with a membership of 1,78,736 in
Gujarat, has organized workers in over 70 occupations or trades,
clustered into four groups: home-based workers, vendors,
producers, and manual laborers and service providers.
The rural branch of the union has about 3,40,573 members in more
than 700 villages in Gujarat. In rural areas, SEWA cooperatives have
helped women improve the quality and design of the handicraft and
woven items they produce for sale
SEWA Membership Gujarat Membership - Rural - Urban

21. REFERENCES
http://info.worldbank.org/etools/docs/reducingpoverty/c
ase/79/fullcase/india%20SEWA%20Full%20case.pdf
http://www.sewa.org/
http://c4c.org/about/videoSEWA.html
http://www.meas-extension.org/meas-offers/case-studies/
sewa
http://www.microfinancegateway.org/gm/document-
1.9.27372/45.pdf