As far as SEWA is concerned, the fight for economic freedom has just begun 

Once Ela Bhatt’s scooter was stopped abruptly at a traffic section by a constable, as was a push-cart being drawn by a husband and wife. While Bhatt managed to stop on time, for the husband and wife the maneuver proved tricky. They collided and fell, sustaining serious wounds. Bhatt, who volunteered to take them to a nearby health clinic, found that once stitched and bandaged, there was nothing more she could do for them. As migrant workers (two among the lakhs of citizens working in the unorganised labour sector), the husband and wife were not entitled to off-days, compensation, rest or recuperation like the rest of the world. It was not the first time that Bhatt was forced to confront this disparate mini-India of rightless human beings. Neither was it going to be the last. However, the incident did leave an indelible impression on her resolve to do something.

Thanks to an active family dedicated to socio-developmental causes, the incident moved Bhatt. Her father had quit a perfectly sound medical practice to join the Freedom Struggle, while her mother was also active in Gandhi’s struggle. Thus, it is no surprise that Bhatt herself attached a deep meaning to the words freedom and dignity. “The times that we grew up in, azaadi (freedom) was the keyword. It was there on the streets, in private spaces, in India’s hearts. However, our version of azaadi was not a narrow vision, but a wholistic one which encompassed the economical, social and political. As Gandhiji made it clear through his khadi movement, political freedom was just a shadow of economic freedom,” asserts Bhatt. Despite her sensitivity to people’s plights, the time to do ‘something’ arrived late in her life—later than she thought. Bhatt went on to receive a Bachelor’s of Arts degree and a gold medal in law. For a bit, she taught at SNDT, Mumbai, till the turning point— working for the legal department of the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad. During the push-cart incident, Bhatt was still with the TLA. The incident made her to think—could she do something? She believed she could. And in 1972, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was born as an off-shoot to the TLA. Simply put, SEWA was an organisation for and of self-employed women workers, who earned a living through their own labour and/or small businesses. SEWA began with a premise—when their work or labour remains invisible, the workers themselves are rendered invisible. Till today, Bhatt draws inspiration from India’s Freedom Struggle. SEWA is tied to four Gandhian pillars; satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), sarvadharma (integrating all faiths, people) and khadi (propagation of local employment and self-reliance). The group’s goal is to organise women for full employment—with work, income, food and social securities (think health care, child care and shelter). SEWA organises women to ensure that every family obtains ‘full employment’. “By self-reliance we mean that women should be self-reliant; individually and collectively,” explains Bhatt. Thus, SEWA organises workers to achieve their goals of full employment and self-reliance through twin strategies—struggle (against the constraints and limitations imposed upon them by the society) and development (activities meant to strengthen women’s bargaining power and offer them new alternatives). The organisation is thereby divided into unions and cooperatives and they work in tandem. Describing SEWA is tricky—it is both an organisation and a movement. It is a movement because it combines labour, cooperative and women’s rights causes. It is also a movement of self-employed workers with women as its leaders. With globalisation, liberalisation and economic changes, there are newer opportunities and threats to traditional areas of employment. “I do not believe that globalisation is a threat. Our members are ready to face the challenges. And globalisation and capitalism, if these terms are responsible, constrained, then it results in a bigger market. “They know that they must organise to build their own strength and to meet challenges. There are still millions of women who remain in poverty, despite long hours of hard labour. They must be brought into the mainstream, so as to avail of the opportunities that are developing with regard to jobs. Also there is much to be done in terms of strengthening women’s leadership and bargaining power within and outside their homes and their representation in policy-making,” she says. It is to this end of highlighting women’s issues, priorities and needs that SEWA has been working. It has been supporting its members in capacity-builiding and in developing their own economic organisations. And they are quite the success story. So, it is no surprise that today World Bank wishes to replicate the SEWA model, especial its bank model, in some of the lesser developed parts of the world. As far as Bhatt is concerned, her work is only just beginning.