Self-Employed Women's Association of India

The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a collective organization of women working in the informal urban and rural economy in India. Formed in 1972 in Ahmedabad, a prominent city in the state of Gujarat in western India, SEWA has extended itself across India through the formation of SEWA Bharat. SEWA has emphasized that what women require is not welfare but a strengthening of their position as workers in society. Thus, the exclusion of women who lacked a recognizable employer from the framework of traditional trade unions has been challenged by SEWA. A shift in nomenclature from informal to self-employed also is one of SEWA's contributions to providing visibility to the range of women's work. The fact that SEWA members comprise the poorest and most insecure ...