Evidenced by the lessons from recurring global economic shocks,1 governments and donors have increasingly begun to recognise the importance of the provision of care2 - a vital component of any well-functioning society and economy.

SEWA-supported women’s collective enterprises have seen government linkages as a crucial way of providing livelihoods to our members.

Establish pathways for promotion, incubation, and strengthening of cooperatives and collective enterprises in the informal sector that are creating economic and social value for vulnerable communities.

Cooperatives are engines of growth and development, especially for the most vulnerable workers in our country like women in the informal economy.

Undertake economic activities that are identified by women including agriculture, animal husbandry, crafts and other production, services, savings and credit, trading and manual labour, among others.

The impact of the COVID crisis has been severe for workers in India’s informal sector, which constitutes 90%of the labor force.

Women’scollectivesocial enterprisessupportedby theSelf-EmployedWomen’sAssociation, SEWA, seegovernment linkagesasacrucialwayofgrowingtheirbusinessesandproviding livelihoods towomenworkersof the informal economy.

Cooperatives have been a vehicle for enabling workforce participation of informal women workers, in the experience of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Cooperative Federation.

The SEWA Cooperative Federation, Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) and the International Cooperative Alliance: Asia-Pacific (ICA-AP) organised a webinar on November 19th, 2021, titled Rebuilding an Inclusive World in the Wake 1 of the Pandemic: Women’s Cooperatives Lead the Way .

Procurement policies, both public and private, can play a significant role in determining inclusive market participation, particularly for informal women workers and their collective enterprises.