SEWA Cooperative Federation at 30:
A time for celebration and some reflections
While organising informal women workers into a union, SEWA or the Self-Employed Women’s Association, it became evident to Elaben, our founder, that union organising alone would not lead women to their goal of economic empowerment and self-reliance. The mainstream, nationalised banks at the time turned down the demands of financial services by SEWA members. It was in the early 1970s and microfinance led by women was not yet conventional. It was then that Elaben along with early union leaders, Chandaben, Sumanben and Anandiben, decided to register SEWA’s first cooperative – SEWA Bank – in 1974, after which there was no looking back. Sabina cooperative of chindi or ‘quilt cover’ makers was our next cooperative. It emerged out of a struggle for minimum wages. It was our members who suggested that they establish their own cooperative with SEWA’s support so that they would no longer be dependent on exploitative merchants and contractors.
As SEWA organised agricultural labourers in Ahmedabad district, it became even clearer that new ways of organising had to be developed. When the labourers demanded minimum wages which SEWA helped them to obtain with the labour department’s support, the landlords took back the monies the workers had received later and there was violence. These experiences, borne out of organising informal women workers, led to SEWA’s joint strategy – of struggle and development through unions and cooperatives.
