SEWA

SEWA is a trade union started in 1972. It is an organisation of poor self employed women workers. It grew out of the Textile Labour Association, TLA, India’s oldest and largest union of textile workers founded in 1920.

Objectives
To maximize Shareholder's Value for the 15000 women artisan shareholders and enable each member to earn an average monthly wage of INR 1500 (USD 30).
To design and deliver integrated solutions that includes technical assistance and a range of business development services to strengthen, support and expand the operations of microenterprises in the informal sector.
Enable Grassroots Producers Organizations to gain access to national, regional and international markets and support them to effectively integrate and compete in the mainstream markets.
Goals of SEWA are to organize women workers for full emploreliance (means employment whereby workers obtain work security, income security, food security, and social security).

Today, SEWA has 700,000 members located in 7 states of India; In 14 districts of Gujarat, SEWA has reached out to around 500,000 members in both the rural and urban areas.

SEWA Trade Facilitation Centre (STFC) is the marketing arm of SEWA. It is a unique commercial enterprise formed by more than 15,000 rural artisan-shareholders from the districts of Kutch and Patan of Gujarat. It is a grassroots initiative to overcome their impoverished condition through enhanced trade. The rural craftswomen are both the owners and primary producers of the STFC. It serves as a centralized production resource, and bridges between these women, their rural micro-level enterprises, and the domestic and global markets.

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