Towards Excellence

(ISSN No. 0974-035X)
(An indexed refereed & peer-reviewed journal of higher education)
UGC-MALAVIYA MISSION TEACHER TRAINING CENTRE GUJARAT UNIVERSITY

THE SEWA MOVEMENT: EMPOWERING RURAL WOMEN OF BANASKANTHA(GUJARAT):

Authors:

Priyanka Arora

Abstract:

The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a national level trade union dedicated to the informal women workers of India. The organisation has contributed immensely to various facets of the Women’s movement such as to the labour movement, cooperative movement, women’s movement in general and more specifically to that of self-employed women and health movement in India and abroad. The paper aims to throw light on the socio-economic activities undertaken by SEWA at the grass-root level to make women self-employed, self- reliant, self-diligent and self-dependent in the Banaskantha district of Gujarat. It delineates SEWA’s initiatives in generating alternative sources of employment for women which are being made available to the region where there are hostile climatic conditions, acute scarcity of water, increased migration, limited access to capital and also limited employment opportunities. The organization’s initiative in the rural organizing process with its need-based integrated approach towards empowerment has transformed the lives of rural women of Gujarat particularly in the district of Banaskantha. The SEWA entities are democratic, self-managed and sustainable in terms of their functioning and work on the principle of full employment and self-reliance to produce individual and collective empowerment. It is both a union and a movement -A national, and now increasingly, a global movement of informal women workers, organizing for their rights, for recognition and inclusion in national plans, programmes and legislation.

Keywords:

Informal, Women, Banaskantha, SEWA, empowerment, movement

Vol & Issue:

VOL.14, ISSUE No.1, March 2022