Organization: SEWA, Asian Development Bank

Village women in Gujarat battle drought to bring water closer to home. SEWA, the Self Employed Woman’s Association, is a trade union of poor and self-employed women which now has 500,000 members across the state.

SEWA strives to help its members achieve full-employment and self reliance. Through better education, these women can move beyond their traditional role as water carriers.

SEWA is a trade union registered in 1972. It is an organisation of poor, self-employed women workers. These are women who earn a living through their own labour or small businesses. They do not obtain regular salaried employment with welfare benefits like workers in the organised sector. They are the unprotected labour force of our country. Constituting 93% of the labour force, these are workers of the unorganised sector. Of the female labour force in India, more than 94% are in the unorganised sector. However their work is not counted and hence remains invisible. In fact, women workers themselves remain uncounted, undercounted and invisible.

SEWA’s main goals are to organise women workers for full employment. Full employment means employment whereby workers obtain work security, income security, food security and social security (at least health care, child care and shelter). SEWA organises women to ensure that every family obtains full employment. By self-reliance we mean that women should be autonomous and self-reliant, individually and collectively, both economically and in terms of their decision-making ability.

Keywords: empowering communities, gender and water, water scarcity.

Location: India, Asia and the Pacific

Corresponding websites:

>> SEWA website
>> Visions of Asia’s Water Realities
>> Video Water Voices: Walking for Water