Indian women's group helps improve the poor's livelihood

JAKARTA (JP): A non-governmental organization is helping improve the livelihood of poor Indians, especially women working in the informal sector.

The organization, Self-Employed Women Association (SEWA), was founded in Ahmedabad, India, in 1972, by Ella R. Bhatt, a noted local social worker activist.

"I found that workers such as hawkers or vendors, homemade food producers, or those who provided household services like washing and cleaning, were not protected by the law," said Bhatt, who previously worked for a textile worker's union set up in 1970 by Mahatma Gandhi, the famous peace activist.

"They were often beaten by the police and were subject to abuse by mean private money lenders," she told The Jakarta Post recently. That was why she began organizing such workers in 1972 and formed an association for them.

Beginning with about 6,000 self-employed women as members, it now has no less than 220,000 members throughout India. There are three kinds of membership in the organization: home-based producers, hawkers or vendors and laborers. All are women.

"Members of my organization were all poor and illiterate. Most of them were rural women. Only one-third of them lived in urban areas," Bhatt said as she recalled on how she started the association.

There were two main problems faced by most of the members at that time. First, they had such small amounts of capital that they were forced to borrow money from private lenders with very high interest rates.

Second, most of them did not have their own means of production -- such as sewing machines, push carts, or sometimes even a space to do their activities -- that they had to rent them from somebody else.

"So, from a very small income, so much money had to be spent on renting the means of production," she said.

Given such a problem, SEWA set up a bank, SEWA Bank. It was started by collecting money from the organization's members. It sold 10,000 shares at 10 rupees (33 U.S. cents) each. It took two years before it finally collected the 100,000 rupees (US$33,000) it needed to start.

"Then, in 1974, we began giving loans, very small loans," said the soft-spoken Bhatt.

It was done in a very simple way. For example, it gave a loan of 50 rupees to a woman on a Monday. Then, on the next Monday, the woman would repay it with 51 rupees. Later on, as her business grew, she might be able to borrow 60 rupees and then even 100 rupees, and so on.

"We were just like a private money lender, except that we were registered as a bank," said Bhatt, adding that, at first, to get itself registered in the Federal Bank of India, the Indian reserve bank, was not easy because the bank was doubtful about the association running a bank.

"'How could you lend money to illiterate women?' they asked. But then I could convince them by saying that although they were illiterate, they were economically very active," she said.

SEWA Bank proves it. With $3 million as its working capital, it has an amazing repayment rate of 96 percent to 97 percent.

"There has been no bad debt for the last 20 years. See, they are very bankable," said Bhatt.

Through the bank, SEWA managed to rescue its members from being subjected to very high interest rates charged by private money lenders.

"We put full trust on them," said Bhatt.

With the assistance of trained social workers provided to each village group of workers, every member of the association can improve her own, as well as her family's livelihood. Those who previously sold only two baskets of fruit or vegetable, for example, later on have a push cart or even a small kiosk at a corner of a street.

The bank also gives social security automatically to its depositors. It is given in the form of insurance, which includes coverage in case of death, accidents, calamities and pregnancies. All SEWA members are able to enjoy this service because all of them are also the bank's depositors, thanks to its campaign to encourage the saving habit among members.

Having Gandhi's teachings of peace and nonviolence as its basic principles, SEWA keeps up the struggle for self-employed woman rights.

It also provides other services, such as child care, health care, legal aid, housing improvement, education and research. The organization's education institution, SEWA Academy, for example, also trains volunteers to become social workers and teaches Gandhi's ideology of nonviolence.

Since most of its members are from the rural areas, SEWA has emphasized its major programs in those areas. The most notable program is providing clean water for drought-prone villages during dry seasons.

Another outstanding SEWA success is the program of technical and marketing assistance given to embroiderers and leather handicraft producers. No less than 80 percent of their products have been exported for 15 years.

SEWA conducts an annual exhibition of various handicrafts, where embroiderers and handicraft producers can introduce their products and develop their own access to the market.

By so doing, according to Bhatt, SEWA succeeds in stopping migration to India's urban areas by up to 80 percent.

"What we are doing is bringing work to their doorsteps. That's what stops them from migrating," she said. (swa)