Cinderellas of the World, Unite....
like the Self Employed Women in India
For every thousand cigarettes she rolls, a female home-based worker in India is paid approximately four rupees (less than 30 cents US currency). Her employment benefits are zero: no health care, no job security, no compensation benefits, not even the social interaction of a factory or the recognition of being part of the productive labour force.
These are the conditions under which 2.2 million women make a living for themselves and often support their families in Northern India. The majority of them are Muslims, for the system of home-based production is ideally suited to a cultural and religious setting where women's involvement outside the home is frowned on.
Since 1972, however, there have been moves to bring these women and the rest of the 'invisible' sector of the labour force into the mainstream of the labour movement so that they can have access to minimum benefits enjoyed by recognised workers. Simple benefits such as the minimum wage, access to welfare services, collective bargaining arrangements.
The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), based in Ahmedabad, now has a membership of over 20,000 people who carry out such tasks as selling old clothes, hawking vegetables, stitching garments, collecting waste paper, labouring on agricultural projects, vending milk, pulling hand-carts, cleaning offices, carpentry and weaving. Traditionally, this group has been the most neglected and exploited in the society. Any page out of SEWA's 1986 report tells a most interesting story. For instance, page 13:
"Vegetable Vendors"
"This section of the union has 3,232 members. These members conduct their business by either sitting at various cross roads on the pavement or in certain fixed areas. They are subject to harassment by the police. One hundred and three cases of police harassment and obstruction to carry out business were dealt with, through the help of the union. The police were made to return the bribes taken from 45 SEWA members. The municipal corporation was asked to release 96 carts which they had confiscated for various reasons. Seven vendors sitting near Kalupur station were able to go back to their original places of business due to intervention by the union. The municipality was asked to clean the gutters around the places of business of the vendors. The filth around was affecting their business, attracting fewer clients. Four hundred and ten police cases, 360 traffic violation cases and 50 crime cases were resolved with the help of the union. Badges were issued to 300 members to facilitate their trade and 281 were given licenses to carry on business. Sixteen water connections were provided and 50 internal quarrels were settled. Three hundred and twenty five vendors were allotted space. Twenty-five members opened savings bank accounts and two were sanctioned loans from the banks. Over 1,500 members have submitted applications for new licenses to carry on business... Three workers' meetings and one sammelan were held. A national-level hawkers' meeting was also held in Delhi. The Prime Minister, Shri Rajiv Gandhi, attended this meeting. A one-day strike in Manekchowk was organised to protect against local police harassment, and subsequently a criminal case was filed against the guilty policemen. A hawkers' survey was conducted during the year."
The smallness of the achievements tells how helpless a group this is, where the major functions of its union is to protect it from institutions such as the police and the courts, to force authorities like the municipality to take notice of their needs, to assist in getting basic necessities like water and to encourage the opening of savings accounts in banks.
It is the typical story of SEWA's activities, trying to harness together these groups of exploited and unrecognised women and fight against their utter degradation and marginalisation.
In the case of the cigarette (beedi) rollers and other home - based producers, for instance, no legal provisions traditionally existed for their welfare. They were paid by piece rates for work performed at home. No employer-employee relationship existed. These women were forced to accept the lowest possible remuneration for their labour since they were at the bottom of the social scale and the alternative was hunger.
SEWA has managed to get their piece rates raised in some places, to get some forms of workers' compensation for them and to force the government to issue them with identity cards which give them access to some welfare benefits.
But the needs of these workers goes beyond agitation for an improvement in their employment situation. In most cases they are helpless because of lack of educational opportunities, of training and organisational strength.
The Women's Union has been feverishly working to address these problems simultaneously. They have organised a wide range of training programmes to give rural women skills in such areas as small scale production of stationary items, in afforestation and other forms of agriculture. The report reads:
"Orders have started flowing in for file making and box-making after constant contact with the market. SEWA has been included m the list of recognised women's organisations for supplying stationery and packing articles for the Gujarat Government requirements... Orders are now being procured from offices..."Various skills — like how to coordinate small economic units, impart vocational skills, inculcate a sense of discipline, procure orders, production, management of equipment, raw material, costs and pricing of finished goods... are being gradually introduced in both the rural workers and the manager- cum-organisers."
At the same time, in order to give the workers greater independence, they have organised a highly diverse range of cooperatives, even among the most depressed groups in their membership: cleaners, paper-collectors and kerosene vendors, often with great success.
To support the enterprises of the cooperatives, they have then set up an loan arrangements with financial institutions, including Women's World Banking from the United States.
Before loans are recommended, however, management training is carried out to ensure that the commercial enterprises have a greater chance of success:
"The Economic Wing looks after development activities by undertaking several training programmes in income generating activities. Different trade groups and artisans are organised through co-operatives to make them self-reliant and also to increase their bargaining power for higher economic benefits. To attain a higher income level, some amount of training and exposure to newer ideas and methods to increase efficiency and organised marketing is necessary. Individually, the artisans are not in a position to procurer material at a reasonable price, nor are they in a position to market their products. SEWA has therefore helped them to form cooperatives of different trades, the basic objective is to see that the products are properly marketed and that the artisans are able to improve their earning. With the formation of the co-operatives, the procurement of raw material at Government fixed rates is also possible. The members of the co-operatives are given training to enhance their skills and also about how to run a co-operative and market their products..."
But along with the problems of making a living, the women whom SEWA represents have other, just as urgent, needs. Health care, for instance, is almost non-existent in their communities For the union to be successful, it has to make efforts to fill the gap created by official neglect. They have therefore set up a systematic community health programme, where women from these depressed groups are trained in basic diagnosis and treatment for the most common problems afflicting their communities.
"In Shankarbhuvan, a poor neighbourhood in Shahpur area, after regular and intense effort, SEWA was able to set up a community health centre. However, issues like wife-beating and unemployment emerge, in addition to health problems.
"The first community health workers were trained at the initiative of local women, in preventative and curative health skills. They volunteered to share this knowledge with others in the community. Since April 1986, regular training of 3 to 4 days twice a month is imparted to the health workers by the SEWA health team. The training covers various diseases and health problems faced by the community due to seasonal changes. Training particularly focuses on the following: measles, first aid, fevers, especially malaria, women's common gynaecological problems, sexually transmitted diseases, urinary tract infections, eye infections, worms, ear infections upper respiratory tract infections.
"A local health committee was set up to give direction to the work undertaken and help in problem-solving. .. A clinic is held twice a week by a doctor, as a support to health workers, mainly to provide curative care and not to make the centre dependent on the doctor, who acts more as a guide and resource person. After some months of practical training, these health workers are able to diagnose, prescribe and dispense medicines for simple problems. Complicated cases are dealt with by the doctor. Stress is laid on preventive and rational use of drugs. Medicines are bought at low cost in bulk from LOCOST, a Baroda based organisation which promotes a rational generic drug policy.
"Regular immunisation against six vaccine-preventable diseases has been started at Shankerbhuvan. This is conducted by the Government health services; but co-ordinating, organising, creating awareness and maintaining vaccination records is done by SEWA workers. At the suggestion of the health committee, problems relating to water and proper sanitation are also looked into at Shankerbhuvan."
In addition, maternity programmes are undertaken, as well as health awareness training for adolescent girls, eye clinics, meetings and lectures and research projects. Child care and educational programmes are also part of the wider programme of community development started by the union.
Other educational activities for the children of SEWA members also take place as part of the two-fold programme of "struggle and development". Though minimal, these are aimed at preventing the reproduction of a victim class in Indian society, a helpless group of uneducated and unskilled people, not covered by protective legislation and so subject to total exploitation by "contractors, middle men, rules, regulations and policies of the government...western-educated, urban, middle-class social values and male attitudes..."'