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| The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA), is a registered trade union of 1.1 million poor self employed women workers of the country. In India about 92 per cent of the work force is with the informal economy and percentage is much higher among women workers. Contribution from the informal economy to the country's NDP is over 60 per cent but unlike the formal sector they do not receive regular salaries and welfare benefits. To address the issues of women in informal economy, Shri Elaben Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972 with the objective of organizing women workers in the informal economy so that they are able to get full employment and become self reliant. This was achieved through the dual strategy of struggle and development - struggle against constraints and limitations imposed on women by society and the economy, whereas development activities strengthened women's bargaining power and offered them new alternatives. SEWA particularly addresses the following problems that women from this sector generally face: |
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- Irregular Income and employment
- Lack of bargaining power
- Lack of working capital
- Non-ownership of assets
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| In 1974, at the initiative of 4000 self-employed women workers who contributed a share capital of Rs. 10 each, Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank Limited was established with the specific objective of providing credit to these women so as to empower them and free them from the vicious cycle of eternal debt that they incurred under the clutches of loan sharks. Currently SEWA Bank has over 318,594 account holders with a total working capital of Rs. 1291.89 million (March, 2009). |
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| In 1992, SEWA's Executive Committee decided that housing related activities of SEWA and SEWA Bank required consolidation and expansion. This was largely prompted by the internal research of SEWA Bank which indicated that more than one-third of all loans were used for housing, and that, at least 80 per cent of those loans were spent on housing related activities, including water connections, construction of toilets and drains, and acquiring electricity. So in 1994, Mahila Housing SEWA Trust (MHT) was officially registered with the overall objective of improving housing and infrastructure conditions of poor women in the informal sector. |
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| The Major Objectives of MHT are: |
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- To improve housing and infrastructure conditions and overall living environment of SEWA members, including construction of low cost housing and infrastructure.
- To create improved access to important services such as shelter finance, legal advice, technical assistance, information on housing material market and shelter related income, and employment opportunities for poor working women.
- To influence housing and infrastructure related urban and rural development policies and programmes, and bring the benefits of these policies within the reach of poor women by promoting their own institutions.
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| Key Activities of MHT: |
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- Provision of basic infrastructure in slums and low income areas in partnership with Urban Local Bodies (ULBs)
- Developing slum upgradation plans with ULBs to plan and design basic infrastructure in slums
- Electrification for low income households
- Training of construction workers, especially women, through Karmika School for Construction workers
- Planning and construction of low income housing and infrastructure
- Technical assistance for construction of disaster resistant housing in rural areas
- Training, awareness and capacity building of Community Based Organizations (CBOs) and ULBs
- Facilitating access to housing and infrastructure finance with technical support
- Capacity building of poor on land tenure issues
- Conducting Social Audits for related government programmes, like National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS)
- Encouraging formation of CBOs to give voice to families living in the poor areas of the city
- Campaigning for secure tenure for the poor households
- Action Research
- Policy influence, advocacy and networking
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