About the Author
Ela R Bhatt (born on 7th September 1933 in Ahmedabad) is the founder of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA). While she was leading the women wing of Textile Labour Association (TLA), she realized the fact that thousands of women who are working as textile workers elsewhere to supplement their family income, but there were state laws protecting the industrial workers but not these self-employed women. In 1972, she started SEWA to organize the self employed women into a union. In 2006, she wrote a book named “We Are Poor but So Many- The story of Self-employed Women in India”
Review of the book:
The Book “We are Poor but So Many”, is an account of journey of the author and SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) in bringing self-employed women at different places into a single union. In this narrative account, the author provides some close glimpses of the lives of the poor, self-employed women. Author also discusses the forces that overpower them, the conditions that perpetuate their poverty, the battles they fight, the prejudices they face, and their working and living conditions. In the book, the author mentions about various cases (Rag Pickers, Chindi and Garment stitchers, vendors, Banking, Health Care, Embroiders, Gram Haat and Sukhi) where SEWA has to struggle to make the women to be the part of the union.
The book is a journey through the condition of being poor, of being self employed and of being a women and how these conditions compound the problems of a person. Author also draws interesting contrast of the prevailing condition.
It begins by addressing the plight of a neglected section of the society, the RAGPICKERS, which mainly comprised of women from landless artisan community, the dalits who have been always oppressed by the higher caste. Though the work is hazardous and hectic, though the profits were less, they had no complaints as they had no bargaining power. The author mentions about the way SEWA has mobilized the women to join SEWA and fight for their rights. It speaks of how the women had eliminated the middlemen and increased their profits and how the women have succeeded in the formation of various cooperatives like Vijaya (for weavers), Gitanjali (young ragpickers and their daughters were trained to make stationery by recycling paper), Saundarya (for cleaners) and Sujata (for ragpicking).
There is mention of the chindi and garment stitchers. Chindi industry was also another informal trade center in Ahmedabad. Chindi are scrap strips of fabric 2-8 inches in length which are by products of textile manufacturing industry. The chindi stitchers were mostly muslim women, living in inner city area of Dariapur. After putting a lot of hard work in stitching the chindi into khol, they used to get a very less price. SEWA succeeded in organizing the chindi stitchers and motivating them to fight for increase in the price per khol and finally they succeeded in the struggle. Later Sabina cooperative was formed which provided economic security to women and this made them to also face the domestic problems with confidence. Similar was the case of garment stitchers where SEWA managed to increase the price from 2.5 rupees to 7.5 rupees. The author highlights the importance of merging the informal sector with formal sector in order to do justice to the women workers, majority of who are the workers in informal sector.
The book tries to describe the problems faced by the vegetable vendors who lose their space in the market due to increased shopping malls and other factors. In addition to this, they have to pay the local mafia and police. Here the role of SEWA has been talked of beautifully as to how it helped the group both financially and legally.
The book talks of the evolution of cooperative bank movement SEWA for uplifting the status of women working in unorganized sector. SEWA as Banker to the Poor Women. The need for bank among poor but economically active women was glaringly apparent because of the fact that these women were large in numbers and were in the debt trap of moneylenders, pawn shops or landlords who were charging exorbitantly high interest rate ranging from 10% per day to 25% per month. In 1972 SEWA approached the bank to help it reaching the poor. But when Ela Bhatt went to register the cooperative bank, she was dissuaded by the Registrar to forget about bank for poor people. He told Ela that these people never repay their loans on one hand and secondly they are illiterate. But Ela never deterred, she had answers for both the questions of the Registrar, firstly though they are poor but they are so many and secondly though they are illiterate they can understand signs, symbols and photographs. With these clarifications Shri Mahila SEWA Sahakari Bank Ltd, a cooperative bank was formed in 1974, especially for poor women with an initial share capital of meager Rs. 71,320 from 6,287 members. The bank was owned and operated by the members of SEWA. SEWA Bank went step by step to help the poor women working in informal sector. First it collected savings in door to door basis and once the credit worthiness was established these people were granted loan for different purposes like loan for consumption need, household needs and emergency need as well. As the poor people are prone to natural disasters and emergencies the bank also provided insurance to mitigate them. Bank appointed BankSathis who were the bank frontline operators, one among the SEWA members. They are responsible for collecting, savings and availing loans. The major challenge for the bank is to stand tall even in the times of disaster and risks. SEWA has proved itself in balancing risk and security to the poor women. With this SEWA has broken the myths that poor are not bankable.
Vulnerability of the poor people due to health problems is an issue discussed by the author. Sickness is recurring crisis in the lives of poor women which attributes due to many reasons like their poor living, working and financial condition. The maximum loan is taken for health reasons and maximum default also occurs due to health reasons only. In 1990, Peoples’ Health Cooperative called Lokswasthya Cooperative was registered which was run by the traditional dais. Death after pregnancy was very common among these slum dwelling women working in unorganized sector. So the cooperative aimed at providing training to the dais for six 12 days session. Health camps were organized in urban slums and also in neighboring villages. Of all the TB centers, SEWA outperformed with highest conversion ratio of 91%. Later drug shops were started selling generic drugs at cheaper price to the poor. Apart from this SEWA introduced health insurance plan, called Vimo SEWA, to cover the risk due to any health problems. As a result of the success story of these dais in handling child births, the government was forced to include the role of dias in Reproductive and Child Health Policy. And probably this movement led the government to think about ASHA to be integral part of National Rural Health Mission.
The author speaks about how SEWA succeeded in helping embroiders of Rajasthan to become a part of SEWA. She has tried to show how many difficulties the women in the area had to face to join SEWA by fighting against their culture, how they succeeded in convincing the society and how they have proved that they can also be leaders. The role played by SEWA in empowering the women, by creating market to their products, providing work even under crisis to maintain the trust, by providing better price to their products, etc. is explained as well.
The author throws light on the problems faced by the gum collecting and salt producing women. SEWA succeeded in helping the gum collectors not only in getting good price but also in getting the license. SEWA provided the financial facility to the salt producers thereby helped them from the clutches of the local traders and provided education to their children. SEWA realized the importance of a market for marketing the products produced by the self-employed women and formed SEWA Gram Mahila Haat with the help of District associations, and Govt. of Gujarat with a vision to meet the marketing requirements of the producer group.
The book also presents a typical case of resettlement pattern followed by the Government. The case talks about the sorry state of affairs of the villagers who were displaced due to the construction of a dam over Sukhi river and the failure of the Government in providing rehabilitation to them. SEWA intervened in the area to look into the plight of the women and suggested a plethora of steps to help them improve their own condition. Village meetings, visits to successful ventures organized in other villages greatly improved their confidence levels. They helped in improving the condition of drinking water and irrigation of the village which were the first steps towards development. SEWA helped them by training them in nursery raising and by providing banking facilities.
The reforms for the workers in the informal sector are also discussed by Ela Bhatt. The informal sector employes 92% of the work force and contribute 63% of the country’s GDP, 50% of savings and 40% of exports. Yet this sector is largely neglected by the Government due to the absence of a proper union. The situation in India finds comparison with that of South Africa where SEWU (Self-Employed Women’s Union in South Africa), the sister organization of SEWA works. The author strongly feels for the plight of poor women who needs to be given scope for self-employment to enable them to come out of the clutches of poverty.
Only a holistic approach to development which promotes self-help, support local cooperative economic initiatives and emphasize sharing and pooling of resources at every level can attain significant success. Sewa is the journey that talks about the success that these women carved for themselves. It is an inspiration for many who could walk on similar lines and bring about similar changes in their lives.
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