Skip to main content

SEWA coops may explore 'using' digital platforms UrbanClap, UPI, Amazon, Myntra

SEWA founder Ela Bhatt (middle) with Dr Simel Esim at the workshop
By Rajiv Shah
Is the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), India’s premier organization representing mainly working women in the informal sector of Ahmedabad, and cooperatives promoted by it, readying themselves to enter into the new arena of finding a space in the online market? It would seem so, if a two-day SEWA workshop, in which, among others, tens of representatives of national and international women’s cooperatives participated is any indication.
The two-day workshop, which took place on August 8-9, “unpacked four themes”, access to finance, online economy and digitisation, market linkages and governance, even as discussing the need to explore possibilities of how to use available digital platforms for women’s cooperatives, such as UrbanClap, UPI, Amazon and Myntra.
Insisting their tieup into the women’s cooperatives can “transformed the way we work”, a concept note presented at the workshop said, in the current globalized liberal business environment, women’s cooperatives would need to compete and  ensure that “they don’t lose their market share to other forms of cooperatives or corporate enterprises.”
As of today, SEWA-run women's cooperatives produce and market artisan and organic agricultural products, ranging from garments, embroidery works and puppetries to red chilies, turmeric, coriander, quinoa and holy basil. These have limited reach, as they are sold at selected consumer and wholesale outlets as also fairs held in different parts of the country.
Some of the cooperatives also buy raw produce from the members, processes and packages these products, and then markets them to local traders and also to individual households. A wider outreach through online market would help, because traditional arts and crafts have been an unexplored market with fewer options to promote and sell various handicraft products.
Wanting women’s cooperatives to acquire “knowledge of modern technologies and market linkages” to ensure “the sustainability of women’s cooperatives”, the concept note said, “Networking amongst women for engaging in business development and exploring possibilities to enter into business agreements for procurement and sale of respective products is an important need of the hour”.
Agreeing that banking institutions may be “willing to fund new-age start-ups, but similar avenues are lacking for women’s cooperatives”, the concept note, however, believed, “The financial recession and subsequent consolidation of evidence on widespread disparities in wealth” has simultaneously “resulted in the rise of a solidarity economy in which cooperatives again play a central role.”
The concept note said, “Cooperatives continue to be the only viable alternative to the volatility and exploitation of the free-market economy and may therefore be one of the few institutional structures that can provide a modicum of balance between the disparate groups within both India, and globally. Finding means to support and enhance the capabilities of these cooperatives is therefore imperative.”
The concept note said all this and more, even as Mirai Chatterjee, chairperson, SEWA Cooperative Federation, having a membership of 106 women’s cooperatives, told the workshop that less than 2% are women’s cooperatives in India, seeking a “change this by advocating for an enabling policy environment” by involving public and private partnership.
The workshop was inaugurated by veteran social worker and SEWA founder Ela Bhatt, a winner of Ramon Magsaysay Award (1977) and Right Livelihood Award (1984), who regretted, “When a woman milks a cow in her village, she is not counted as a worker.” But she said, “When she is in a dairy cooperative, she gets an identity and visibility.” She wanted promotion of “a joint strategy of struggle and development for building an economy of nurturance.”
Among those who participated in the workshop included representatives from the SEWA Cooperative Federation, SEWA Bharat (SEWA’s national federation), International Cooperative Alliance (ICA) and the International Labour Organization (ILO), 42 grassroots women leaders of 21 cooperatives from 12 Indian states, and two participants from Iran’s Rah-e-Roshd Cooperative.
When a woman milks a cow in her village, she is not counted as a worker. But when she is in a dairy cooperative, she gets an identity and visibility
The “joint strategy”, discussed in the presence of Dr Simel Esim, director, International Labour Organization’s (ILO’s) cooperative unit, not only included a “decentralized, inclusive, equitable and self-reliant growth that promote the transcendence of structural barriers by small producers, consumers and service-providers”, but also how to operate when “liberalisation and globalisation” are allegedly having an adverse impact on cooperatives.
The workshop was told, India has around 6.10 lakh cooperatives, with a total membership of about 25 crore, and quoting a 24,93,67,000. It quoted the ILO National Advisory Council’s report “Development of Cooperatives in India”, released in 2018 , it was pointed out, less than 2% of these were women, pointing out, this has “consequences” for the overall economy.
The study said, if female employment rates were to match male rates in the United States, overall GDP global would rise by 5%. In Japan, such initiatives could increase GDP by 9%. In developing economies like India, the effect soars to 27%. Hence, it concluded, a starting point for all countries “is a long, hard look at their female workforce participation rates.”
The study further said, the initial findings of the ILO study of Workforce Participation Rate (WFPR) reflect marginal progress we have made to close the gap in male-female workforce participation. Since 1990, the overall WFPR has increased but in 2018 it stands at 48.5%, which is a staggering 26.5 percentage points below that of men. It added, women are over-represented in the vulnerable employment category.

Comments

Uma said…
Good for them👍👍

TRENDING

1857 War of Independence... when Hindu-Muslim separatism, hatred wasn't an issue

"The Sepoy Revolt at Meerut", Illustrated London News, 1857  By Shamsul Islam* Large sections of Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs unitedly challenged the greatest imperialist power, Britain, during India’s First War of Independence which began on May 10, 1857; the day being Sunday. This extraordinary unity, naturally, unnerved the firangees and made them realize that if their rule was to continue in India, it could happen only when Hindus and Muslims, the largest two religious communities were divided on communal lines.

N-power plant at Mithi Virdi: CRZ nod is arbitrary, without jurisdiction

By Krishnakant* A case-appeal has been filed against the order of the Ministry of Environment, Forest and Climate Change (MoEF&CC) and others granting CRZ clearance for establishment of intake and outfall facility for proposed 6000 MWe Nuclear Power Plant at Mithi Virdi, District Bhavnagar, Gujarat by Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) vide order in F 11-23 /2014-IA- III dated March 3, 2015. The case-appeal in the National Green Tribunal at Western Bench at Pune is filed by Shaktisinh Gohil, Sarpanch of Jasapara; Hajabhai Dihora of Mithi Virdi; Jagrutiben Gohil of Jasapara; Krishnakant and Rohit Prajapati activist of the Paryavaran Suraksha Samiti. The National Green Tribunal (NGT) has issued a notice to the MoEF&CC, Gujarat Pollution Control Board, Gujarat Coastal Zone Management Authority, Atomic Energy Regulatory Board and Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) and case is kept for hearing on August 20, 2015. Appeal No. 23 of 2015 (WZ) is filed, a...

The curious case of multiple entries of a female voter of Maharashtra: What ECI's online voter records reveal

By Venkatesh Nayak*  Cyberspace is agog with data, names and documents which question the reliability of the electoral rolls prepared by the electoral bureaucracy in Maharashtra prior to the General Elections conducted in 2024. One such example of deep dive probing has brought to the surface, the name of one female voter in the 132-Nalasopara (Gen) Vidhan Sabha Constituency in Maharashtra. Nalasopara is part of the Palghar (ST) Lok Sabha constituency. This media report claims that this individual's name figures multiple times in the voter list of the same constituency.

Spirit of leadership vs bondage: Of empowered chairman of 100-acre social forestry coop

By Gagan Sethi*  This is about Khoda Sava, a young Dalit belonging to the Vankar sub-caste, who worked as a bonded labourer in a village near Vadgam in Banskantha district of North Gujarat. The year was 1982. Khoda had taken a loan of Rs 7,000 from the village sarpanch, a powerful landlord doing money-lending as his side business. Khoda, who had taken the loan for marriage, was landless. Normally, villagers would mortgage their land if they took loan from the sarpanch. But Khoda had no land. He had no option but to enter into a bondage agreement with the sarpanch in order to repay the loan. Working in bondage on the sarpanch’s field meant that he would be paid Rs 1,200 per annum, from which his loan amount with interest would be deducted. He was also obliged not to leave the sarpanch’s field and work as daily wager somewhere else. At the same time, Khoda was offered meal once a day, and his wife job as agricultural worker on a “priority basis”. That year, I was working as secretary...

Ground reality: Israel would a remain Jewish state, attempt to overthrow it will be futile

By NS Venkataraman*  Now that truce has been arrived at between Israel and Hamas for a period of four days and with release of a few hostages from both sides, there is hope that truce would be further extended and the intensity of war would become significantly less. This likely “truce period” gives an opportunity for the sworn supporters and bitter opponents of Hamas as well as Israel and the observers around the world to introspect on the happenings and whether this war could have been avoided. There is prolonged debate for the last several decades as to whom the present region that has been provided to Jews after the World War II belong. View of some people is that Jews have been occupants earlier and therefore, the region should belong to Jews only. However, Christians and those belonging to Islam have also lived in this regions for long period. While Christians make no claim, the dispute is between Jews and those who claim themselves to be Palestinians. In any case...

Proposed Modi yatra from Jharkhand an 'insult' of Adivasi hero Birsa Munda: JMM

Counterview Desk  The civil rights network, Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JMM), which claims to have 30 grassroots groups under its wings, has decided to launch Save Democracy campaign to oppose Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Vikasit Bharat Sankalp Yatra to be launched on November 15 from the village of legendary 19th century tribal independence leader Birsa Munda from Ulihatu (Khunti district).

A comrade in culture and controversy: Yao Wenyuan’s revolutionary legacy

By Harsh Thakor*  This year marks two important anniversaries in Chinese revolutionary history—the 20th death anniversary of Yao Wenyuan, and the 50th anniversary of his seminal essay "On the Social Basis of the Lin Biao Anti-Party Clique". These milestones invite reflection on the man whose pen ignited the first sparks of the Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution and whose sharp ideological interventions left an indelible imprint on the political and cultural landscape of socialist China.

Two more "aadhaar-linked" Jharkhand deaths: 17 die of starvation since Sept 2017

Kaleshwar's sons Santosh and Mantosh Counterview Desk A fact-finding team of the Right to Feed Campaign, pointing towards the death of two more persons due to starvation in Jharkhand, has said that this has happened because of the absence of aadhaar, leading to “persistent lack of food at home and unavailability of any means of earning.” It has disputed the state government claims that these deaths are due to reasons other than starvation, adding, the authorities have “done nothing” to reduce the alarming state of food insecurity in the state.

Govt of India "tarnishing" NGO reputation, dossier leaked selectively: Amnesty

Counterview Desk Amnesty International India has said that a deliberate attempt is being made to tarnish its reputation by leaking a dossier, supposedly made by investigating agencies, to media without giving it access to any such information. The high profile NGO’s claim follows a Times Now report about proceedings launched by investigative agencies, including Enforcement Directorate (ED) against the rights body for “violations” of rules pertaining to overseas donations.