Woman Power India

The Self Employed Woman’s Association (SEWA) is a union of more than 1.5 million woman empowered to change their lives. This is the most incredible organization I have ever encountered.

In 2017 I immersed myself with my camera into this vast network of grass roots organizing, self empowered village pods and a massive sisterhood of women teaching other women how to stand, speak and be heard. All of the women are self-employed, they are weavers and embroiderers, they raise water buffalo and teach children, they harvest salt, sell produce in the market, hand roll cigarettes, pick through dumps, make incense and grow cumin. They have created their own bank, their own micro credit system, their own food distribution channels, their own child care networks and on and on and on. Gandhian philosophy and economics is in the DNA of their union.

The images in this gallery offer a glimpse of this most stunning organization.

In the words of SEWA itself:

We belong to the vast, unprotected working population of our country, who are considered informal workers. Although we constitute 93% of India’s labor force, few labor laws or welfare benefits include us. Our significant contribution to the nation’s economy is largely uncounted, undercounted, or invisible.

We formed SEWA in 1972, in Ahmedabad. Today we are 1.5 million women strong. We are the single largest women worker’s Central trade union in India. At SEWA, we come together as poor, as women and as worker. The SEWA approach is to address the needs of the worker as a laborer, as well as a woman. This integrated and holistic view of workers has given birth to new and innovative ways to fight poverty and vulnerability.

Our goals are full employment and self-reliance.