More than 94 percent of India’s female labor force is in the informal sector. These are women that exist by selling vegetables, making crafts, or sewing handiwork and selling their wares at market. (Ninety-four percent of Indian women are illiterate.) Aiming for their self-reliance, SEWA is registered as a trade union for poor, self-employed women earning a living by their own labor or in small businesses. While moneylenders charge 10 percent per month, SEWA’s bank charges 14 percent per year for housing and 17 percent a year for business loans. A member must save five rupees daily for a year before she can take out a loan. Loans average 5,000 rupees; the largest is 25,000.
The SEWA bank provides free training in financial planning. One of their newest programs resembles the village bank model adopted by TIAW. SEWA helps 392 rural groups, each with 15 to 22 members, connect to mainstream markets and reduce their dependence on businessmen. SEWA teaches the group leader to write minutes and keep books. Each group organizes around a product, such as handicrafts, and decides each member’s loan amount as well as a member’s readiness for a second loan. The women’s training is on-going and covers a range of topics but is neither political nor religious.I’m hoping we’ll soon announce a new SEWA village bank under TIAW’s sponsorship to help more women in India become self-sufficient.
- by Donna Heivilin
¹ People in Indian society who worked in inglorious or ‘polluting’ positions were seen to be ‘unclean’ and were viewed as outcasts who might be diseased. As a result of this thinking that originated among orthodox Hindus, the ‘untouchables’ as they are known, were not allowed to touch Indian citizens belonging to any of the four Varnas (higher castes).
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