A report from the International Labour Organization (ILO) explores the challenges and opportunities for co-operatives and other SSE entities in empowering women workers in the informal economy, drawing on the experience of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (Sewa) Cooperative Federation in India.
The ILO conducted the study at the request of its constituents to explore the potential for adapting and replicating SEWA’s model in Asia and beyond. The report is based on 42 in-depth interviews with personnel in 11 co-ops from three states.
Sewa was set up in 1972 by the late Ela Bhatt, a lawyer and labour organiser, to support self-employed women in India. The country has over 400 million informal workers, 23% of whom are self-employed women.
Its initial goal was to help these women formalise and access all the rights and benefits of formal sector workers. In time, it started promoting women-owned co-ops as a means to empower these women, enabling them to access better wages and working conditions.
At the same time, Sewa set up co-ops to provide its members access to a range of services, from financial services to insurance and social security services, or business and leadership training.
Each worker is first a union member and then often joins one or more co-operatives.
Related: Sewa’s journey to empowering informal women workers
“A co-operative member not only earns her livelihood through one co-operative, but she also receives a range of services from other co-operatives in which she maintains membership,” says the report.
Sewa supports over 100 women-owned and women-led co-operatives and WCEs across six sectors – agriculture, dairy, handicrafts, services, finance, and labour-based.
Member co-ops benefit from its supply chain analyses, business planning and sector-specific inputs. For example, the Gujarat-based Megha Women Farmers’ Cooperative, registered in 2014, has diversified from seed distribution to poultry farming and organic farming. The federation also enables enterprises to apply a cost analysis framework for women to identify their most profitable channels and make business decisions to improve income for individual members.
Similarly, the Megha Women Farmers’ Cooperative benefited from Sewa’s continued support in getting its seed licence and connecting with various vendors, developing a focused marketing strategy and obtaining fertiliser and pesticide licences.
As a secondary-level co-op, Sewa has membership fees which the primary co-operatives, as shareholders of the federation, purchase as per the federation’s bylaws. In addition to this, it provides support services to women’s collective enterprises for which it charges a mutually agreed fee. Sewa’s co-op members can also benefit from these services at a discounted fee.
In addition to this source of income, the federation runs a marketing platform for women’s collectives, for which it charges a commission on the sale of the products advertised.
As to the future, the report identifies several challenges for Sewa, including the small scale of women’s co-ops, which are a small proportion of the co-operatives that exist in the country. Another challenge is the lack of access to seed capital and working capital, with the report highlighting that some co-ops have struggled to access this. Finally, the report warns that co-ops operate in competitive environments, which means they face difficulties when it comes to growing and event surviving. To address this, Sewa is working to build a business-mindset among its members.
