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About Us » SEWA's Structure |
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| SEWA is registered as a trade union under the Indian Trade Unions Act of 1926. The union is open for membership to self-employed women workers all over India. The membership fee is Rs. 5 per year. The union is governed by a two-tier level of elected representation. The members of each trade elect their representatives in the ratio of 1 representative per 100 members. These representatives then form the Trade Council (Pratinidhi Mandal). In addition, and parallel to the Trade Council are Trade Committees(Dhandha Samiti) in each trade. The Trade Committee has no fixed proportion to number of members but varies between 15 to 50 members. The Trade Committees meet every month and discuss the problems of their trades and possible solutions to them. Trade Council members are members of their respective Trade Committees as well. The organiser of a trade group is the Member Secretary of that group's Trade Committee. |
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| Every three years the Trade Council elects an Executive Committee of 25 members. The representation on the Executive Committee reflects the proportion of the membership. |
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The office-bearers of the trade union are elected from among the Executive members. It has become a practice to elect the President from the trade with the largest membership. |
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SEWA's Membership |
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Self-Employed Women Workers – our Members |
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SEWA members are workers who have no fixed employee-employer
relationship and depend on their own labour for
survival. They are poor, illiterate and vulnerable.
They barely have any assets or working capital.
But they are extremely economically active, contributing
very significantly to the economy and society with
their labour. In fact, 64% of GDP is accounted for
by the self – employed of our country. There
are Four types of self-employed women workers: |
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Hawkers, vendors and small business women like vegetable, fruit,
fish, egg and other vendors of food items,
household goods and clothes vendors : |
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Home-based workers like weavers, potters, bidi and agarbatti
workers, papad rollers, ready-made garment
workers, women who process agricultural products
and artisans, and |
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Manual labourers & service providers like agricultural labourers,
construction workers, contract labourers,
handcart pullers, head – loaders, domestic
workers and
laundry workers.
In addition to these three categories there
is emergence of another category of women
workers. |
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Producers & Services who invest their labour and capital
to carry out their businesses. This category
includes Agriculture, cattle rearers , salt
workers, gum collectors, cooking & vending
etc. |
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2009 SEWA Membership |
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All India Membership |
12,56,944 |
Gujarat Membership |
6,31,345 |
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All - India Membership year - 2009 |
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| State |
Membership |
Total |
| Gujarat |
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6,31,345 |
| Bihar |
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19,000 |
- Bhagalpur |
10,000 |
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- Munger |
8000 |
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- Katihar |
1000 |
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| Delhi |
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28,024 |
| West Bengal |
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2,359 |
| Murshidabad |
2,359 |
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| Rajasthan |
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15,258 |
- Bikaner |
7,100 |
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- Dungarpur |
5,000 |
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- Jaipur |
1,800 |
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- Ajmer |
500 |
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- Jodhpur |
858 |
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| Madhya Pradesh |
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5,02,040 |
| Uttarpradesh |
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56,130 |
- Luknow |
55,200 |
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- Bareli |
930 |
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| Kerala |
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2000 |
| Trivendrum |
2000 |
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| Murshidabad |
500 |
500 |
| Uttaranchal |
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788 |
- Dehradun |
788 |
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12,56,944 |
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Gujarat Membership - Rural - Urban 2009 |
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Main categories of workers |
No. of women |
Percentage of total membership |
Urban |
2,31,343 |
36.46 % |
Rural |
4,00,002 |
63.54 % |
Total |
6,31,345 |
100 % |
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Growth of SEWA's Membership : 1973-2009 (India) |
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Year |
No. of Members |
1973 |
320 |
1974 |
3,130 |
1975 |
3,850 |
1976 |
1,630 |
1977 |
1,748 |
1978 |
730 |
1979 |
2,041 |
1980 |
4,934 |
1981 |
6,087 |
1982 |
10,733 |
1983 |
13,386 |
1984 |
22,739 |
1985 |
15,741 |
1986 |
20,811 |
1987 |
15,144 |
1988 |
19,554 |
1989 |
29,133 |
1990 |
25,911 |
1991 |
46,076 |
1992 |
45,936 |
1993 |
53,570 |
1994 |
1,43,702 |
| 1995 |
2,18,797 |
| 1996 |
2,12,016 |
| 1997 |
2,11,124 |
| 1998 |
2,09,250 |
| 1999 |
2,15,234 |
| 2000 |
3,18,527 |
| 2001 |
4,20,208 |
| 2002 |
6,94,551 |
| 2003 |
7,04,166 |
| 2004 |
6,88,743 |
| 2005 |
7,96,755 |
| 2006 |
9,59,698 |
| 2007 |
5,51,974 |
| 2008 |
11,23,542 |
| 2009 |
12,56,944 |
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While the overall trend is upward, there have been periods of fluctuation over the past decade. Membership increases occurred as a result of campaigns which developed into mass movements in some rural districts, concrete gains from organising of some categories of workers like vendors and home based workers and also be cause of support during crises.
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Till 1994, SEWA's membership was predominantly urban. This was partly due to our origins and base being at Ahmedabad. However, in the late eighties, SEWA intensified its rural organising, with the resultant increase in membership from rural areas. |
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Self Employed Women's Association
SEWA Reception Centre, Opp. Victoria Garden, Bhadra, Ahmedabad - 380 001. India.
Phone : 91-79-25506444 / 25506477 / 25506441, Fax : 91 - 79 - 25506446, Email : mail@sewa.org |
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