Key Thoughts on SEWA Cooperatives based on Ela Bhatt’s Speeches and Publications

• Unions become stronger when joined by cooperatives and cooperatives become stronger when joined by unions. This is SEWA’s experience for five decades.
• This is a two-pronged process: unions raise awareness and address a range of issues like work conditions, discrimination, exploitation, exclusion from the economy, and unfair practices. Promoting dialogue among members, and bonding around issues is the primary role of the union. The success or failure of the struggle is important but secondary. When the unity and the awareness of union members is channeled towards constructive activities like building cooperatives, a fundamental shift occurs. The joint action of union and cooperatives changes the community and the economy at a fundamental level because the women are seen, and heard, and they have demonstrated to each other and the others that they are already strong and vital
  members of society and the economy. They find their strongest partners in each other.
• When unions and cooperatives overlap in their vision, actions, and membership, their strength multiplies. And when their strength multiplies, they shape the economy, transform the economy and millions of lives of women and workers.
• Unions build unity, which helps the women of SEWA to overcome fear; cooperatives build a community, where there is hope and a clear pathway towards shaping one’s future. Without overcoming fear and without hope there is no future.
• The number of cooperatives, the number of members of cooperatives, the total turnover of cooperatives, size of capital and savings of cooperatives all clearly point to the equitability and the sustainability of a local economy. Such local economies build national economy of nurturance.
• Our cooperatives have tapped into their spirit of cooperation even in the midst of violent conflict situations, such as in Kashmir, in Afghanistan, and Sri Lanka. There is much to learn about the role cooperatives can play in peacekeeping. Peace is not possible without cooperation.
• Cooperatives have a huge potential in the energy sector. Women at the grassroots level who collect fuel from the forest, or repair solar lamps are building an economy of nurturance that is local and sustainable. SEWA cooperatives are rethinking how to conserve and restore natural resources so that the water, the air, the plants and the people are in harmony. We call it the way of Anubandh.
• SEWA has steadfastly kept its focus on the needs of poor women workers: our focus is on local membership; our focus is on local economic activities, and income generation; and our focus is on local markets. This simple focus on Anubandh, on economy of nurtures, has guided us in organizing, planning, and running our
  cooperatives.