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Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Labour economics
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We Are Poor but So Many - The Story of Self-Employed Women in India (Hardcover, New)
Loot Price: R1,893
Discovery Miles 18 930
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We Are Poor but So Many - The Story of Self-Employed Women in India (Hardcover, New)
Series: South Asia Series
Expected to ship within 10 - 15 working days
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Ela Bhatt is widely recognized as one of the world's most
remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots
development. Known as the "gentle revolutionary," she has dedicated
her life to improving the lives of India's poorest and most
oppressed citizens. In India, where 93 percent
of the labor force are self-employed, 94 percent of this sector are
women. Yet self-employed women have historically enjoyed few legal
protections or worker's rights. In fact, most are illiterate and
subject to exploitation and harassment by moneylenders, employers,
and officials. Witnessing the
terrible conditions faced by women working as weavers, stitchers,
cigarette rollers, and waste collectors, Ela Bhatt began helping
these women to organize themselves. In 1972, Ela Bhatt founded the
Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) to bring poor women
together and give them ways to fight for
their rights and earn better livings. Three years after SEWA was
founded, it had 7,000 members. Today it has a total membership of
700,000 women, making it the largest single primary trade union in
India. Bhatt lead SEWA to form a cooperative bank in 1974 - with a
share capital of $30,000 - that
offered microcredit loans to help women save and become financially
independent. Today the SEWA Cooperative Bank has $1.5 million in
working capital and more than 30,000 depositors with a loan return
rate of 94 percent. Through years of organization and strategic
action, Ela Bhatt developed SEWA
from a small, often ignored group into a powerful trade union and
bank with allies around the world. During the last three decades,
SEWA's efforts to increase the bargaining power, economic
opportunities, healthsecurity, legal representation, and
organizational abilities of Indian women have
brought dramatic improvements to hundreds of thousands of lives and
influenced similar initiatives around the globe. We Are Poor but So
Many is a first-hand account of the vision, rise, and success of
SEWA, in India as well as internationally. The book begins with a
history of the early days of SEWA
and an exploration of the Ghandian philosophy that helped shape
SEWA's formation and vision. It follows with an account of the
struggles and challenges that SEWA faced in its journey and
describes how these were addressed and overcome. It then explores
the freedom that SEWA has facilitated for women
working in the informal economy by presenting several inspirational
stories of individual SEWA members. The final chapter describes the
international extension of SEWA's work, the challenges that women
face in the informal economy worldwide, and how SEWA can be
effectively replicated in other parts
of the world. This volume is unique in that it will elaborate the
specific experience and knowledge of Ela Bhatt in her and SEWA's
journey and provide insights and knowledge that no outside
researcher would ever be in a position to replicate.
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