The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) is a trade union movement of informal women workers who believe that women’s human rights will not be achieved without economic empowerment and self reliance. SEWA began in 1971 when a handful of women came together to protest against their unfair treatment by local merchants – it now has 1 million members in 9 states of India.
One World Action is working with SEWA Bharat in Delhi and with SEWA’s in Rajasthan, Bihar, Uttarakhand, and West Bengal. Visit SEWA's website here.
In Delhi One World Action is working with SEWA Bharat to organise and support street vendors, construction workers and home based textile workers.
Read an article about One World Action’s work with SEWA in The Independent here.
Read about SEWA's work organising street vendors and construction workers in Delhi here.
Read about SEWA's work with embroidery homeworkers in Delhi here.
Watch a video of SEWA's members "Hands of Hope"
Please download Adobe Flash Player
to see this content.
.
Read the report of a dialogue on Women Homeworkers organised by One World Action, SEWA, Trade Union Congress and WIEGO here.
Read about SEWA's successful historic legal case at India's Supreme Court to protect street vendors and markets in Delhi here.
Read about the new Unorganised Workers’ Social Security Bill, that was passed in 2008 after years of lobbying by SEWA here.
SEWA Bharat recently celebrated their ten year birthday – Read about their achievements here.
On 8th March 2010, over 3,000 SEWA members from Bihar attended the International Women's Day celebration organized by SEWA Bharat. The Chief Minister of Bihar, Shri Nitish Kumar welcomed SEWA to Bihar and encouraged the women to organize. He promised to set up a Commission to examine the issues and suggested solutions for Women in the Informal Economy.
Read the coverage of the event on SEWA’s Newsletter here. __________________________________________________________________________
PRIA (Participatory Research Institute Asia) is an international centre for learning and promotion of participation and democratic governance. One World Action previously supported PRIA to support women councillors in Haryana and Rajasthan. PRIA are now one of the project partner’s of our Just Budgets Two project, focussing on gender responsive budgeting at the local and national level.
You can visit PRIA's website here.
__________________________________________________________________________
Towards a Comprehensive Framework to Eliminate Caste Discrimination in the 21st Century
On the 10th November 2009, the draft UN Principles and Guidelines for the Effective Elimination of Discrimination Based on Work and Descent, were launched in the UK Houses of Parliament. The event was attended by NGO representatives, parliamentarians and human rights activists. It was chaired by Jeremy Corbyn MP and organised by One World Action and the Dalit Solidarity Network UK.
These Guidelines represent a major step forward for securing international support for action in countries where caste based discrimination continues to perpetuate exclusion, injustice and violence. They provide an historic opportunity and tool for mobilising and action. This is the first instrument to establish guidelines for how state and non-state actors can address one of the world’s greatest and systematic human rights abuses, affecting an estimated 260 million women and men around the world.
The launch was followed by an open discussion around recommendations and actions for how the Guidelines can be put into practice and taken forward within the UK.
Read more about the event here.
