Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)

SEWA is a trade union of women who earn a living through their own labour or small businesses, as more than 94 per cent of women in India’s labour force do. SEWA emerged in 1971 out of the women’s arm of the Textile Labourers’ Association. The organization’s first hurdle was to convince decision makers that their members were workers, despite the lack of formal employment relationships. In 1972, SEWA won that battle and was registered as a trade union.