SEWA Snapshot: A Special Edition Highlighting International Women's Day Celebrations and Other Noteworthy Updates!

Every Day Is Women's Day

"Just don't be scared of anything. Women are capable of achieving so much. We do so much work, be it outside or at our home. Society might try to suppress our voice, but we must collectively fight back.", says Urmila ben, SEWA Delhi member and street vendor. "I'm so happy that we have this entire day dedicated to us. It is an opportunity to express ourselves the way we want to, through dance, music, poetry etc. Women do various kinds of work, be it home-based, domestic, construction, and so on, and are not even paid properly. This should change and they must have financial autonomy.", says Pinky ben, who is a woman community leader and SEWA member from Malerkotla, Punjab.

These are some of the thoughts shared by our members on the occasion of this International Women's Day. From providing counselling to victims of domestic violence to facilitating registration for the Udyam registration portal, International Women's Day was commemorated in diverse ways. On this day, we invite our members to take part in various cultural activities and just be themselves. "After a very long time, I stepped outside my house and indulged in leisure through games.", said Munita ben, member, SEWA Jharkhand. "Every day should be commemorated as Women's Day.", says Anjali ben, SSK In-charge and mobilizer, SEWA Jharkhand. Here are a few glimpses of how our women celebrated this day. 

The Water Woes of Balta

"बेन, यहाँ पे पानी की समस्या काफी ज़्यादा है। महिलाओं को एक किलोमीटर दूर जाना पड़ता है पानी लेने के लिए। हर घर नल से जल योजना के तहत नल तो लगे हुए हैं, लेकिन नल से पानी नहीं आता। इस समस्या की वजह से बच्चों की पढ़ाई पे भी असर पड़ता है, क्योंकि उनको स्कूल से आने के बाद पानी लेने जाना पड़ता है। बहनों का काफी समय इसी काम में चला जाता है, और वो अपने पशु-पालन के व्यवसाय को आगे नहीं बढ़ा पाती। आंगनवाड़ी भी दूर हैं, इसीलिए हमारे गाँव की बहनों को बच्चों की देखभाल में काफी चुनौतियों का सामना करना पड़ता है।", कहना है नीलम बेन का, जो बल्टा गाँव की ग्राम प्रधान हैं और सेवा उत्तराखंड की मेम्बर भी।

(Translation: "Ben, women of Balta often have to travel upto 1km everyday to fetch water. As per the Har Ghar Jal scheme, a tap is installed in every home, however the water is yet to come. Women have to spend a lot of time bringing water and hence they are unable to expand their animal husbandry work.  Due to this, children's studies are also affected, as they have to assist in fetching water after coming from school. The anganwadi is also far off, which compels women to look after the needs of their children first and reduces the time they have to do more income-generating work.", says Neelam ben, SEWA Uttarakhand member and village head of Balta) 

The issue of water scarcity plagues Balta, a small town near Almora, Uttarakhand. Women are forced to wake up as early as 4 am to fetch water for not only drinking, but for various household needs as well. While the men of the house venture outside to work in casual labor, carpentry or run their shops, women stay back and do household chores and animal husbandry. "We were relocated to Balta after the flash floods of 2010 and still have not been provided the documents which prove that the homes that we are living in belong to us. Additionally, cases of domestic violence against women are rampant here as alcohol is sold illegally.", says Prema ben, an agricultural worker and SEWA member. 

The SEWA Uttarakhand team has identified Balta village, where water woes are commonplace. Women of Balta were mobilized to seek action and met the district magistrate. They presented a memorandum outlining their demands, emphasizing the necessity for consistent water supply through household taps and advocating for increased frequency of water release from community taps, beyond the current limited window of 1-2 hours per day. 

"While we have been assured that this issue will be resolved, another meeting needs to be held with Uttarakhand Jal Sansthan to ask for the water tank to be repaired. With assistance from the SEWA Uttarakhand team, we hope that this problem is resolved as soon as possible, as the availability of water is central to all our chores.", says Neelam ben. 

Securing Well-Deserved Rest For Our Domestic Workers

"Rest for us is almost a luxury. We wake up early in the morning, do household chores, make food for our children and then leave for work ourselves. Our employers mostly do not allow us to use their washrooms, which makes us prone to a lot of health problems such as kidney stones and urinary tract infections. During menstruation, it becomes difficult for us to change our sanitary pads and we are compelled to continue working." These were some of the concerns laid out by domestic workers in Jharkhand, during a meeting. However, SEWA's experience tells us that these issues are commonplace across states.

"We observed when Sobha Majhi ben (who is a SEWA West Bengal member and domestic worker) was going home after work, her legs were aching a lot. She sat down on the footpath to take rest. We asked her to drop by our office after working in 2-3 households so that she could get the break that she rightfully deserves. This incident led to the germination of an idea, which was to convert our Berhampore office into a drop-in centre for our domestic workers. Here, they could relax, use the washroom, change their sanitary napkins, eat some light snacks, have water, and get a break from their hectic lives. We felt that this would also provide a platform for us to mobilize our domestic workers more effectively.", said Bidu bhai, project supervisor at Berhampore, West Bengal. The District Joint Labor Commissioner inaugurated the drop-in centre at Berhampore on 29th February, 2024. 2-3 domestic worker members have also started dropping by the centre daily.

"My work hardly gives me any time to rest and I'm happy that this centre has opened now so that I can relax for some time and use the washroom as well.", says Kalavati ben from Berhampore. Overall, there is an atmosphere of excitement amongst our bens. "We feel that this is our space.", echoed their voices during the inauguration.  We hope to see more footfall at this centre in the coming days. 

Bringing Together Stakeholders From Diverse Backgrounds For Collective Action

For us at SEWA, bringing the voices of informal women workers to the mainstream is of paramount importance. Be it through our monthly newsletters or multistakeholder events, our attempt is always to put the concerns and views of our women members first. In this vein, a recent event was organized by SEWA Punjab, where stakeholders from different walks of life came forward and discussed the issues faced by our members. During the event, Parminder ben, a home-based worker, said, "Being with SEWA sisters has given me confidence. Earlier, I was scared to even step out of the house. Now, I hold phulkari training workshops for women, a craft that is slowly disappearing."

Maya ben, a woman community leader from Mohali district spoke about how joining SEWA led her to work with her fellow women workers on issues of sanitation and hygiene within their communities. “We learned about the benefits of maintaining hygiene in our areas, and how it contributes to reducing diseases. We organized several awareness campaigns and cleanliness drives and even went to the sarpanch and wrote applications for cleaning drains and installing dustbins. We can achieve more if we come together”.

Further, a discussion was held on the variety of issues that trouble our members in Mohali, for which SEWA Punjab is actively working on. These include sanitation, dangerous high voltage wires, and lack of anganwadis in slum colonies of the district. Representatives from civil society organizations and the Punjab government were present, who emphasized collective action, sharing resources, and supporting each other in order to carry out the welfare of the people they work for. A detailed conversation took place on menstrual health, the need to destigmatize it and the importance for women to understand their own bodies.

This platform allowed the team to explore potential partnerships for resolving issues faced by our members such as that of maternal and menstrual health, safety and so on. Livelihood trainings for our members could also be carried out through these partnerships. Overall, the focus will be to ensure the welfare of our members and increase the visibility of SEWA Punjab's work amongst stakeholders.

On This International Women's Day, Murshida Ben's Message For Us All

"Everybody comes and visits, promising to find solutions, but our issues still remain.", echoed the voice of Murshida ben. As one enters Bhalswa, it is difficult to imagine that it's a part of Delhi. Far off from the main city and surrounded by a landfill, many waste pickers reside there. One of them is Murshida ben. "I've been living in Delhi since my childhood and was brought up here. I visit my village sometimes, which is near Kolkata. Since my workplace is nearby, I start work from 8-9 am, which goes on till 6 pm. I come home in between, make food and complete some household chores."

"It smells most of the time. There's pollution. However, we have accepted our fate, we were born here and will die here too. If we fall sick, we take the medicine and the next day we are back to work. Earlier, we used to earn up Rs. 600-700 per day, now we are just down to Rs. 200-300. A contractor exercises a lot of power in the landfill and does not allow us to get waste down from the landfill."

She continues, "Waste recyclers are forced to sell the waste to him only, if somebody dares to get the waste, they are not only physically abused but their families are also threatened with violence. No one dares to speak against him. Every waste worker is involved in segregating specific items. So, one would only take plastic items, another would only take electronic items, other one cans and so on. Getting hurt while doing this job is common. I get cuts from plastic pieces regularly and sometimes even needles and glass. But then, I apply ointment and continue to work. If the wound is too deep, I'm forced to rest for two days, which directly results in a pay cut. If I used gloves, I would not be able to segregate the waste properly. We use our dupattas (a long scarf worn by people in India) to protect ourselves from dust, pollution and the smell, which works to some extent." 

On the occasion of International Women's Day, this is her message, "Women should get decent work and pay. I hope to see one day where we don't have to fight to get water from the tankers. We are tired of listening to false claims by municipal bodies and want to see real action instead of empty promises. There is an atmosphere of fear among women waste segregators here, due to the dominance of the contractor. We don't want to continue doing this work and wish for better employment opportunities, where we feel safe, secure and can earn well."