1. LIVELIHOODS & URBAN FORM: MUMBAI IN A COMPARATIVE PERSPECTIVE SESSION 6: March INTERROGATING BEST PRACTICES # 2 Self-Employed Women’s Association Ahmedabad, india Marty Chen Lecturer in Public Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Affiliated Professor, Harvard Graduate School of Design International Coordinator, WIEGO Network

2. TAKEAWAYS FROM LAST SESSION
Warwick Junction Case
Project Fundamentals:
area-based & inter-departmental
committed to participation & consultation
Project Team Ways of Working
ground-level intelligence
urban design with (not just for) informal workers
simple, appropriate, incremental interventions ► significant impacts on informal workers & significant changes over time
Meagher’s political-economy framework = useful framework for analyses of your respective occupational groups in Mumbai
differentiation & characteristics of informal employment: which strata?
role of social networks: e.g. caste and religion in Mumbai
links with formal sector: backward & forward; exploitative?
role of state: based on ignorance, lack of policy cohesion or complicity?

3. UPDATE FROM WARWICK JUNCTION
March 3 – lead lawyer from the Legal Resources Centre (LRC) briefed street vendor leaders of Warwick Junction
to highlight the significance of the judgment: notably, that “seemingly unfettered abuse could be checked”
March 6 – last day on which the City can file a notice to appeal the judgment
In the event of an appeal:
“tenacious” lawyer of LRC will continue with the case
Legal Resources Center and Asiye eTafuleni would both be pleased – as the issue would gain prominence as it moves up to the higher courts
Richard Dobson will keep us posted!!!

4. TODAY’S CLASS Best Practice Example # 2: Self-Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA) in Ahmedabad, India
SEWA
SEWA Urban Members
SEWA Urban Strategies
SEWA Urban Examples: home-based workers &
street vendors
Class Discussion: what strikes you as the most innovative aspects of these examples? what are the weaknesses? what are your main takeaways? what questions do you have?

5. SEWA: WHAT, WHO, WHY & HOW

6. SELF-EMPLOYED WOMEN’S ASSOCIATION (SEWA)
SEWA is first-and-foremost a trade union
largest trade union of informal workers in the world
nearly 2 million members: who elect representatives by trade into leadership roles in the union
all members are women workers in the informal economy: not just self-employed but also informal employees +sub- contracted workers + casual day laborers
first trade union of informal workers & also first
to gain national union status
to be recognized by ILO tripartite system
SEWA is also a sisterhood of organizations
SEWA is also a pioneering leader in four international movements: labor + women + informal workers + micro-finance
Founder: Ela Bhatt, labor lawyer, Ghandian
Founding:

7. SEWA’S MEMBERSHIP
SEWA’s members are engaged in 100 or more different sub-trades or occupations. SEWA groups its varied membership into four main categories, as follows: 
hawkers and vendors, who sell a range of products including vegetables, fruit, and used clothing from baskets, push carts, or small shops
home-based producers, who stitch garments, make patch-work quilts, roll hand-made cigarettes (bidis) or incense sticks, prepare snack foods, recycle scrap metal, process agricultural products, produce pottery, or make craft items
laborers and service providers, who sell their labor (as cart-pullers, construction workers, head-loaders), or who sell services such as domestic services, laundry services, or waste picking/cleaning
rural producers: small farmers, milk producers, animal rearers, nursery growers, salt farmers, gum collectors

8. SEWA’s 2 GOALS & 11 POINTS
The Eleven Points – or standards – by which SEWA measures its progress can be grouped under the Twin Goals of SEWA as follows:
Full Employment requires that each woman has:
Employment which generates sufficient
Income for living with security and dignity. This, in turn, requires…
Ownership of productive assets; sufficient
Nutrition, and the fulfillment of other basic needs such as
Health care
Housing, and
Child care
Self-Reliance of each woman is achieved through:
Organizing in groups, achieving
Leadership as a SEWA member, and
Self-Reliance as a group
Education

9. SEWA JOINT STRATEGY OF STRUGGLE & DEVELOPMENT
Struggle Strategies
organizing
collective bargaining
campaigning around issues
advocacy
Development Services
financial: savings, loans and insurance
social: health care, child care, and education
infrastructure: housing, water, sanitation, electricity and transport
capacity-building: literacy, technical skills, leadership
skills, and other training
enterprise development: skills training, product development and marketing

10. SEWA SISTERHOOD OF INSTITUTIONS
SEWA Union - which is responsible for recruiting and organizing SEWA’s membership
SEWA Bank - a cooperative bank which provides financial services
Gujarat Mahila Cooperative Federation – which is responsible for organizing and supporting several types of cooperatives of SEWA members: producer cooperatives & service delivery cooperatives
Gujarat Mahila Housing SEWA Trust – which provides housing services, including finance, legal, and construction services
SEWA Social Security – which provides health care & child care services + runs the insurance cooperative
Rural and Urban Wings of SEWA – which oversee the whole range of SEWA activities in, respectively, rural Gujarat and Ahmedabad City
SEWA Academy – which is responsible for research, training, and communication
SEWA Bharat – a national federation of SEWA affiliates in different states of India.

11. SEWA’S URBAN MEMBERS: SECTOR-SPECIFIC MIX OF STRATEGIES

12. SEWA STRATEGIES WITH CONSTRUCTION WORKERS
higher wages
skills training: masonry, carpentry, and other construction skills
workplace safety regulations
accident insurance scheme and workers’ compensation
identity (ID) cards
registers or other proof of days of work
local implementation of national Construction Workers’ Protection and Welfare Act

13. SEWA STRATEGIES WITH WASTE PICKERS
legal recognition and identity as waste collectors (who contribute to the upkeep and cleanliness of the cities they work in)
identity (ID) cards to protect them
appropriate implements and protective gear (gloves and aprons) to help them avoid dangerous and toxic waste
organization and bargaining mechanisms to negotiate with a) those to whom they sell the waste they collect and b) municipal officials and police
organization into waste collection and cleaning cooperatives

14. SEWA STRATEGIES WITH HOME-BASED PRODUCERS
housing + basic infrastructure services
regular, secure, and enforceable work orders + minimum piece rates that are equivalent to minimum wages (for sub- contracted home-based workers)
product development + marketing services (for self-employed home-based workers)
occupational health and safety measures
capital to improve their home=workspace and upgrade their equipment
access to social funds set up with tax on specific industries

15. SEWA STRATEGIES WITH STREET VENDORS
secure vending sites, including precedent-setting Supreme Court judgment
access to capital on fair terms: a loan product tailored to their daily need for working capital
wholesale market stall: where SEWA urban vendors buy directly from SEWA rural producers
infrastructure services at vending sites: shelter, water, sanitation
identity (ID) cards
legal representation in courts: to fight harassment, evictions and summary warrants
national policy on street vendors (2004)►national law on street vendors (2014)

16. SEWA LEGAL ARGUMENTS FOR URBAN INFORMAL WORKERS IN INDIA
Homeworkers
labor rights and standards: assumed to apply to all workers
assumption of employment relationship: not sale-purchase contract
Construction Workers
assumption of discrimination: test of employment does not require a long- term contract
Street Vendors
“right to vend”: this flows from “right to carry on a trade or business” (Article 19 (1)(g) of Constitution), NOT from “right to life” (Article 21 of Constitution)
“right to vend in public space”: all public streets and roads vest in the State which then regulates use of public space - but courts have right to intervene if State imposes unreasonable restrictions
Waste Pickers
“right to a healthy life/environment”: this flows from “right to life” (Article 21 of Constitution) and has been used by courts as a basis to direct municipalities to undertake waste management - but most of these orders ignore waste pickers and their contribution to waste management
Source: Kamala Sankaran, Professor of Law, Delhi University

17. SEWA CASE # 1: HOME-BASED WORKERS
As of July 2012, SEWA had 35,049 garment workers and 31,689 agarbatti rollers among its membership in Ahmedabad City.
These two groups of HBWs alone represented 17% of SEWA’s membership in Ahmedabad
Total membership in Ahmedabad as of end 2012: 396,654

18. BASIC FACTS RE URBAN HBW
share of total urban employment:
India: 14% of all workers
Mumbai: 8% of all workers
share of women’s urban employment:
India: 32% (10% of men’s)
Mumbai: 20% (5% of men’s)
found in many branches of industry: from labor-intensive manufacturing to services to trade
share of all manufacturing units & workers in India: around 50%
directly affected by macroeconomic trends, city policies & practices, value chain dynamics - yet invisible to policy makers
Sources: Chen & Raveendran 2014, Raveendran 2015, Chen 2014, Basu and Basole 2011

19. IEMS KEY FINDINGS REGARDING HOME-BASED WORKERS IN 3 ASIAN CITIES
Lack of infrastructure services: ranked as main city-related problem by focus groups of home-based workers (45 total, 15 per city) -
electricity: 21 FGs
housing: 17 FGs
transport: 10 FGs
Note: small size/poor quality of housing + insecure tenure + evictions were other main city-related problems
Cost of Transport: reported in survey of 450 home-based workers (150 per city)
30% of total expenditures
of those who spent on transport, one quarter operated at a loss
Source: Chen 2014: Informal Economy Monitoring Study Sector Report: Home-Based Workers.
Official international statistical concepts and terms
Agriculture + non-agriculture, rural + urban

20. BACKWARD & FORWARD LINKAGES: HOME-BASED GARMENT MAKERS &
BACKWARD & FORWARD LINKAGES: HOME-BASED GARMENT MAKERS & INCENSE STICK ROLLERS
Consider what a focus group in Ahmedabad, comprised of three garment makers and two incense stick rollers – all sub-contracted workers – described. A contractor or trader delivers the raw materials to two of the garment makers and also collects the stitched garments from them; the third garment maker has to go to the trader’s workshop to collect raw materials and deliver stitched garments. Both incense stick rollers walk daily to their contractor or trader to collect raw materials and return rolled incense sticks. The economic linkages diagram drawn by this focus group shows that the sub-contracted workers have both backward and forward production linkages with the same traders and, also, that the sub-contracted garment workers have to purchase supplies like thread and needles: see diagram 2. The contractors, traders, and supply shops are all near the area where the women live and work (Ahmedabad FG 12, Chen 2014).
Source: Ahmedabad Focus Group 12, Chen 2014 IEMS Sector Report: Home-Based Workers

21. SEWA MAHILA HOUSING TRUST
Construction of low-income housing
Planning, designing and delivering basic water and sanitation infrastructure in slums and other low-income areas in partnership with local government;
Facilitating access to energy for the poor including electrification of low-income households, and alternative energy sources such as solar lighting, bio-gas and smokeless stoves
Karmika School for Construction Workers for upgrading skills of women construction workers
Mobilization of poor communities, including training and capacity building of rural and urban community organizations
Linking communities with housing and infrastructure finance
Networking and advocacy for state-level and national-level housing and infrastructure-related urban and rural development policies and programs

22. SEWA MHT SLUM UPGRADING PROJECT
Aimed to provide a package of basic infrastructure services, including:
household connections for water supply;
underground sewerage for individual households;
toilets for individual households;
storm water drainage;
stone paving of internal and approach roads;
landscaping and solid waste management; and
street lighting
Involved partnership between Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation, SEWA MHT and local communities: each bearing one-third of the costs

23. BEFORE & AFTER PARIVARTAN SLUM UPDGRADING: MELDI NAGAR, AHMEDABAD
Source: Rusling WIEGO Policy Brief No. 1

24. IMPACT OF SLUM UPGRADING
Provision of Water and Sanitation ►
improved quality of life
saved time → enhanced productivity
reduced inconvenience & embarrassment
improved community relations
improved health/reduced incidence of disease
Civic Engagement ►
enhanced personal skills and confidence
improved relationship between communities and city

25. SEWA CASE # 2: STREET VENDORS
75,000 in SEWA Ahmedabad membership as of end 2012 = 19% of total membership in Ahmedabad
Total membership in Ahmedabad as of end 2012: 396,654
Different estimates of street vendors in Ahmedabad:
2003 study by Sharit K. Bhowmik - around 80,000 street vendors in Ahmedabad at that time, 40 per cent of whom were women.
2011 census of street vendors in Ahmedabad conducted by the All-India Institute of Local Self Government (AILSG) on behalf of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) - 66,559
vendors in the city across six different zones of the city (table 3). This census found that the largest concentration of the vendors (around 27 per cent) were in the central zone, which is the walled city and the area around it.
SEWA - 75,000 street vendors, all women, among its Ahmedabad  members.

26. BASIC FACTS RE STREET VENDORS
share of total urban employment:
India: 4%
Mumbai: 3.5%
share of women’s urban employment:
India: 3% (4% of men’s)
Mumbai: 2% (4% of men’s)
cluster in what SEWA calls “natural markets: where there is significant pedestrian/customer flow – e.g. around transport hubs, wholesale markets, schools, hospitals, temples/mosques and residential colonies
directly affected by macroeconomic trends, city policies & practices, value chain dynamics - especially the policies & practices of local authorities (police, municipal officials)
Sources: Chen & Raveendran 2014, Raveendran 2015, and Chen 2014

27. STREET VENDORS & THE LAW
IN INDIA
Location & Licensing = policy debates revolve around these 2 key issues
Common Policy Stance: role of city government is to control and govern access to public space and to restrict access to licences
Existing Laws: empower local government & police
Corporation/Town Planning/Urban Development Acts – set out duties and rights of local government, including keeping streets free from obstruction & charging vendors for obstructing street or not having a license
Indian Penal Code, Criminal Procedure Code, and Motor Vehicle Act – can be used by police to justify arresting, evicting, or otherwise penalizing street vendors – for causing a danger to the public right of way or obstructing the free flow of traffic

28. NATIONAL STREET VENDOR
POLICY ► LAW IN INDIA
Supreme Court: two cases (Mumbai in 1985, Ahmedabad in 1996) ruled that street vending is a constitutionally protected practice, subject to reasonable restrictions
National Policy: introduced in 2004 and revised in and 2009 – advocated by SEWA & National Association of Street Vendors in India (NASVI)
to legalize street vending
to protect street vendors
to create a system of local self-management: Town Vending Committees to determine Vending Zones, Restricted Vending Zones, & No Vending Zones
National Law: called for by Supreme Court in 2011, pushed for by SEWA & NASVI & enacted in 2014!

29. NATURAL MARKETS OF VENDORS IN CENTRAL & PERIPHERAL AREAS, AHMEDABAD
As of end 2012, SEWA had 75,233 street vendors among its membership in Ahmedabad City: of which, 49,511 (66 per cent) are selling in the central city and 25,722 (34 per cent) in non-central areas. For the purposes of this study, the 132 Feet Ring Road has been considered as a divide between central and peripheral vending markets. The distinction is as shown in the map  (figure 1). The road does not have any name and it is known as the "132 Feet Ring Road" for its breadth.
Source: SEWA

30. STREET VENDORS (NON-FOOD): RESIDENCE & VENDING SITES
Source: Ahmedabad All Focus Groups, Mahadevia et al 2014

31. BACKWARD & FORWARD LINKAGES: STREET NON-FOOD VENDORS
Source: Ahmedabad All Focus Groups, Mahadevia 2014

32. URBAN DEVELOPMENT & STREET VENDORS IN AHMEDABAD
Five major urban development projects affecting street vendors in Ahmedabad:
the Kankaria Lake redevelopment project and associated development 
The Bhadra Fort restoration project
the construction of flyovers at important junctions, which has caused dispersal of the vendors from their natural markets
road widening for reducing motor vehicular congestion or for putting in Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) lanes;
declaration of certain roads as “model roads”.
SEWA estimates of numbers of street vendors evicted :
BRT Phase I - 2,000
declaration of certain roads as model roads – 5,142
Bhadra Fort restoration – 4,000
Notes:
A model road is defined by the AMC as one with unrestricted flow of vehicular traffic. Hence, the model roads tend to have narrow footpaths, and wide carriageways for motorized vehicles: with no “encroachments” allowed. Vendors are considered to be encroaching by the AMC and are removed from time to time by the encroachment removal squad of the AMC.
Phase I of the Ahmedabad BRT corridor is 58.3 km long (Mahadevia, Joshi and Datey 2012)
Source: Mahadevia et al 2014: IEMS City Report: Street Vendors

33. STREET VENDORS OF BHADRA FORT AREA, AHMEDABAD
Bhadra Fort & Park
built in 1411 by Sultan Ahmed Shah who founded Ahmedabad
Fort: houses Bhadrakali Temple – 1000s of devotees per day
Park: became natural market of vendors over the decades - some 4,000 vendors (including 576 SEWA members) with an estimated turnover of million rupees (or around m USD) in (Jajoo 2011)
Bhadra Park ► Bhadra Heritage Plaza
2011 – plans approved & funded by national Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission
January work began, 4,000 vendors evicted ► vendors shifted to surrounding area
Pre-Diwali 2013 – SEWA negotiated a “Women’s Market” within the plaza area
November 2014 – restoration work completed & public allowed to enter ► Ahmedabad Municipal Commissioner (AMC) ordered that all vendors should be removed ►SEWA negotiated with AMC to not evict the vendors (citing guarantees promised by previous AMC)
December 2014 – AMC announced that a “lottery draw” would be set up by which vendors would be assigned to either Bhadra Plaza or an area one kilometer away (Sardar Baug) ► SEWA began to register vendors for that draw
February 2015 – AMC announced the draw with 2-hours notice ► vendor leaders refused to participate at such short notice ► AMC officials went ahead with the draw in an empty hall
February-March 2015 – SEWA filed court case against AMC ► judge ruled against draw in favor of vendors staying in Bhadra Plaza and surrounding area ► SEWA & AMC engaged in active negotiations (even today) regarding identifying genuine Bhadra Fort-Plaza vendors and allocating them vending spaces as per SEWA’s plans/designs for the Bhadra Plaza and surrounding area
Manali Shah, head of the SEWA Union in Ahmedabad, will keep us posted!!!!

34. BHADRA PLAZA & SURROUNDING AREA: FEBRUARY 2013
Photos by Marty Chen

35. DEVI-BEN: EVICTED FROM HER HOME & WORKPLACE
Devi-ben, a SEWA member, was one of the 4,000 vendors evicted from the Bhadra Fort natural market which was converted into a heritage plaza – she and her fellow vendors now sell from the street and alley-ways around the plaza
Devi-ben, her family, and her husband’s clan were evicted from their ancestral home – a colony of traditional artisans in the center of new Ahmedabad – and relocated to tenement housing on the outskirts of the city
Devi-ben has had to cut back on expenditures (including tea during her long work day) due to decreased earnings and increased cost of transport
Devi-ben asks: “Aren’t we part of the heritage – the culture – of the city?”

36. EXPOSURE DIALOGUE WITH DEVI-BEN
Photos from Marty Chen’s camera

37. DISCUSSION OF SEWA CASES: HOME-BASED WORKERS & STREET VENDORS
what strikes you as the most innovative aspects of these examples?
what are the weaknesses?
what are your main takeaways?
what questions do you have?

38. SEWA & FOUR INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENTS
SEWA has played a leading role and had great influence on four international movements
women’s movement: focus on women as workers; focus on working poor women
micro-finance movement: focus on savings; focus on building a bank, not a project
labour movement: first trade union of informal workers to gain international recognition; largest trade union of informal workers
informal worker movement: co-founder and guiding light of many organizations of informal workers around the world, including WIEGO network

39. SEWA & INTERNATIONAL FIELDS OF PRACTICE
SEWA has played a leading role and had great influence on different international fields of practice
labour organizing
cooperatives
workers’ education
micro-finance
health and health insurance
social protection and social assistance
fair trade and ethical trade
labour force statistics
housing and housing services

40. SEWA & INTERNATIONAL MOVEMENT OF INFORMAL WORKERS
THE 1970s – LOCAL ORGANIZING
1972 – Founding of SEWA
1970s – Organizing of Domestic Workers in Latin America
THE 1980s – NATIONAL POLICIES & INTERNATIONAL LINKAGES
1986 – National Workshop on Hawkers and Vendors, India
1987 – National Commission on Self-Employed Workers, India
1987 – National Conference on Home-Based Workers (with ILO), India
1997/8 – SEWA invited to join two Global Union Federations (GUFs)
THE 1990s – INTERNATIONAL POLICIES & NETWORKS
1994 – Founding of HomeNet
1995 – First Meeting of StreetNet
1996 – ILO Convention on Homework
1997 – Founding of WIEGO
1999 – Founding of HomeNet South Asia
THE 2000s – INTERNATIONAL POLICIES & GLOBAL MOVEMENT
2000/1 – 6 Regional Meetings of Informal Workers
2002 – General Discussion on Informal Economy at ILC
2002 – Official Launch of StreetNet
2003/6 – 2 International Conferences on “Organizing Informal Workers”
2006 – SEWA invited to join International Trade Union Congress (ITUC)
2008 – First International Conference of Waste Picker Organizations
2008/13 – Founding of International Domestic Workers Network/Federation
ILO Convention on Domestic Workers

41. FUTURE VISION: HYBRID ECONOMIES & ECONOMIC DIVERSITY
“The challenge is to convince the policy makers to promote and encourage hybrid economies in which micro-businesses can co-exist alongside small, medium, and large businesses: in which the street vendors can co-exist alongside the kiosks, retail shops, and large malls. Just as the policy makers encourage bio diversity, they should encourage economic diversity. Also, they should try to promote a level playing field in which all sizes of businesses and all categories of workers can compete on equal and fair terms.“
Ela Bhatt
Founder, SEWA
Founding Chair, WIEGO

42. THANK YOU! ધન્યવાદ!