ICT for Poverty Reduction SEWA Washington DC June 28, 2002

SEWA Self Employed Womens Association (SEWA) is a Member-based Organisation of Poor informal sector women workers. It is a confluence of three movements - Labor, Co-op and Womens movement.

SEWA Gujarat 284,317 Delhi 252 Uttar Pradesh 25,800 Madhya Pradesh 107,620 Bihar 1,600 Kerala 719 Total 420,308 Year 2002 Rural Initiative started in 1989 and now 2/3 of SEWAs membership is rural Family of organisations include a cooperative bank, academy, video cooperative, district federations, associations, schooling service, design library and more.

Bare Facts Importance of the Informal Sector 93 Percent of Indias workforce comes from the informal sector 60 percent of the informal sector workforce comprises of women 40 percent of India's exports emanate from the informal sector Upto 70% of Indias National Income is contributed by the Informal Sector

SEWAs USP SEWA has worked with thousands of women members to come out of poverty over the last three decades. SEWA works under the financial discipline of viability and leverage public and strategic amount of donor funds with the labour, skills, enterprise and cash savings of poor informal sector women members.

SEWAs members live in rural disaster prone areas--SEWAs primary goal is to promote local income generating opportunities to reduce vulnerability. SEWA and ICT

ICT enables rural women to enhance efficiency in daily work Increase productivity because of proper access to information and streamlining production systems Creating Alternate Employment Opportunities The member does not remain a worker or producer but becomes the owner & manager ICT to the Grassroots

ICT Training- first step towards empowerment Training related to their skill-base Software development taking Community Based Approach and economic activity Training which leads them to greater efficiency and greater productivity Software development and training in local language Imparting training to the members as well as to their children and youth As a model in increasing literacy, SEWA initiated JEEVANSHALA life education, which looks after imparting education but related to their skill-base How ICT will help in providing Sustainable livelihood Security

ICT and Disaster Management Prompt relief & rehabilitation The Communication Centres were set up which comprised of and internet connections, satellite phones and VSAT equipments. SEWA used SatComm mode for interactive talk-back sessions for planning with the communities.

As a Pilot, SEWA developed a customized dairy management software for a rural milk co-op, which has saved money and time in testing the consistency of milk and eliminating fraud. Garbar MachineComputerized Milk Co-op Computerised Milk Cooperative

Customized Software SEWA has already taken a lead in developing & installing customised software for MF Mgmt in 2 of its 11 districts. Pilot project in rural ME Mgmt: developing customized software for Embroidery activity at the village level. SEWA will then develop software for various micro enterprises, e.g. Agriculture, incense, gum, salt etc.

What is SatCom? Satellite Communication Network consists of 3 major elements 1) Teaching end 2) Spacecraft 3) Receiving end. Television signals has to be sent to geo-stationery communication satellite by means of uplink earth station located at the teaching end. The spacecraft receives, amplifies and re-transmits the signals and this studio is linked to the uplink earth station. Even the talk back session are organized via SatCom

SatCom It has a main relay centre in Gandhinagar and receiving terminals in all 11 districts. SEWA has started using audio-visual medium in connecting with its rural members, these programs are participatory and interactive

SatCom Programmes Through SatCom SEWA provides training programs like – 1) Disaster Management 2) Organizing 3) Leadership Building 4) Forestry 5) Water conservation 6) Health and Education 7) Child Development

Networking SEWA: Achieving Rural Connectivity 1.High cost of travelling between the district associations and Ahmedabad for meetings, mentor guidance, training programmes and capacity building. 2.Loss in person-hours, especially when travelling between the two distances. 3.Limited outreach of the programme because less participants take part due to the long distances (especially members). 4.Drop in output and efficiency levels of the key development programmes due to inefficient management and monitoring. Issues:

Training and capacity building - substantial increase in participation & outreach Mentor and expert guidance Long distance meetings & brainstorming Substantial cuts in travel costs Transfer of complex and heavy data and information Substantial increase in efficiency, efficacy and output of the various projects due to timely interventions and monitoring Effective and timely disaster management in disaster prone areas Networking SEWA: Achieving Rural Connectivity Building on the SatCom Initiative and Success

Thank You