The SEWA way: Shaping another future for informal labour

Globalization has accelerated the growth of the informal sector worldwide. It now comprises majority workers in many countries, especially the developing world. The trade union movement should ideally have come forward to organize informal labour, both to legitimise itself and to help the exploited masses uplift themselves. Unfortunately, examples of this are few. Non-governmental organizations have stepped in to a limited extent to help organize informal labour ‘bottoms–up’ and from `above’—urging the corporate world to cleanse its supply chains and consumers to buy `fair trade’ products. In some instances, new or alternative unions have emerged. The Self-Employment Women's Association (SEWA), a trade union of nearly 700,000 poor women in the informal sector in India, can be seen as a pioneer of this trend though it first emerged as far back as in 1972 in the textile town of Ahmedabad, Gujarat. An analysis of SEWA's way of functioning, its holistic approach encompassing socio-economic and political rights and its widespread impact offers lessons for organising informal labour to give these workers a brighter future. This paper elaborates these lessons based on the SEWA experience.