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The Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) of India has become the target of repression by the government of the State of Gujarat, where SEWA headquarters are located and where the union has most of its membership.
The Gujarat government is controlled by an extremist and violent wing of the BJP, the Hindu nationalist party which lost the central Indian government in the last federal elections but remains strong in Gujarat, largely thanks to the aggressively polarizing tactics its leader, Chief Minister Narendra Modi. In 2002 the government instigated communal riots all over Gujarat, where armed mobs led by BJP cadres killed over 2,000 Moslems and engaged in the wholesale destruction of Moslem-owned housing and property, with the support of the local police. Following the riots, Modi was denied a visa to the United States because of his record on human rights. Modi’s government, supported by a group of organisations called the Sangh Parivar, comes as close as is possible to an Indian form of fascism.
The Modi government is also strongly pro-business, trying to attract foreign investment to Gujarat. Although initially hesitant, most of local and transnational capital now appears to support the government, despite the obvious risks to social cohesion and stability inherent in its divisive communal politics.
SEWA is a union of women workers in the informal economy (home workers, street and market vendors, waste collectors, artisans, etc.), in general very poor, lower caste women. It now has some 700,000 members in India, of whom nearly 500,000 in Gujarat. One third of its members are Moslems, a few are Christians. All communities are represented in its leadership. It subscribes to Gandhian principles, foremost among which is the recognition of the equal worth of all human beings, regardless of religion or caste. Based on the strength of its membership, it has built up co-operatives and services in health, education, social protection and even a bank, which is highly rated.
SEWA is affiliated to three Global Union Federations (IUF, ITGLWF and ICEM) and has applied for membership in the ICFTU.
During the 2002 riots SEWA protected as best as it could its Moslem membership. It subsequently resisted the separation of communities imposed by government terror and set up programs for the rehabilitation of the surviving victims of the riots, thousands of them in refugee camps after the destruction of their neighbourhoods.
It now appears that the government has decided to no longer tolerate any kind of opposition to its policies. It is gradually reducing the public space of all civil society institutions and organizations it does not control: unions, women organizations, human rights organizations, and others. As the largest independent working class organization in Gujarat, with an ideology radically opposed to that of the Sangh Parivar, SEWA is a prime target. The government has long perceived SEWA as an irritation; it now perceives it as a threat.
The government initiated the conflict with SEWA in October 2004 by withholding funds supporting 14,000 families of SEWA members under a program of rehabilitation of the victims of the 2001 earthquake, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), a specialized agency of the UN. The funding for the program is administered by SEWA, but transits through the government. The government has alleged "financial irregularities" as a pretext for withholding payments, even though the accounts of the program have been audited several times over, including by the government's own auditors. It is also demanding the return of funds previously released under different programs.
The immediate consequence has been that without funds, all employment and other economic activities in the project districts have come to a halt, resulting in families selling their vessels, cattle and other hard-earned assets. Many of the families have been forced to migrate in search of a livelihood. SEWA has reacted by mobilizing its membership: it has tried to develop alternative employment sources for the affected members and collected 25 tons of food grains from among its membership. Its local workers and is staff has contributed one day's wages to support their sisters in the affected districts and INR2m. from membership dues have been allocated to their support.
Following the government's action, and after fruitless attempts at dialogue, SEWA has cancelled all other programs in which it participates and where the government is involved.
The tactics of the government are clearly to wear down SEWA by continuing harassment and by bleeding it financially. The objective is to destroy SEWA as a political and social force capable of successfully challenging, even by its mere existence, the Modi government's reactionary agenda.
In its October newsletter, SEWA states: "We have no doubt that the Gujarat Government is out to break SEWA, an organization of the poor, an organization of women, an organization in which all castes and communities work together in harmony, and an organization which believes in Gandhian values. The Government of Gujarat is out to destroy our credibility, our solidarity and our reputation."
SEWA now needs the active support of the international labour movement. The forms such support can take will depend on future developments, but for starters, and to support their resolve, they need solidarity messages. These can be sent to:
mail@sewaacademy.org, and: mail@sewa.org
The postal address of SEWA is:
Self Employed Women's Association
Opp. Victoria Garden , Bhadra, Ahmedabad - 380 001. India
Further information can be found on the SEWA web site: www.sewa.org
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