As described in its Mission Statement, SEWA Bharat’s mandate is to building and to strengthen developing SEWAs throughout India. This occurs through the following activities:

• Acting as a link among SEWAs
• Coordinating and guiding the activities of existing SEWAs
• Coordinating and guiding the process of establishing new SEWAs
• Training and workshops for members, leaders and organisers
• Strengthening and expanding micro finance services in all SEWAs

Supportive services like savings and credit, health care, child car, insurance, legal aid, capacity building and communication services are important needs of poor women. If women are to achieve their goals of full employment and self-reliance, these services are essential. Recognising the need for supportive services, SEWA has helped women take a number of initiatives in organising these services for themselves and their SEWA sisters. Many important lessons have been learnt in the process of organising supportive services. They provide these services in a decentralised and affordable manner, at the doorsteps of workers. Further, supportive services can be and are themselves a source of self-employment. For example, midwives charge for their services and creche workers collect fees for taking care of young children.

Specific program areas being developed include the following:

• Organising & Capacity Building
• Micro-finance
• Employment Generations
• Social Security

Policy

SEWA Bharat works to highlight the issues of women workers in order to bring about policy changes at the local, regional, national and international levels. This is facilitated through meetings, workshops, summits, conferences, rallies and other forums of interaction.

Issues of focus include:

• National Policy for Home-Based workers
• Protection and social security for Bidi workers
• Employment and Social Security for Bidi workers
• Employment for rural workers
• National Policy for Street Vendors
• Child and Health care facilities for women workers
• •Identity cards for informal sector workers
• •Access to financial services for women workers

Research

The main objective of the research carried out by SEWA Bharat is to identify and develop member organisations and to raise various issues at different forums in order to facilitate policy changes.

SEWA firmly believes that all research activity should be followed by a concrete action plan on the ground. In fact, the close interaction of SEWA Bharat members with women workers during the course of surveys fosters establishment of the rapport necessary to create targeted responses to survey results.

Achievements

• Membership of around 13 lakhs.
• Presence in 9 states and over 50 districts across India
• Development of the highly successful SEWA Bank, a well-known model of micro Finance currently being replicated in other countries
• Key member and founder of National Alliance of street vendors of India (NASVI)
• Key Actor in the advocacy of National Policy on Street vendors
• SEWA movement spread to Yemen and Turkey
• SEWA Movement spread to South Africa: the Self-Employed Women's Union (SEWU) in Durban
• Named one of the ‘55 things that make India proud’ by India Today in 2002
• Key founders of Homenet, an international network of home-based workers’ organisations
• Key founders of Streetnet, an international network of Organisations working with street vendors.
• Acting on the Supreme Court order in Gaindaram and Others vs. MCD, the MCD drafted a scheme based on the National Policy for Urban Street Vendors, and presented it before the court in 2007. SEWA filed an intervening application in the court on the April 3, 2007. The Supreme Court passed its judgement took into consideration all the issues raised by SEWA. In compliance with the Court’s order, the MCD has finally come out with a scheme based on the national policy, along with the application form for the registration of hawkers and vendors in the city