SEWA Bank

Empowering women was the prime objective with which the Self Employed Women’s Association movement SEWA began its journey in 1972. Today, SEWA is the largest single trade union in the country with a membership of over 10,00,000 women. Shri Mahila Sewa Sahakari Bank Ltd. Which came into being in the year 1974 and was established at the initiative of 4000 self-employed women - each of whom deposited Rupees ten as their share in the new venture – is an offshoot of the SEWA movement, and today, the very backbone of the parent organization. While the objectives are manifold: from inculcating the habit of saving to providing credit and promoting insurance benefits; as also enabling members to get out of the clutches of unscrupulous moneylenders building their own assets and capital; equipping them with technical and managerial capabilities ; and more, the motto has remained the same – to make the poor self employed, economically strong, safe sound and self reliant. While the parent organization SEWA, brings the self-employed poor women together, thus enabling them to bargain for their just dues and rights, Sewa Bank elevates their status in economic terms. Today, the Sewa Bank stands out as the only bank of its kind in the country and is still growing by attempting to reach out to the maximum number of poor women engaged in the unorganisd sector. That 96% of all women workers in India are in this sector speaks of the long journey ahead.