Case Studies
SEWA Women highlight their lives and stories. Our grassroots women take on the mantle of leadership and fit well into self-selected positions of responsibility, to become advocates and grassroots champions for the women around them. It is the work and lives of our women that make the SEWA Sangathan the force it has been since 1984. Read on for a few stories from our communities.
Shamshad Bano; A Voice of Reason
Shamshad Bano, a resident of Khwaja Colony in Bikaner, has been associated with SEWA Rajasthan since 2008. She has been instrumental in spreading awareness about menstrual hygiene and distributing sanitary napkins to the women of her community, who never had access to them.
A Mask to Tide Through the Tough Times
A group of 15 women from Dharampur Gram Panchayat, Gopal Panchayat and Manikchak Panchayat in the Malda district of West Bengal were rendered unemployed from their business of beedi making since the lockdown started in March.
Resilience-Building, One Mask at a Time
Community members in the village of Kampara in Odisha were facing shortage of masks amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. SEWA’s digital sakhi, Jyotirmayee Dash, whose livelihood had been badly affected due to the lockdown, saw this as an opportunity of alternate income.
A Saathi like no other
Kiranbirben has been working as a Sewa Bank Sathi in Aimma , Gurdaspur district for the past one year. A simple woman, before the COVID pandemic struck, most of the community she worked with knew her only as a SEWA Bank Sathi.
We walk together
A resident of Samaspur village in Uttarakhand, Sheelaben is one if the oldest aagewans in SEWA, and one whose energy is difficult to match. She had moved to Dehradun with her husband as a young bride, and to support their family of 7, she learned stitching, estimating her measurements as she had never received a primary education. She joined SEWA in 2012, and became an aagewan soon after.
Love thy neighbour
Batulben from Sanjay Nagar Basti in Rajasthan had attended school until the 8th grade. To support her family financially, Batulben had joined SEWA for training in Lac craft and stitching, and soon became a trainer for these skills. She was also determined to complete her education and with the support of her family, was pursuing her 10th grade studies from an open school.