Released on: March 15, 2008, 7:19 am

Press Release Author: Deepak Gupta

Industry: Advertising

Press Release Summary: The theme of the exhibition is "Hands of Hope," and all
photographs and information presented will highlight the various facets which
constitute this central idea. The pictures will illustrate the many different forms
of labor and income-generating activities in which SEWA members are involved,
including individual and collective forms of struggle against corruption,
diminishing natural resources and economic opportunities. Women will be shown
engaged in their daily income generating activities, such as bidi rolling,
embroidery and participation in micro-credit collectives, and will also be shown
caring for their families. One section in particular will delve into SEWA members'
experiences as working homemakers, illustrating women in the midst of balancing the
double burden of their livelihood and household activities.

Press Release Body: Recently (on 15th March 2008) a photographic exhibition of Women
Workers throughout the country by photographer Sanjay Kumar was organised by NGO
\'SEWA Bharat\'. Entitled \'Hands of Hope\' the exhibition will continue till 25th March
at Mati Ghar, Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts, Janpath. The exhibition was
inaugurated by Dr. MAXINE OLSON (UN Resident Coordinator and UNDP Resident
Representative). On this occasion photographer Sanjay Kumar, his wife Seema, Rinana
Jhawala and many others were also present there.
The theme of the exhibition is "Hands of Hope," and all photographs and information
presented will highlight the various facets which constitute this central idea. The
pictures will illustrate the many different forms of labor and income-generating
activities in which SEWA members are involved, including individual and collective
forms of struggle against corruption, diminishing natural resources and economic
opportunities. Women will be shown engaged in their daily income generating
activities, such as bidi rolling, embroidery and participation in micro-credit
collectives, and will also be shown caring for their families. One section in
particular will delve into SEWA members' experiences as working homemakers,
illustrating women in the midst of balancing the double burden of their livelihood
and household activities.
The photographs are intended to document SEWA members' stories of obstacles and
successes experienced in their struggles to establish and maintain self-sufficiency,
with a special focus towards particular moments of joy and the hopes and dreams
which members have for future generations and communities. Each photograph will be
accompanied by a brief notation, highlighting the activities presented and the state
from which the subject hails. For example, in SEWA Murshidabad, where approximately
95 percent of SEWA members earn income from bidi rolling, the photographs will show
the women actively engaged in various stages of the bidi making process. In Delhi,
where SEWA members represent a multitude of trades, women will be shown engaged in
aari work (embroidery), as pheriwalas (old clothes traders) and vegetable vendors
working in the markets. Similarly, the lives of embroidery workers, salt workers,
construction workers, and tobacco workers from Gujarat; forest workers, street
vendors, and bidi workers from Madhya Pradesh; service providers, such as nursing
assistants and canteen workers from Kerala; and silk weavers and agarbatti (incense
stick) rollers from Bihar will all be captured through photography and exhibited.
Short excerpts from the women's life stories, gathered through personal interviews,
may also be included to further contextualize the images.
The intention is to highlight the various trades in which women engage in order to
support their families, especially those trades associated with specific geographic
regions, and to honor these demonstrations of women's empowerment. Through this
exhibition, the audience (members and non-members of SEWA) will have been presented
a real-life illustration of the lives of SEWA members from around the country,
reinforcing SEWA's philosophy of solidarity and collective struggle for
self-sufficiency. SEWA, being the largest Trade Union of women workers in the
informal sector with more than one million members, will represent the story of
thousands of women workers throughout the country. SEWA members represented in the
exhibition will be from all nine of SEWA Bharat's member organization states:
Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Delhi, Kerala, Rajasthan, West
Bengal, and Uttarakhand.
About Sanjay Kumar:
"Hands of Hope" is a project conceived and photographed by Sanjay Kumar, Coordinator
of SEWA Bharat on behalf of the organization. Sanjay has been involved with the SEWA
movement for nearly nine years, and is currently completing his doctoral theses on
"Micro Finance Interventions among Women Workers: A Comparative Study of SEWA in
India and BRAC in Bangladesh" from Jawaharlal Nehru University. He started his
career with SEWA by organizing women vendors in Delhi and forming SHGs. He has been
involved with all type of activities both at the grassroots and policy level. Taking
advantage of his vast experience with the informal sector workers and his passion
for photography, he decided to share the lives of poor women workers with the outer
world through the exhibition and proposed book.
The exhibition has been sponsored by One World Action, a London-based international
non-governmental organization (NGO) specializing in "working to create the power and
opportunity for the poorest citizens to transform their own lives," and "to change
policies that affect the poorest communities." SEWA is one of 30 global partners
working with One World Action in a campaign to promote democracy, gender equality
and access to basic services using a rights-based approach. Photography from this
exhibition and other field work will be featured in an upcoming book, published
under the same title, also sponsored by One World Action.
About SEWA Movement:
The Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) was founded in 1972 as a trade union of
self-employed women by Smt. Elaben Bhatt. Apart from other felicitation and awards
both national and international, Smt. Elaben Bhatt was selected as one of India's
most powerful women in the business community in the October 7, 2007 issue of
Business Today. SEWA was also named as one of the '55 things that make India proud'
by India Today in 2002. SEWA grew out of the Women's Wing of the Textile Labour
Association (TLA) in Gujarat, which is India's oldest and largest union of textile
workers. SEWA is a confluence of the labour, cooperative and women's movements.
SEWA was born out of the labour movement with the idea that like salaried employees,
the self-employed too have a right to fair wages, decent working conditions and
protective labour laws. The cooperative movement is important to develop alternative
economic systems where the workers themselves control their means of production. In
the 1970's, the women's movement took a radical turn with women participating
actively in social movements and demanding capability of opportunity in all spheres
of life.
The SEWA movement has inspired the growth of many organizations of different types
all over the country. SEWA is a trade union registered under the Trade Union Act
with a membership of nearly 10 lakh, and is now a recognized Central Trade Union.
Additionally, several trade cooperatives for banking, pottery, milk production,
weaving, etc. are registered separately under the Cooperative Act and have their own
elected Managing Committee. SEWA Bharat, registered under the Bombay Trusts Act, is
a federation of all the SEWAs. Thus the SEWA family consists of autonomous
organizations, acting independently but linked with a common ideology and common
purpose.
About SEWA Bharat:
The SEWA movement for empowerment of women has expanded strongly over the past 30
years. Rapid progress made by SEWA in organizing women created a demand for similar
organizations in other states. SEWA Bharat, the All-India Federation of the
Self-Employed Women's Association, was set up in 1982 in response to this demand to
facilitate the formation of new member organizations and promote their growth and
development. SEWA Bharat is a federation of SEWA members with the mandate to
highlight issues concerning women in the informal sector, and to strengthen the
capacity of the organization to serve the interest of these women.


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