In Solidarity

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the fourth episode, titled 'Exploring Informal Economy and Women's Work,' we are in conversation with Martha Chen, Padma Shree awardee and the co-founder of the WIEGO network, which works to raise the voice and visibility of the working poor.

According to a 2018 ILO study, two billion of the global employed population earn their living in the informal economy. The informal economy exists in countries at all levels of socioeconomic development. Despite witnessing rapid economic growth over the last two decades, nearly 90 percent of workers in India have remained informally employed, producing about half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While women make for only 23 percent of those employed in India's informal sector, 91 percent of Indian women in paid jobs are in the informal sector. Women in the informal economy are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to low and unstable incomes and a lack of social protection and written contracts.

Through this conversation with Martha Chen, we explore questions around informality, women's work, the power of collective voice, and ways to bring informal women workers into the formal economy.

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the third episode, titled 'Changing the lens: Making visible the invisible,' we are in conversation with Shrayana Bhattacharya, an economist trained at Delhi University and the Harvard Kennedy School. Her book, "Desperately Seeking Shah Rukh: India's Lonely Young Women and the Search for Intimacy and Independence," won the 2022 Times of India JK Paper AutHer Prize for best nonfiction author.

An ILO report from 2018 shows that, on average, women in India spent 297 minutes per day on unpaid care work as opposed to 31 minutes by men. Several studies suggest that women workers are disproportionately represented in labour force surveys because of the nature of the work they perform, which is often home-based, subcontracted, or through sources of self-employment.

Through this conversation with Shrayana, we explore questions around the invisibilisation of women's work, the importance of measuring it, pleasure, independence, and solidarity networks.

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the second episode, titled 'Changing the lens: communicating women's lives and livelihoods,' we are in conversation with P Sainath, veteran journalist and winner of the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Journalism and Founder, People's Archive of Rural India.

A report by UN Women in partnership with media watchdog Newslaundry revealed that men controlled over 80 percent of TV panel slots and 75 percent of the by-lines in the Indian mainstream media. Women in general but especially, conversations around informality and women's work are practically missing from the media, policy, and development landscape. Economic status, informality, caste, and urban versus rural add several layers to this conversation about the visibility of informal women's lives and livelihoods.

Through this conversation with Mr Sainath, we explore questions around recognising women's work and contribution to the GDP, representing women's lives and livelihoods in the mainstream media, reclaiming the internet and putting the power of the narrative back into women's hands.

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the first episode, titled 'The Great Gender Digital Divide,' we are in conversation with Anita Gurumurthy, Founding Member and Executive Director, IT for Change.

According to an article by Mitali Nikore for the Observer Research Foundation, in 2020, 25 percent of the total adult female population owned a smartphone versus 41 per cent of adult men. However, the question is not only one of access, which is no doubt important, but also a lack of digital technologies that are designed for women, especially in the informal sector. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated these inequalities. While there was a digital transformation happening in the world, with structural shifts towards e-commerce, women in the informal sector were left behind.

Through this conversation with Anita, we explore questions of women's access to technology and how we can begin to bridge the gender digital divide, opportunities that technology offers informal women workers and their collective enterprises, the platform economy and women's enterprises, and how we can reimagine technology as an equaliser.