ICT for Poverty Reduction

1. ICT for Poverty Reduction SEWA Washington DC June 28, 2002

2. Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) is a Member-based Organisation of Poor informal sector women workers. It is a confluence of three movements - Labor, Co-op and Women’s movement. SEWA

3. SEWA • Rural Initiative started in 1989 and now 2/3 of SEWA’s membership is rural • Family of organisations include a cooperative bank, academy, video cooperative, district federations, associations, schooling service, design library and more. Delhi 252 Uttar Pradesh 25,800 Bihar 1,600 Madhya Pradesh 107,620 Gujarat 284,317 Total 420,308 Year 2002 Kerala 719

4. Bare Facts Importance of the Informal Sector • 93 Percent of India’s workforce comes from the informal sector • 60 percent of the informal sector workforce comprises of women • 40 percent of India's exports emanate from the informal sector • Upto 70% of India’s National Income is contributed by the Informal Sector

5. SEWA’s USP • SEWA has worked with thousands of women members to come out of poverty over the last three decades. • SEWA works under the financial discipline of viability and leverage public and strategic amount of donor funds with the labour, skills, enterprise and cash savings of poor informal sector women members.

6. SEWA and ICT SEWA’s 180 000 members live in rural disaster prone areas--SEWA’s primary goal is to promote local income generating opportunities to reduce vulnerability.

7. ICT to the Grassroots • ICT enables rural women to enhance efficiency in daily work • Increase productivity because of proper access to information and streamlining production systems • Creating Alternate Employment Opportunities The member does not remain a worker or producer but becomes the owner & manager

8. How ICT will help in providing Sustainable livelihood Security • ICT Training- first step towards empowerment • Training related to their skill-base • Software development taking Community Based Approach and economic activity • Training which leads them to greater efficiency and greater productivity • Software development and training in local language • Imparting training to the members as well as to their children and youth • As a model in increasing literacy, SEWA initiated ‘JEEVANSHALA’ life education, which looks after imparting education but related to their skill-base

9. ICT and Disaster Management • Prompt relief & rehabilitation • The Communication Centres were set up which comprised of email and internet connections, satellite phones and VSAT equipments. • SEWA used SatComm mode for interactive talk-back sessions for planning with the communities.

10. Computerised Milk Cooperative As a Pilot, SEWA developed a customized dairy management software for a rural milk co-op, which has saved money and time in testing the consistency of milk and eliminating fraud. Garbar MachineComputerized Milk Co-op

11. Customized Software • SEWA has already taken a lead in developing & installing customised software for MF Mgmt in 2 of its 11 districts. • Pilot project in rural ME Mgmt: developing customized software for Embroidery activity at the village level. • SEWA will then develop software for various micro enterprises, e.g. Agriculture, incense, gum, salt etc.

12. What is SatCom? • Satellite Communication Network consists of 3 major elements 1) Teaching end 2) Spacecraft 3) Receiving end. • Television signals has to be sent to geo-stationery communication satellite by means of ‘uplink’ earth station located at the teaching end. • The spacecraft receives, amplifies and re-transmits the signals and this studio is linked to the uplink earth station. • Even the talk back session are organized via SatCom

13. SatCom • It has a main relay centre in Gandhinagar and receiving terminals in all 11 districts. • SEWA has started using audio-visual medium in connecting with its rural members, these programs are participatory and interactive

14. SatCom Programmes Through SatCom SEWA provides training programs like – 1) Disaster Management 2) Organizing 3) Leadership Building 4) Forestry 5) Water conservation 6) Health and Education 7) Child Development

15. High cost of travelling between the district associations and Ahmedabad for meetings, mentor guidance, training programmes and capacity building. Loss in person-hours, especially when travelling between the two distances. Limited outreach of the programme because less participants take part due to the long distances (especially members). Drop in output and efficiency levels of the key development programmes due to inefficient management and monitoring. Networking SEWA: Achieving Rural Connectivity Issues:

16. Networking SEWA: Achieving Rural Connectivity Building on the SatCom Initiative and Success • Training and capacity building - substantial increase in participation & outreach • Mentor and expert guidance • Long distance meetings & brainstorming • Substantial cuts in travel costs • Transfer of complex and heavy data and information • Substantial increase in efficiency, efficacy and output of the various projects due to timely interventions and monitoring • Effective and timely disaster management in disaster prone areas

17. Thank You