인도의 SEWA(Self-Employed Women's Association)는 빈곤여성을 노동자로서 조
직하고 이들이 겪는 보육, 가난, 보험, 건강, 신용 등의 문제를 해결하고 이들
을 주체로 인정시키기 위해 지난 1972년부터 활동해온 노동조합입니다.
아래는 빈곤문제에 대한 SEWA의 대응전략입니다. 주내용은 위
와 같은데요... 빈곤이라는 현상이 아니라 가난한 사람들의 삶을 보아야 하고
이런 면에서 '노동자'로서 가난한 사람들을 주체로 세워내는 것이 필요하다는
내용입니다. '경제력-신용', '기술력'. '사회적 보호', '단결권/단체교섭권'
등을 복합적으로 키워내는 것이 핵심전략이라고 이야기하고 있습니다.
곧 원문을 번역하여 다시 올리도록 하겠습니다.
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SEWA’s APPROACH TO
POVERTY REMOVAL
- Ela R.
Bhatt, Founder
Self
Employed Women's Association, Ahmedabad
Approaches to Poverty Removal
There is a great deal of discussion
in both academic literature as well as among program implementators as
to how to identify the poor, and hence how to reach them. Poverty was
initially defined as an income concept, but in recent years it is also
being seen as a vulnerability concept. Using the income concept, poverty
removal is seen as happening through raising incomes; while for the
vulnerability concept, poverty removal is seen as a process of removing
vulnerability, both economic and social. Both approaches are valuable
and meaningful. The income approach tends to lead more to ‘income-
generation’ programs, while the vulnerability approach leads to more
social programs such as education and health provision.
In SEWA’s years of working at the
grass roots as well as with policy makers at all levels, we find that
both poverty and poverty removal need a combination of both approaches,
but with a deeper understanding of where the poor are placed within the
structures of society. Poverty is connected to both the economic
structures and social structures within which the poor find themselves,
and to remove poverty those structures do have to be addressed.
SEWA’s approach to addressing these
structural issues has been to focus on what the poor need to address the
structures and situations in which they find themselves. These needs
have been identified, not through an academic exercise, but in the
struggle to remove poverty. As a labour union, our method of working has
been to address problems as they are brought to us by our members and in
that process to deal with new problems and issues as they arise. In this
process we find out what are the real barriers the poor face and what
they need to overcome them.
As a labour union our underlying
approach is to see the poor as workers and producers, rather than just
as income-deprived or vulnerable people. The first structural issue is
their place in the economy. Where do they fit into the economy? What is
their contribution to the economy and what do they receive from the
economy? What are the economic barriers they face? In this context we
have adopted the concept of the informal sector as the main pool of
poverty.
However, the economic structure is
closely connected with the social structure. Barriers to entry to labour
as well as product markets, for example, are closely connected with
gender, caste and class. Furthermore, social needs such as health, child-
care, education and housing are all linked to economic capabilities as
well as to the provision of social security, by markets and the State.
Thus it is the market and State structures which determine the poverty
or well being of the people.
The interrelated nature of these
structures emerges very forcefully in our daily work. In dry rural areas
for example, the provision of drinking water is closely linked to the
capability of women to enter the labour markets, so that when we try to
intervene to link the embroiderers with markets, we find that we have to
deal with the Gujarat Water Board on better drinking water schemes for
them. Similarly, while organising women workers for better wages in
tobacco processing plants, we were faced with the need for child care
for their children who otherwise had to spend their days in the midst of
tobacco heaps. Although SEWA Bank is one of the pioneers of micro-
credit, we very early discovered that without helping the small
entrepreneurs to deal with changing markets and policies, we could not
expect the loans to work towards poverty reduction.
Since the economic and social
structures are so interrelated, the solutions too have to be integrated.
This means that there is no one formula for poverty reduction, rather it
has to be an approach which addresses the various economic and social
factors which cause and perpetuate poverty. Hence SEWA’s approach has
been an integrated approach, where various inputs are needed not one
after the other but simultaneously.
What do the Poor Need
As we have seen the poor are not
merely deprived persons, but workers and producers in their own right.
They wish to earn their living, not depend on doles or outside support.
They need a continuous flow of employment through which they can earn
enough in terms of cash and kind to meet their needs. In other words
they need full employment.
However, here we would like to
qualify as to what is meant by full employment in the context of the
informal sector. In the formal sector, employment is created through the
creation of jobs by firms, and this employment is generally regular,
full time, protected employment, with a clear employer-employee
relationship. However, in the informal sector there are no ‘jobs’.
Employment is a combination of self-employment, or own-account work,
wage employment, casual work, part-time work and a variety of employment
relations. At any one time a poor person could be working at a number of
different employments. For example, a small or marginal farmer would
also work as a weaver; or an agricultural labourer would also have her
own cattle, or a construction worker would roll bidis (cigarettes) in
the nights. The type of work she does may also be seasonal. A salt
worker may be an agricultural worker during the monsoons, or a paper
picker may make kites during the kite season.
Creating employment is then no
longer a matter of creating ‘jobs’, but of strengthening these workers
and producers to overcome structural constraints and enter markets where
they would be competitive. Often these markets, which may be labour
markets, products markets or financial markets may not exist locally,
and would need to be built up or institutions created which would link
with the larger markets.
If better functioning markets are
required for reaching full employment, the role of the State is no less
important. Policies and programs of the Government determine the
institutions that control both markets and the formation of
capabilities. Policies may creat barriers to entry or they may
facilitate growth of employment. Government funds may destroy existing
work or they may enhance the poor’s capacity to earn more. In India,
although the Government has begun the process of liberalization, this
process has been reached only to the formal sector and has yet to reach
the poor who remain straitjacketed by confining policies.
Integrated Approach
What do the poor need to reach this
state of full employment?
- The poor need capital formation at the household
level through access to financial services (savings, credit, insurance)
to build up and create assets of their own (land, house, workshed,
equipment, cattle, bank balance). Asset ownership is the surest weapon
to fight the vulnerability of poverty.
- The poor need building of their capacity to stand
firm in the competitive market i.e. access to market infrastructure,
access to technology, information, education, knowledge and relevant
skills (accountancy, management, planning, designing, e.g.).
- The poor need social security - at least
healthcare, childcare, shelter and relief, - to combat the chronic risks
faced by them and their families.
- The poor need collective, organised strength
(through their associations) to be able to actively participate at
various levels in the planning, implementation and monitoring processes
of the programmes meant for them, and also in all other affairs of the
nation.
It is equally important that we
ensure that the poor imbibe all the four components simultaneously, and
in the combination that they think is viable and manageable by them. One
without the other does not yield result. One after the other also makes
no sense. This is very important. Also, the poor themselves are the
planners, users, managers and owners of the poverty alleviation
programmes meant for them.
Towards Self
Empowerment
SEWA responds to the needs of the
members, like banking, social security. SEWA tries to do that
proficiently through building, their own organisations SEWA tries to
mainstream its experiences in poverty reduction that worked and that
have not worked. Out strategy of poverty reduction is joint action of
struggle and development through their own organisations. Essentially
this whole process itself is that of self-empowerment.
