Welcome to SEWA ni Awaaz (Voices of SEWA) — a journey into the stories of resilience, transformation, and collective leadership at the heart of the Indian informal economy. This series celebrates the extraordinary women leaders who have emerged from their communities, now leading their collectives and cooperatives while empowering more informal women workers around them. In this very first episode, we hear from Yasminben, State Health Coordinator of the Lok Swasthya SEWA Trust (SEWA Health) in Gujarat. She shares her journey of being nurtured into leadership, the importance of creating enabling environments for young grassroots women to emerge as leaders in their collectives, and her vision for the future of women employed in the informal economy. She also speaks about how Lok Swasthya SEWA Trust is entering new domains to cater to the needs of informal women workers for example, health passports built on the Algorand Blockchain. These can help maintain records of essential documents needed by informal women workers to access social security benefits. Stay tuned as we dive into Yasminben's transformative journey.

The recent global health crises, the impending climate crises, global economic instability and recession, highlights the loopholes in our existing understanding of the economy and the current development paradigm. Yet, what is the alternative? On April 18, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development”. Simel Esim, a political - economist who Heads the Cooperatives Unit at the International Labour Organisation, better explains the SSE, role of the ILO and why it is the best alternative.

Welcome to Episode 11 of "In Solidarity" with Dr. Padmini Ray Murray. Dr. Padmini comes from a background in design and technology, with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is the founder of Design Beku, a feminist collective dedicated to making approaches to design and technology more locally rooted, contextual and ethical.

In this episode, we delve into the barriers to digital inclusion, especially for the marginalized sections like women and people with disabilities. We explore how access and ownership—or the lack thereof—pose significant challenges, not just in terms of owning a smartphone but also in how technology itself is designed. As we navigate a world where even social protection programs like Aadhar are digitally delivered, the urgency of making technology more inclusive through diverse design solutions cannot be overstated. Join us as we unpack these critical issues and discuss ways to create more inclusive tech solutions with Dr. Padmini.

Welcome to episode 10 of In Solidarity. Today, we are joined by Bhanupriya Rao, the founder and editor of BehanBox, an independent digital media startup for gender journalism established in 2019. With 13 years of experience in journalism, advocacy, research, and campaigns across Asia, Africa, and Europe, Bhanupriya has also worked as a governance and public policy specialist with organisations like ActionAid, Oxfam, and the World Wide Web Foundation. Before founding BehanBox, she reported on gender issues, women’s political participation, agrarian distress, migration, and climate change for leading digital publications such as IndiaSpend and Scroll.

In this episode, set against the backdrop of the country's elections, we explore how platforms like BehanBox act as inclusive media spaces and amplify female participation in national issues by mainstreaming gender journalism. We look at how journalistic pieces become powerful tools for change, acting as levellers for women by breaking down structural barriers and standing strong with their aspirations. This episode also offers valuable insights and guidance for our young listeners interested in pursuing careers in this vital field.

In this episode of In Solidarity, we're joined by Nalini Nayak, a SEWA leader from Kerala, India. With over three decades of experience organising informal women workers, Nalini Ben's journey and vision highlights SEWA’s commitment to creating empowering platforms. She has played a pivotal role in the fish workers movement in Kerala, in organising domestic and migrant workers and expanding SEWA's reach across India. Trained in social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Nalini Ben has collaborated with organisations like Protsahan Trivandrum, Mitraniketan Vagamon, and the Self-employed Women's Association - SEWA.

On this special episode marking International Women's Day, we talk to Nalini ben about her experiences building these movements of informal women workers. She talks to us about valuing care, work, women and their role in resource conservation and climate change and what we need from a macro policy environment to help support these collectives and communities.

Recent data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey, reveals a concerning trend. Despite some improvements in recent years, India's female labour force participation rate continues to remain alarmingly low. Why aren’t women participating in paid work? Or are we not counting them adequately?

To guide us through this exploration, we are honored to have with us today Dr. Ashwini Deshpande, a distinguished Professor of Economics and the Founding Director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis at Ashoka University, India. Through our podcast/conversation today, we aim to unravel the reasons behind the persistently low female labour participation rates, understand the root causes and explore a paradigm shift in how we perceive women’s work.

With the internet usage and penetration breaking all records across the globe, the hope to bridge existing gender inequalities in India, that pushes women further to the margins of society, brightens. To tell us more about how the idea for women’s internet emerged, its challenges, about how we can take digitization to women in the informal economy, we have with us on this episode, Shaili Chopra, journalist turned entrepreneur; founder of SheThePeople.TV.

It is not a secret that women, especially in the informal economy, in both rural and urban India are working all the time. Then what does falling labour force participation mean? To better explain the gaps in data for women working in the informal economy, to give us an idea of what story the numbers are failing to tell, and what we can do together to represent women’s work better, we spoke to Rukmini S, an independent data journalist and the author of Whole Numbers and Half Truths : What Data Can and Cannot Tell us About Modern India.