Registration Details

Indian Academy for Self Employed Women NGO Organization Members

Indian Academy for Self Employed Women Source Funds

Contact details

Indian Academy for Self Employed Women Key Issues and Operational Areas, Major Activiities & Achivements

Operational Districts: Ahmadabad, Anand , Banas Kantha, Gandhinagar, Kachchh, Kheda, Mahesana, Patan , Sabar Kantha, Surat, Surendranagar, Vadodara, Tapi

Operational States: GUJARAT

AchieveMents: The Indian Academy for Self Employed Women (IASEW) or SEWA Academy is a sister organisation of SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) based in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, India. Initiated by SEWA as an activity in 1991, IASEW got registered as an autonomous charity trust in 2005 and has been since trying to make itself sustainable. IASEW is the focal point for all of training, capacity-building, research and communication efforts. IASEW functions as our members’ “university”, introducing the poor informal sector women to formal learning environment. IASEW primary objective is to take the poor informal sector women’s movement forward. It does this in four ways - through training and capacity-building, action-oriented research focusing on poor women members, and by building strong communication channels, within the organization as well as with the outside world. 1. Training; IASEW’s trainings are driven by the core belief that everyone has potential and ability. The training programmes are a collective approach to overall development of women and the capacity- building programmes cut across all the requirements. The programmes help to develop women’s self-esteem, confidence and leadership skills. The expertise from SEWA’s sister organizations, which are autonomous but integrated, enriches the training programmes and vice versa. 2. Research; IASEW has been involved in research related work since the inception of SEWA in 1972. Thus, IASEW’s Research division was setup in the year 1991. The research conducted at IASEW always had its focus on the poor self employed, on their present living conditions, challenges and struggles. Ours is an action-oriented approach to make an impact at the policy level. 3. Literacy; The women participating in trainings provided by IASEW were both literate and illiterate, from different areas of city and villages. The illiterate women said: ‘We would like to study’! The enthusiasm led to the initiation of Literacy Classes in 1992. The members sought education, which was easy to understand and which would help them in life. Mobile Van: The Mobile Van was started on 3 October 2009. Equipped with video, CDs on issues related to poor informal sector, and Megaphone, the Mobile Van visits the people in their neighbourhoods and arranges replays of video and radio. Library: Libraries have been set up in working class areas. This was initiated from February 2003. Akashganga Club: Akashganga is a magazine for young girls, initiated by IASEW. The variety of activities undertaken by the club are story-telling, hygiene education, adolescent fairs, stage shows, sports day and cultural programmes, festival related programmes, fancy dress competition, exposure trips to science city, and Gandhi ashram. Cultural Programmes: Cultural programmes are organized to present the talent of community women and girls. 4. Communication; Communication plays a very crucial role in the lives of poor women workers. There is a great need for communication, between self employed women, and between them and the public, policy planners, and other government officials. The different print media of communication are Anasooya, Akashganga, E-newsletter, and electronic media of communication are Video SEWA and Rudi no Radio.