ABSTRACT
The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was born in 1972 as a trade union of self-employed women. It grew out of the Textile Labour Association (TLA), India’s oldest and largest union of textile workers founded in 1920 by a woman, Anasuya Sarabhai. The inspiration for the union came from Mahatma Gandhi, who led a successful strike of textile workers in 1917. He believed in creating positive organised strength by awakening workers’ consciousness. By developing unity as well as personality, a worker should be able to hold his or her own against tyranny from employers or the state. To develop this strength, he believed that a union should cover all aspects of workers’ lives, both in the factory and at home.
