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Illustrating the wide range of self-employed
women SEWA represents, Bhatt describes the working conditions of sellers
of flower-stringers, kites, dried fish, and leather bangles, as well
as those of construction workers and carpenters, scrap metal workers,
merchants of bamboo baskets, incense sticks, garment stitchery, cigarettes,
trash, vegetables, salt, gum, and decorative embroidery.
Describing the role of SEWA in many facets of self-employed women's
lives, Bhatt outlines SEWA's successes in collective bargaining; the
role of the SEWA Bank, founded in 1974 to provide service to working-class
women; and SEWA's child care, education and, literacy programs.
In passing, Bhatt describes the importance of the work of women on the nation's economy, stating that
"seventy percent of the world's work is done by women, ten percent of the world's income goes to women, and only one percent of world's assets is
owned by women."
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