SEWA MICROFINANCE

Women workers in Delhi’s informal economy contribute to roughly 80% of the capital’s growth. But while the city’s development rides on the back of women workers, poor women themselves struggle to rise out of economic deprivation. Women are unable to break out of poverty because they lack access to fair capital, appropriate financial services, and economic opportunities.

Since 1999, SEWA Delhi microfinance program has enabled women to be financially included and independent. The aim is to ensure that members have access to savings and loans, particularly for working capital, and are prevented from exploitation by moneylenders. In 2007, SEWA Delhi opened the Mahila SEWA Urban Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society – a financial institution run by poor women, for poor women.

SEWA Delhi has been a platform for poor women to establish an independently registered women’s run and tailored financial institution called the Mahila SEWA Urban Cooperative Thrift and Credit Society in 2007. This self-managed cooperative provides women with and saving schemes and access to large amounts of credit. As women have ownership over the organization, all the financial services are dynamic and needs based to suit women workers of the informal economy.