This book is a first-hand account of the vision, rise, and success of SEWA, the Self-Employed Women's Association, a trade union of self-employed women in India. It takes the reader into an up-close look at these women's daily lives, at the forces that overpower them, the conditions that perpetuate their poverty, the battles they fight, the attitudes they face and the working and living conditions of both rural and urban working women. It highlights the role that trade cooperatives play in economic development and shows the impact of the larger economy on the lives of the women.
Readership: Primary: academic economists, graduate students, policymakers in international financial institutions, national governments, central banks and regulatory bodies desiring to keep up to date with the latest academic developments, financial practitioners and risk managers wishing to review the empirical studies, as well as general readers associating financial contagion with global financial instability and the dbate on globalization. Secondary: PhD students, financial econometrics, MA students, international financial markets, international economics and public policy; advanced undergraduate modules in international finance and econometrics, women's studies, labour studies, international political economy.
"...an indispensable document for all policy-makers who have anything to do with India in particular and developing countries in general..." - Economic and Political Weekly
"...a poignant but a powerful first-person account of the Self-Employed Womens Association (SEWA)it brings out the multifaceted nature of the problem: being poor, a woman and self-employed." - The Hindu
