Self Employed Women's Association

About Us

Self-Employed Women¿s Association (SEWA-Lucknow) is an autonomous organisation of Chikan artisans. Impetus for setting up SEWA-Lucknow came from a UNICEF sponsored study conducted in 1979 on the condition of Chikan artisans. The study established that over 40,000 Chikan artisans working in and around Lucknow were highly exploited in the industry even as middlemen made hay. As a result, Chikan artisans lived in shanty localities and suffered from poverty; they and their offspring were illiterate; and their families had poor health.

Children were the worst sufferers as poverty paved its way for them to go through pains of malnutrition, unhygienic living conditions and illiteracy. For family¿s survival, extra earning became a need and the children became a victim of circumstances as they were dragged to work.