THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Offering solace to the thousands of women in the unorganised sector whose livelihood has been affected by the pandemic, SEWA — Self-Employed Women’s Association- has launched Shop-SEWA Livelihood to generate employment opportunities for them. Under the initiative, handmade bamboo and paper products along with unique traditional snacks by the members of SEWA will be promoted and sold through the Shop-SEWA Livelihood outlets.
Recently, a live snack counter was set up at the newly opened outlet at Uppalam Road in the capital. The outlet was setup at a cost of `3 lakh. According to Sonia George, SEWA Union secretary, the SMSS (Swashreya Mahila Sewa Sangam), a wing of SEWA Union, has an outlet in the TRIDA complex at Medical College which will be re-branded and re-launched next week as the second outlet of Shop- Sewa Livelihood.
The new outlets will sell unique food products and snacks made of jackfruit flour, among others. “We believe offering unique food and snacks will popularise the new brand. For example, we have set up a live jalebi counter at the Uppalam Road outlet. Around 20 to 25 members who are part of SEWA are directly involved with the new outlet. The other outlets will soon be re-branded in a similar manner,” she said.
SEWA is also planning to provide skill development training to the women under the initiative which will soon be launched across the state. “We have around 50,000 members under SEWA Union, a majority of whom are unemployed now. Domestic workers have been the worst hit as people are not willing to employ them fearing Covid-19,” said Sonia.
Nearly 200 SEWA members are presently engaged in manufacturing paper and reed bamboo products including diaries, pens etc. The shops are open from 11am to 7pm every day.