Newstrack pays tribute to founder of SEWA, Anasuya Sarabhai
Newstrack pays tribute to founder of SEWA, Anasuya Sarabhai
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On Saturday, Google paid tribute to Anasuya Sarabhai with a doodle on her 132nd birth anniversary. Sarabhai’s name will remain engraved in timeless history for campaigner the women’s labor movement in India. She also established the Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association (Majoor Mahajan Sangh), India’s the oldest union of textile personnel, in 1920.

 Popularly well-Known as ‘Motaben’, in Gujarati use for ‘elder sister’, she was born in 1885 into the well-off Sarabhai family of Ahmedabad. though, Anasuya lost her parents when she was only nine years old and was married at a tender age of 13 forcefully by her uncle. She took divorce from her husband and came back to her own family.

George Bernard Shaw and  Anasuya

In 1912, ‘Motaben’ Anasuya left for England to keep on her studies During this time she came in contact with Fabianists like George Bernard Shaw and Sydney Webb, who discarded the revolutionary set of guidelines of Marxism, recommending instead a steady change to a communist society. From here Anasuya’s fight started to serve the cause of social equality and the next year she came back to India and started working with the trivial and non-empowered communities.

She began by opening a school for poor students of all castes and creches and toilets for women. The seeds of her thrust into the labor movement were sown during an unpleasant incident that is best expressed by her own words. “One morning, I was sitting outside in the compound combing out the children’s hair when I saw a group of 15 workers passing by as if in a trance. I called out to them, even though I did not know them well, and asked them, “What’s the matter? Why do you look so listless?’

They told, “Ban, we have just ended 36 straight hours of work. We have worked for two nights and a day without a break, and now we are on our way home.” These words filled me with dismay. This was no different than the kind of slave women faced!”

Anasuya wanted to make upheaval in this situation. When epidemic smacked Ahmedabad in 1914, the condition of the mill workers got worsted further and they approached Anasuya to take up their cause. She gave a challenge to the mill owners and even went in opposition to her brother, Ambalal, who was the then-president of the Mill Owners’ Association, demanding better wages and working ambiance for the laborers. Her endeavor was thriving and the trade union movement in India moved with baby steps.

She was propped up in her work by Mahatma Gandhi and in 1918; Anasuya directed mill owners to agree to the demand of Ahmedabad weavers for a 35% wage hike. Tens of thousands of workers took a part in the protest, laying the foundation for Gujarat’s oldest labor union, Majoor Mahajan Sangh (Ahmedabad Textile Labour Association or TLA), that was established on February 25, 1920. However, Anasuya ensued that the relationship between the mill owners and the union always remained pleasant-sounding and any differences were squeezed in the sprout.

 It was in the 1950s that Ela Bhatt came in contact with Motaben and she became one of her closest supporters and their thick relationship became the backbone of the development of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA) in 1972. though, only months later Anasuya met with angles.

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