Communication is a very important aspect of poor, self employed women’s lives and struggles. These women communicate in their own way and with various groups in society. Over the years, SEWA has found that communication, the transfer of information, plays a very crucial role in the lives of poor women workers. Thus there is a great need for communication, between groups of self employed women, and between them and the public, policy planners and other government officials.

The print and electronic mediums are utilized to satisfy this need of communication. The different print mediums of communication are Anasooya, Akashganga, E-newsletter, and electronic mediums of communication are Video SEWA and Rudi no Radio.

Anasooya

Anasooya was started in 1982 as a forum to present experiences, ideas and work of informal sector women workers. It is a fortnightly newsletter for SEWA members published in Gujarati. Anasooya serves as a link between SEWA members and other self employed workers across various geographical, social and cultural boundaries. The reality of self employed women workers are published in this newsletter and the issues of the women are taken to the macro level.

For further details please visit www.anasooya.org

Akashganga

Akashganga, SEWA members’ daughter's magazine, was initiated in 1996. Since it is published monthly, in Gujarati, to ensure holistic development of the adolescent girls. The magazine publishes information on health, puzzles, poems, history, science, stories and quizzes. The girls contribute their own stories, poems and other information in the magazine.

E-Newsletter

SEWA launched its electronic newsletter titled, ‘We, the Self Employed’, in January 2005. The E-Newsletter was initiated with the objective to reach out to the friends, donors, organizers nationally and internationally and provide information about SEWA’s activities. The monthly newsletter in English is an attempt to give voice to the women of the informal economy, which provides information on their struggles and development.

For further details please visit We, the Self Employed

Video SEWA

Since inception in 1984, Video SEWA has been working towards bringing technology in hands of common people and using video as a tool for development communication. Video SEWA has produced countless tapes and more than a hundred programmes on organizing, training and advocacy. These tapes reach villagers and slum dwellers in Gujarat as well as policy makers in Delhi and Washington. Gradually, video has become an integral part of SEWA’s activities. For women workers and the members of SEWA, Video SEWA is a source of information as well as inspiration. Video SEWA was registered as a cooperative ‘Shri Gujarat Mahila Video Sewa Mahiti Communication Sahakari Mandali Limited’ in 2000.

For further details please visit www.videosewa.org

Radio SEWA

SEWA has observed that many of its members avidly listen to the radio while they work, be it bidi rolling, incense stick making, stitching or weaving. The combination of low cost and wide reach, makes - radio - an ideal medium of communication in developing countries. While the print medium requires literacy skills, the electronic medium requires computer skills, and the video/television medium requires a television, which is quite expensive, SEWA Radio's research has shown that the medium of radio is an untapped source of education and communication to even the remotest of villages in India.

Rudi no Radio

In April 2005, SEWA began its first community radio programme, entitled Rudi no Radio (Rudi’s Radio), a weekly 15-minute programme produced and broadcast by employees of SEWA for a rural audience. In each episode, Rudiben is informally sitting and talking with local members of her village about things that affect them as women and as labourers. The programme is symbolically named after our first member of SEWA who worked to spread our association’s wings to rural areas. In that spirit, the program extends to the Ahmedabad-Vadodara area on All India Radio-Ahmedabad (AIR-Ahm.) airwaves, and gauging from listener response, we estimate that 500,000 listeners are tuning in weekly for the show.

For further details please visit www.radiosewa.org