The National Consultation on Poor Women’s Interventions in Global Trade was organized jointly by Self–Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), Department of Commerce, GoI and the World Bank for understanding the trade issues of the poor, especially women and how the various stakeholders could work in harmony to synergize the efforts of mainstreaming poor women in global trade.

The consultation was inaugurated by the Minister of State for Commerce, Honourable Jairam Ramesh Rural Development Secretary, representatives from HLL, UNCTAD India, DFID, SEWA Bharat and CSOs such as SEWA Ahmedabad, Indira Kranthi Pratham, Karim Nagar Andhra Pradesh, Lace Park, Narsapuram Andhra Pradesh.

The grass-root producers of SEWA representing their economic organisations have also remain present in the consultation.   

This initiative to upscale poor women’s capability and give a global exposure for acquiring greater market presence goes a long way to ensure creation of sustainable employment.

The honourable Minister of State for Commerce and Trade, Shri Jairam Ramesh highlighted the importance of linking Export Promotion with Employment.
The honourable Minister highlighted the fact that since 2/3rd of the total export oriented employment of our country is in the unorganized sector; the future implication is that employment in export sector will exhaust nearly 80% of the producers from unorganized sector.

Another significant fact is that if we look at any sector; be it leather, handicraft, tea, coffee etc., we find that mostly women form a greater chunk of the total employed force as compared to males.

 It is therefore implied that our government, Ministries and civil society organizations understand the contribution of women and her role in economic growth.  If India wants to achieve economic growth through export promotion, it is necessary to ensure that the poor, especially women have full and sustainable employment.
  
Therefore, the aspect of linking exports with livelihood is receiving significant consideration by the government and various Ministries and efforts and investments will be directed towards employment-led exports with specific inclusion of women from the informal sector.

He briefed on the various steps already taken by  Ministry in this direction

Ms. Reema Nanavaty, Director, Rural & Economic Development Division, SEWA, in her speech highlighted 3 important misconceptions which need to be critically considered; (i) Women (ii) Trade and (iii) Women and Trade.

All three need to be understood properly. Firstly women need to get complete recognition for their significant contribution to India’s economy as producers, consumers and now as managers and drivers of economic growth.

 Secondly, in order to reap benefits from trade the millions of small and marginal traders and businesses have to be brought in to mainstream of India’s economic development. And last but not the least; women have to be linked to trade by identifying potential economic programmes for women in trade that provide sustainable employment.   

Dr. Renuka Vishwanathan, Secretary, Ministry of Rural Development shared her concern about the various issues that poor women encounter in business and trade. She highlighted the fact that for a woman, availability of finance for trade is still one of the major problems that needs to be considered.

Apart from financial support, it is also very necessary to strengthen the marketing skills of women. She was of the opinion that in order to position poor women’s products in national and international markets, professional marketers should be involved in marketing the products and not the producer’s organizations themselves. It is a challenge to ensure professional marketing without the poor getting exploited. It is also necessary to use the existing marketing networks rather than creating new set ups in order to bring down the overhead costs.

She further suggested that she was in favour of choice as far as trade related decisions are to be taken by the poor. The poor should know what they want and make a choice given the various alternatives. These organizations should not be parasites borne on people’s income-generating projects. Therefore there is need to provide genuine support to producers and all efforts should be made in this direction.

The presentations of STFC, and by the East Godavary district have presented the Lace Park model while and Karimnagar district of Andhra Pradesh have presented their SHG federation model. is also been done. SEWA members have presented their experiences in the trade of Craft, Salt, Agricultuer, Disaster preparedness, and new skills on bicycle assembling, Rural Urban Distribution Initiatives. Model of public-private partnerships have also been presented by SEWA Gram Mahila Haat.

Market facilitation to poor women producer’s organization especially access to international markets is the bottom line for upscaling economic growth through exports. Employment oriented exports is very essential for sustaining economic development. For this direct export marketing of poor producers products is very important.

The Task force and Trade Security Fund must be formed keeping in mind the long term implications of women’s participation in trade as driving force for economic growth and development.
Linkages have to be established with private sector and civil society organizations. Such partnerships should address the needs of all the stakeholders involved, thus creating a win-win situation for high economic growth and development.