Reality and Analysis: Personal and Technical Reflections on the Working Lives of Six Women

Abstract

A group of development analysts – researchers, activists, and practitioners - engaged in an unusual exercise in early 2004. They had a dialogue about labor market, trade and poverty issues, but they preceded the dialogue with exposure to the realities of the lives of six remarkable women in Gujarat: Dohiben, Kalavatiben, Kamlaben, Kesarben, Leelaben and Ushaben. These women are all members of SEWA (the Self- Employed Women’s Association) of India. Their struggles provided the frame for the technical dialogue that followed. This is a Compendium of personal and technical reflections of the analysts involved in the exercise.