In Solidarity

Hosted by SEWA Cooperative Federation

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Oct 2025

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About the show

In Solidarity, a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast explores themes relevant to women’s economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. Each episode has an interview with an expert and explores themes like gender digital gap, climate change, access to finance, social solidarity economy, etc. SEWA Cooperative Federation has worked for over thirty years to economically empower women in the informal sector through women-owned cooperatives and collective enterprises and has been a critical part of the women’s movement and the cooperative movement worldwide.

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13 recent

October 10, 2025Episode 1426 min

Climate Resilience by Women Agri Collectives with Dr. Ranjitha Puskur from IRRI, CGIAR

In this episode of In Solidarity, we’re joined by Dr. Ranjitha Puskur, socio-economist and Country Representative at the International Rice Research Institute (IRRI). With over two decades of experience across CGIAR institutions, Dr. Puskur’s work bridges research, policy, and practice—all with a gender lens.Together, we explore:1. How women farmers across the Global South are adapting to climate change?2. The power of collectives and cooperatives in building climate resilience?3. What evidence tells us about gender-transformative approaches in agriculture and food systems?4. Lessons from SEWA’s grassroots cooperatives, where women balance food security, income, and ecological sustainability.Dr. Puskur also reflects on the most rewarding and challenging parts of her journey - offering insights that connect global research to local realities.Tune in to hear how women’s collectives are redefining resilience, leadership, and sustainability in agriculture.

February 13, 2025Episode 1233 min

Platform Economy - Jobs, Livelihood and Future of Work for Digital Labour with Aditi Surie

We’re excited to host Dr. Aditi Surie, a Senior Consultant at the Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) and a leading researcher on digital labour platforms, worker well-being, and livelihoods in India.At IIHS, Dr. Surie leads the academic and policy research portfolio on technology and society, focusing on how digital platforms shape work, employment, and economic opportunities, especially in the Global South. Since 2015, she has conducted extensive sectoral studies on gig and platform workers, analyzing their working conditions, risks, and experiences with platform design.Her research provides crucial insights into employment in India’s fast-growing platform economy, covering workers across delivery, ride-hailing, home services, and other digital labour platforms.Beyond research, she is actively involved in policy discussions on labour rights, digital governance, and platform regulation, collaborating with academics, policymakers, and civil society organizations.Her co-edited book, Platformization and Informality (2023), brings together scholars to develop Global South-specific frameworks for understanding the quality and regulation of platform work.In this episode, Dr. Surie takes us deep into the Platform Economy, examining how companies like Urban Company, Swiggy, Blinkit, and BluSmart generate employment and what that means for workers' rights, job security, and economic inclusion.‘In Solidarity’ is the SEWA Cooperative Federation Podcast, dedicated to unpacking critical themes around women’s economic empowerment and the challenges facing women-run enterprises.Tune in!

September 16, 2024Episode 635 min

Understanding the Social and Solidarity Economy (SSE) with Simel Esim

The recent global health crises, the impending climate crises, global economic instability and recession, highlights the loopholes in our existing understanding of the economy and the current development paradigm. Yet, what is the alternative? On April 18, 2023, the United Nations General Assembly adopted the resolution “Promoting the Social and Solidarity Economy for Sustainable Development”. Simel Esim, a political - economist who Heads the Cooperatives Unit at the International Labour Organisation, better explains the SSE, role of the ILO and why it is the best alternative.

September 4, 2024Episode 1137 min

Design, Inclusivity and Empowerment with Dr Padmini Ray Murray

Welcome to Episode 11 of "In Solidarity" with Dr. Padmini Ray Murray. Dr. Padmini comes from a background in design and technology, with a PhD from the University of Edinburgh. She is the founder of Design Beku, a feminist collective dedicated to making approaches to design and technology more locally rooted, contextual and ethical.In this episode, we delve into the barriers to digital inclusion, especially for the marginalized sections like women and people with disabilities. We explore how access and ownership—or the lack thereof—pose significant challenges, not just in terms of owning a smartphone but also in how technology itself is designed. As we navigate a world where even social protection programs like Aadhar are digitally delivered, the urgency of making technology more inclusive through diverse design solutions cannot be overstated. Join us as we unpack these critical issues and discuss ways to create more inclusive tech solutions with Dr. Padmini.

May 29, 2024Episode 1041 min

Empowering Women Through Inclusive Media with Bhanupriya Rao

Welcome to episode 10 ofIn Solidarity. Today, we are joined by Bhanupriya Rao, the founder and editor of BehanBox, an independent digital media startup for gender journalism established in 2019. With 13 years of experience in journalism, advocacy, research, and campaigns across Asia, Africa, and Europe, Bhanupriya has also worked as a governance and public policy specialist with organisations like ActionAid, Oxfam, and the World Wide Web Foundation. Before founding BehanBox, she reported on gender issues, women’s political participation, agrarian distress, migration, and climate change for leading digital publications such as IndiaSpend and Scroll.In this episode, set against the backdrop of the country's elections, we explore how platforms like BehanBox act as inclusive media spaces and amplify female participation in national issues by mainstreaming gender journalism. We look at how journalistic pieces become powerful tools for change, acting as levellers for women by breaking down structural barriers and standing strong with their aspirations. This episode also offers valuable insights and guidance for our young listeners interested in pursuing careers in this vital field.

March 8, 2024Episode 937 min

SEWA and Beyond: Insights on Care, Work and Climate Change with Nalini Nayak

In this episode of In Solidarity, we're joined by Nalini Nayak, a SEWA leader from Kerala, India. With over three decades of experience organising informal women workers, Nalini Ben's journey and vision highlights SEWA’s commitment to creating empowering platforms. She has played a pivotal role in the fish workers movement in Kerala, in organising domestic and migrant workers and expanding SEWA's reach across India. Trained in social work at the Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Nalini Ben has collaborated with organisations like Protsahan Trivandrum, Mitraniketan Vagamon, and the Self-employed Women's Association - SEWA.On this special episode marking International Women's Day, we talk to Nalini ben about her experiences building these movements of informal women workers. She talks to us about valuing care, work, women and their role in resource conservation and climate change and what we need from a macro policy environment to help support these collectives and communities.

February 2, 202432 min

From Statistics to Solutions: Rethinking Female Labour Participation in India with Dr. Ashwini Deshpande

Recent data from the Periodic Labour Force Survey, reveals a concerning trend. Despite some improvements in recent years, India's female labour force participation rate continues to remain alarmingly low. Why aren’t women participating in paid work? Or are we not counting them adequately? To guide us through this exploration, we are honored to have with us today Dr. Ashwini Deshpande, a distinguished Professor of Economics and the Founding Director of the Centre for Economic Data and Analysis at Ashoka University, India. Through our podcast/conversation today, we aim to unravel the reasons behind the persistently low female labour participation rates, understand the root causes and explore a paradigm shift in how we perceive women’s work.

September 4, 2023Episode 739 min

Creating the Women's Internet with Shalini Chopra

With the internet usage and penetration breaking all records across the globe, the hope to bridge existinggender inequalities in India, that pushes women further to the margins ofsociety, brightens. To tell us more about how the idea for women’s internet emerged, its challenges, about how we can take digitization to women in the informal economy, we have with us on this episode, Shaili Chopra, journalist turned entrepreneur; founder of SheThePeople.TV.

June 1, 2023Episode 537 min

What Does Data Tell Us About Women's Work in India with Rukmini S.

It is not a secret that women, especially in the informal economy, in both rural and urban India are working all the time. Then what does falling labour force participation mean? To better explain the gaps in data for women working in the informal economy, to give us an idea of what story the numbers are failing to tell, and what we can do together to represent women’s work better, we spoke to Rukmini S, an independent data journalist and the author ofWhole Numbers and Half Truths : What Data Can and Cannot Tell us About Modern India.

March 13, 2023Episode 442 min

Exploring Informal Economy and Women's Work with Martha Chen

'In Solidarity' is a SEWA Cooperative Federation podcast that explores themes relevant to women's economic empowerment and challenges that women-owned, women-run enterprises face. In the fourth episode, titled 'Exploring Informal Economy and Women's Work,' we are in conversation with Martha Chen, Padma Shree awardee and the co-founder of the WIEGO network, which works to raise the voice and visibility of the working poor.According to a 2018 ILO study, two billion of the global employed population earn their living in the informal economy. The informal economy exists in countries at all levels of socioeconomic development. Despite witnessing rapid economic growth over the last two decades, nearly 90 percent of workers in India have remained informally employed, producing about half of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP). While women make for only 23 percent of those employed in India's informal sector, 91 percent of Indian women in paid jobs are in the informal sector. Women in the informal economy are particularly vulnerable to abuse and exploitation due to low and unstable incomes and a lack of social protection and written contracts.Through this conversation with Martha Chen, we explore questions around informality, women's work, the power of collective voice, and ways to bring informal women workers into the formal economy.