Speaker 1: Hi, This is Milan Vervier and this is Kim Azarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose. And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you
Speaker 1: by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: During a trip to India in Hillary Rodham Clinton met
Speaker 1: members of the Self Employed Women's Association, an organization known
Speaker 1: as SEA As she heard success stories from some of
Speaker 1: the country's poorest women, she learned how these women were
Speaker 1: able to change their lives with just a small loan
Speaker 1: and a basic business education. Hillary and the executive director
Speaker 1: of SEWA, Rima Nanavati, joined Milan at the Seneca Women
Speaker 1: Forum at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Here, how say
Speaker 1: what is helping women achieve economic independence, Why implementing simple
Speaker 1: organizational practices are the key to a successful business, and
Speaker 1: how technology is opening unexpected doors to opportunity for these women.
Speaker 1: Enjoy the conversation and stick around after from my top takeaways,
Speaker 1: we'll be back after this break. Well, we're very side
Speaker 1: it and you're going to hear some very wonderful things
Speaker 1: about a great organization and somebody who knows it well,
Speaker 1: So the woman to my right needs no introduction, clearly.
Speaker 1: But since we're celebrating women's leadership and we're hearkening back
Speaker 1: to the Equal Rights Convention at Seneca Falls, I just
Speaker 1: want to review very quickly. First, lady went to the
Speaker 1: Beijing Women's Conference you and world conference Women's Rights are
Speaker 1: Human Rights, sparked a global movement, moved moved on to
Speaker 1: the Senate from New York. First woman elected to the
Speaker 1: Senate in New York, and then to the State Department
Speaker 1: as Secretary of State, highly respected. And then our major
Speaker 1: political party nominated her as the first woman ever nominated
Speaker 1: to the trouble and should I add she did get
Speaker 1: the popular vote, but she just accused me of being
Speaker 1: a troublemaker. Uh. But you know all that. But what
Speaker 1: you may not know is how many women's organizations at
Speaker 1: home and around the world she has lifted up and
Speaker 1: given voice to and validated. Uh. And that's why we're
Speaker 1: here to talk about the work of say we the
Speaker 1: Self Employed Women's Association, And you just saw this opening
Speaker 1: video and I want to Rima Nanavati is the head
Speaker 1: of SEWA. She truly has provided freedom to millions of
Speaker 1: poor women in India through economic empowerment. And to her
Speaker 1: right is one of the members of SEWA who you'll
Speaker 1: hear hear from later in our conversation, Gary Ramabai. And
Speaker 1: you saw her. She's a movie star. So Secretary Clinton,
Speaker 1: some twenty plus years ago you visited Saywan, I'm about India.
Speaker 1: Tell us what you remember? What what was there? You know?
Speaker 1: I have to start by um thanking Milan for her
Speaker 1: tireless work on behalf of women and girls here at
Speaker 1: home and around the w world. And she has been
Speaker 1: my uh colleague, my friend, my partner uh in all
Speaker 1: of this work now for uh seven years. One of
Speaker 1: the most thrilling meetings that I've ever had in public
Speaker 1: life is when I visited say Was headquarters in I
Speaker 1: had heard about this amazing woman, Ela bat who in
Speaker 1: nineteen seventy two started an organization for self employed women,
Speaker 1: poor women, women working in the salt fields, women working
Speaker 1: on farms, women working in markets, women working at home
Speaker 1: with embroidery and other crafts. And Ela had this idea
Speaker 1: and it was way before it's time that by organizing
Speaker 1: women to have a voice for them, elves to be
Speaker 1: given some assistance small micro loans and guidance and support.
Speaker 1: They could become self sufficient and they could also contribute
Speaker 1: to their families well being. So when I went to
Speaker 1: visit them in UM, they showed me their ledgers, and
Speaker 1: the ledgers had the money that had been lent to
Speaker 1: thousands of women and how it was being paid back.
Speaker 1: And I often said that the payment record of poor
Speaker 1: women in India, which was like nine was better than
Speaker 1: most commercial banks UH in our country or elsewhere, because
Speaker 1: these women were so grateful to have this financial assistance.
Speaker 1: So after looking at the ledgers, I was led out
Speaker 1: to an area out side a tent that was tented
Speaker 1: and there were I don't know how many thousands of women,
Speaker 1: some of whom had walked a day to get there.
Speaker 1: It was a sea of color because it was every
Speaker 1: color of sorry, every kind of embroidery. It was the
Speaker 1: most beautiful site. And we talked and UM I asked
Speaker 1: a few questions, and one of the women told me
Speaker 1: why being a member of Saying I was so important
Speaker 1: to her, because she said she had freedom and she
Speaker 1: could be free from not only her husband but her
Speaker 1: mother in law. And when we finished talking and I
Speaker 1: got up, thinking that it was time to leave all
Speaker 1: the women rose and they began to sing we shall
Speaker 1: overcome in Uh Gujarati. What I saw that day was
Speaker 1: so inspiring to me because it was the power of hope.
Speaker 1: It was by dint of hard work. It was the
Speaker 1: support that they were giving to one another. It was
Speaker 1: the fact they were organized. And I stayed in touch.
Speaker 1: I would see Remo or others from time to time
Speaker 1: here in this country. When I was Secretary of State,
Speaker 1: I went back Uh and made it absolutely a stop
Speaker 1: on my tour because I wanted to continue the work
Speaker 1: we had done to lift up the lives of women
Speaker 1: and especially the Now. It was when I was Secretary
Speaker 1: of State one point two million members. Now it's two
Speaker 1: million in India and another million and a half in Kistan, Afghanistan,
Speaker 1: Bangladesh other places. I just can't speak enough about how
Speaker 1: this has truly provided economic empowerment and through economic empowerment,
Speaker 1: freedom and dignity and the full fulfillment of the lives
Speaker 1: of so many women. And now we're onto the second
Speaker 1: and even third generation of the daughters and granddaughters, and
Speaker 1: they want different things that they want a different kind
Speaker 1: of say. Well, although says members in India are women
Speaker 1: under thirty right, So there's so much to be learned
Speaker 1: from what they have accomplished. But I also think it's
Speaker 1: such a good news story that it's really important that
Speaker 1: more people hear it. And I'm thrilled that Rema can
Speaker 1: be here to tell us firsthand about the progress that
Speaker 1: say what has made. So Rema tell us about I'm
Speaker 1: sure there are many in this audience who are not
Speaker 1: acquainted with the work of SEWA. Tell us how you
Speaker 1: move women the great majority of them start out as
Speaker 1: waste pickers, and how they come to have work with
Speaker 1: dignity that's sustainable. UM No, Massy, thank you so much,
Speaker 1: and it's such an honor to be against you know,
Speaker 1: with you Secretary Clinton, and Miland has been a true
Speaker 1: supporter all through in this two decades. Um. You gave
Speaker 1: such a wonderful introduction, so I don't need to repeat
Speaker 1: that again. But I think the message that I bring
Speaker 1: today on behalf of all our two million UM sisters
Speaker 1: from India is and especially from the young members of SEWA,
Speaker 1: who are aspiring UM, who are looking for more hope,
Speaker 1: who are looking for a peaceful world, who are looking
Speaker 1: for a world in which they have work which brings
Speaker 1: them dignity which also brings them selves respect. And I
Speaker 1: think the biggest message which I've been telling Milan again
Speaker 1: and again is that you know, poor do not want charity.
Speaker 1: I think all they want is an enabling environment where
Speaker 1: they can come together. And listening all through this evening,
Speaker 1: I felt that, you know, solidarity, sisterhood. And I think
Speaker 1: it's the power of work which is so magical. When
Speaker 1: women's work, it's voice and visibility and validity. When they
Speaker 1: come together as poor, as women and as workers UM,
Speaker 1: she's able to and when she gets work based on
Speaker 1: the skills and the knowledge that she has, it gives
Speaker 1: her that tremendous confidence. And then she agains gains the
Speaker 1: collective strength from the camera to ray of other sisters
Speaker 1: that she's UM together with. And I think it's that
Speaker 1: organizing UM that gives her that strength. And with organizing
Speaker 1: then the members of SIVA are able to tap into
Speaker 1: to get small loans which otherwise they are not UM.
Speaker 1: You know, readily, given access to she's able to build
Speaker 1: her infrastructure. She's able to gain access to healthcare, she's
Speaker 1: able to build her own enterprise, get access to markets.
Speaker 1: In short, she's able to lift herself out of poverty
Speaker 1: and she's able to then take on any challenges that
Speaker 1: life may bring to her. And I'm saying that's not
Speaker 1: just on behalf of her two million sisters in India,
Speaker 1: but also we have seen that in Afghanistan or in Pakistan,
Speaker 1: in the war Ton areas of Sri Lanka, or Myanmar
Speaker 1: or in put On. And I think the other message
Speaker 1: that um we would like to share on behalf of
Speaker 1: our millions of sisters is that you know, when you
Speaker 1: put technology into their hands, they know how the best
Speaker 1: application of it could be. You know, how can a
Speaker 1: waste collector also can use a robot, you know, and
Speaker 1: so robotics is nothing bad. But you know she no
Speaker 1: longer has to you know, rummage through the garbage, but
Speaker 1: she can use a robot to do all that. Or
Speaker 1: a manual scavenger who has to get down into the
Speaker 1: trains in our country still to you know, clean those trains.
Speaker 1: If she has access to robotics, how she can change
Speaker 1: her life, you know. Or a young daughter of a
Speaker 1: farmer who feels that, you know, how can she turn
Speaker 1: her farming to an enterprise? And that's where you know,
Speaker 1: how she can use AI into agriculture and farming. We
Speaker 1: learned it from use a Secretary Clinton, when you had
Speaker 1: invited one of our small farmers to the State Department,
Speaker 1: and how she was sharing that having and she took
Speaker 1: out a small loan to take her cell phone, to
Speaker 1: buy a cell phone. And now she runs her own
Speaker 1: Agrive business company with two hundred and fifty thousand small
Speaker 1: women farmers like her, which has a turnover of about
Speaker 1: ten million rooties. And I think it's the same moment
Speaker 1: when she this year in our annual general meeting, she
Speaker 1: rose up and she said, seventeen years ago, I had
Speaker 1: no identity of our own. I was confined to the
Speaker 1: four walls of my house. Today I no longer feel
Speaker 1: I'm poor. I may be literate, but I'm not poor.
Speaker 1: And I think this is the kind of dignity, this
Speaker 1: is the kind of self respect um that I think
Speaker 1: brings the women out of polity. So Rema raised um
Speaker 1: the issue of technology, which you might think doesn't go
Speaker 1: together with illiterate women, but what they are able to
Speaker 1: do through technology is extraordinary. And one of the things
Speaker 1: that you did, Secretary Clinton at the State Department, as
Speaker 1: you were trying to close the gender gap in mobile
Speaker 1: technology Now why did that matter? Well, that's exactly right, UM,
Speaker 1: as Rema said, And really I was inspired by what
Speaker 1: women in say, well, we're able to do if they
Speaker 1: had access UH to technology, particularly mobile phones. UM. We
Speaker 1: knew that there was a gap in mobile phone ownership
Speaker 1: and you age, between men and women, and we knew
Speaker 1: that if we could help to close that gap, it
Speaker 1: would provide opportunities for women to utilize UH technology in
Speaker 1: their businesses and in their homes and families. So we
Speaker 1: did have a big initiative UH to try to work
Speaker 1: with other foundations and other UH leaders. Sharie Blair was
Speaker 1: someone working on that through her foundation UH to help
Speaker 1: lower the price, increase the access UH provide education. Although
Speaker 1: everybody was a really fast learner once they got access
Speaker 1: to it. It's wonderful to see UH. And and we
Speaker 1: found you could deliver messages, you can deliver health messages.
Speaker 1: You can deliver messages about weather, which is really important
Speaker 1: if you're a farmer, UM, you could deliver messages about education. UH,
Speaker 1: if you are worried about your children's future. There were
Speaker 1: It's just an unlimited UH number of uses that could
Speaker 1: be UM imagined and then implemented for UH technology, and
Speaker 1: I'm thrilled that, say what has been a real leader
Speaker 1: in this Uh? There there are other women's groups, micro
Speaker 1: enterprise groups, organized groups UM in other parts of the world,
Speaker 1: But say what has been a leader and adaptability? If
Speaker 1: I could mention, one other area that we worked on
Speaker 1: when I was in the State Department was clean cook stoves. UM.
Speaker 1: Clean cook stoves was a passion of mind because respiratory
Speaker 1: distress is the fourth leading cause of death for women
Speaker 1: and children worldwide. Because if you're UM cooking over uh
Speaker 1: a fire made with wood or dung UH and you
Speaker 1: breathe the smoke, and especially if you're in a small space, UH,
Speaker 1: you acquire all kinds of breast tory um ailments and
Speaker 1: often they lead to UM, decreased lung capacity and even death.
Speaker 1: So one of our initiatives in the State Department was
Speaker 1: to promote clean cook stoves and say what was a
Speaker 1: great partner because you had to get models that would
Speaker 1: work in different climates, that would work with different uh,
Speaker 1: different villages, different groups of women who were used to
Speaker 1: UH spending their time hunting for firewood and would need
Speaker 1: to learn a new way of cooking. But say what
Speaker 1: has been instrumental in spreading clean cook stoves in India,
Speaker 1: which over time, if we keep it up and we're
Speaker 1: determined to do that, is going to uh save lives
Speaker 1: and improve the quality of life for many women. Do
Speaker 1: you want to say something about that? Remote? Sure? I
Speaker 1: think UM, when Um Secretary Um Clinton had first us
Speaker 1: that you know, what do you think about cooks, sters
Speaker 1: and o ge Um? You know, definitely because this is
Speaker 1: what women have to deal dane and day out. But
Speaker 1: you know, in countries like ours, everybody has taken that
Speaker 1: cooking is taken for granted that you know, women have
Speaker 1: to cook, So what's a big deal in it? Um?
Speaker 1: And you know, we wanted to bring a clean cooksters.
Speaker 1: We wanted to bring clean fuel to the houses of
Speaker 1: the women, but we didn't want to distribute stars. And
Speaker 1: so you know, UM, we designed a whole um program
Speaker 1: where you know, i f C, the International Finance Corporation,
Speaker 1: gave a first last guarantee and each woman bought a
Speaker 1: clean cooksters. So today we have half a million women
Speaker 1: using those clean coaksters. And you know, once Um, but
Speaker 1: it was a challenge for us because you know, the
Speaker 1: husband's and the mother in law always thought that you know, oh,
Speaker 1: we have been cooking for generation, so why do you
Speaker 1: need to take a loan for a cookster? And then
Speaker 1: then the challenge of how do you upkeep and maintain
Speaker 1: those cooksters? And then from cooksters, the women now started
Speaker 1: using the LPG, so they are moving up into the
Speaker 1: social ladder. And with that, then we started bringing in
Speaker 1: solar power. So you have, you know, a solar powered cookster,
Speaker 1: so she no longer has to depend on whether the
Speaker 1: fan in the stove is working or not, or you know,
Speaker 1: whether she still needs to cut the fuel and chop it.
Speaker 1: But she just has a solar power and she just
Speaker 1: plugs it in and the stuff is up and running.
Speaker 1: And I think we are now ex scaling this up
Speaker 1: to take it to all our two million members. And
Speaker 1: that brought in a whole aspect of how do you
Speaker 1: bring access to energy because if you really want to
Speaker 1: improve and and then the livelihood energy is. So this
Speaker 1: is such a strong nexis between women, energy, fuel, you know,
Speaker 1: food and nutrition. And you've created an excess with the
Speaker 1: private sector because a lot of what you've been able
Speaker 1: to do has been because businesses have partnered with say well,
Speaker 1: maybe you could mention your new health venture, and then
Speaker 1: we can move on quickly to your friend to your
Speaker 1: right and the exciting work she's doing. Yeah, and you
Speaker 1: shouldn't be keeping them all, holding them impatiently listening for
Speaker 1: the last two hours. But I think and just a
Speaker 1: few more minutes and we'll stop here for you all
Speaker 1: to have a lovely evening meal as well. But I think,
Speaker 1: as you're right, as you rightly brought out that, you know,
Speaker 1: my second big message on behalf of our millions of sisters,
Speaker 1: Secretary Clinton, is that they need is partnerships. And I
Speaker 1: think the kind of partnerships you partner in growth, but
Speaker 1: you also partner in you know, the difficult times or
Speaker 1: in the losses as well, and that will health the
Speaker 1: enterprises grow. How do you bring access to healthcare? How
Speaker 1: do you bring your like how we brought banking at
Speaker 1: the doorstep, how do you bring access to healthcare at
Speaker 1: their doorstep? And that's where I think we have been
Speaker 1: very fortunate to be able to partner with abbott Um.
Speaker 1: And again, as I said, we don't want charity, so
Speaker 1: we didn't want anything free. But how do you create
Speaker 1: a model that is sustainable and that women can have
Speaker 1: access to healthcare at their doorsteps. So we have the
Speaker 1: young daughters of gowery bands, the daughters in law who
Speaker 1: have hand held devices, who have those glucometers, who go
Speaker 1: from house to house and you know, they keep track
Speaker 1: of the health parameters of our member birth and um,
Speaker 1: you know how when the parameter is crossing danger lines?
Speaker 1: How do you take her to referral services? And that's
Speaker 1: the kind of a model that we are creating. Also
Speaker 1: to take it to policy level. When we talk about
Speaker 1: universal healthcare, what does it actually mean for the rural
Speaker 1: and the poor women or the women in the informal sector.
Speaker 1: And that's the kind of the partnership that we are
Speaker 1: talking about. So it's a win win, um, you know
Speaker 1: for the members. So technology innovation, Airbnb, alliterate women, what
Speaker 1: are they doing on AIRBNBA? You know, how do you
Speaker 1: um when we have the issues of security and mobility
Speaker 1: of young daughters or young daughters in law and who
Speaker 1: have studied, but you know, who are not able to
Speaker 1: find meaningful productive work. And that's where you know, I
Speaker 1: tumbled across airbn B. My son was studying at Risdy
Speaker 1: and there was the alumni of Rerisdy was the founder
Speaker 1: of Airbnb and I was getting introduced and I thought,
Speaker 1: what will I on Earth to do with Airbnb? And
Speaker 1: then I thought, anyway, if I'm meeting, I should really
Speaker 1: innovate something. And there I you know, lo and behold,
Speaker 1: And I approached Airbnb back home in India and I said,
Speaker 1: would you list my sister's homes on Airbnb? And like
Speaker 1: rural homes on Airbnb, So let's see the story from
Speaker 1: my own sister. As today we have close to thousand
Speaker 1: homes listed on Airbnb. Any No, I'm Garryban and I've
Speaker 1: been a member of Savana for twenty five years and
Speaker 1: I want to say that you would have seen h
Speaker 1: and you would have come across several companies in this world,
Speaker 1: but not a company like mine with the owners and
Speaker 1: managers r P are all women like me, and we
Speaker 1: control the entire supply chain right from puttings of raw
Speaker 1: material to the sale of finnished products. So we are
Speaker 1: the owners of our company. So I think you have
Speaker 1: a flavor. We invite you to go visit the Indian
Speaker 1: villagers listed on Airbnb. If your companies to partner uh
Speaker 1: with with, saywah, they're wonderful partnerships that can be developed
Speaker 1: their successful ones are going. I don't know if you
Speaker 1: want to add anything, Secretary Clinton, but it's been quite
Speaker 1: an experience, it has, and I'm so happy that we
Speaker 1: could share the stories you've just heard with all of you.
Speaker 1: And I would only underscore what Milan said, UH, this
Speaker 1: is a really good investment for a partnership for the
Speaker 1: kind of uh visible progress that can be made in
Speaker 1: people's lives. Women's lives and SAY what has been plowing
Speaker 1: that ground now for decades, but they're really at a
Speaker 1: new level of development and it's something that Rima and
Speaker 1: the leadership of SAY are really focused on. You heard
Speaker 1: her briefly mentioned the health insurance program that they're going
Speaker 1: to be rolling out. We need good models today, don't we.
Speaker 1: We need to demonstrate that we can, we can get
Speaker 1: things to work, and we can help people and we
Speaker 1: can all be the better for it. And as you
Speaker 1: just heard, I mean, we really are all in this together,
Speaker 1: whether we want to admit it or not. And if
Speaker 1: we do admit it, then there's an opportunity for everybody
Speaker 1: to partner with SAY well UH in some way, and
Speaker 1: so I would I would urge you to follow up
Speaker 1: directly or through Milan. UH. And I think I'm supposed
Speaker 1: to get another presentation, aren't I You're supposed to get
Speaker 1: a presentation from Gory. Yes, so let's see what she
Speaker 1: has for you. Ah may farishe May far garishe uh
Speaker 1: may bakarish oh hon dem, I'm Theresa mad. Yeah. Stay
Speaker 1: tuned for our takeaways after this break. I hope you
Speaker 1: enjoyed that conversation about the incredible women of say We.
Speaker 1: Visit say what dot org for more information about the
Speaker 1: Self Employed Women's Association. Our top takeaways. First, women's economic
Speaker 1: empowerment is critical. When women can make and manage their
Speaker 1: own money, they're able to exercise better control over their
Speaker 1: own lives and help provide for their families. It also
Speaker 1: creates a double dividend. Women reinvest their earnings back into
Speaker 1: their communities and economies. Second, those in need are looking
Speaker 1: for opportunity, not charity. They need a hand up, not
Speaker 1: a handout. Lastly, as REMA shares, partnerships can accelerate progress
Speaker 1: for women beyond philanthropic gestures. A well designed partnership with
Speaker 1: the private sector can result in sustainable programs that create
Speaker 1: shared value. They're both good for women and good for business.
Speaker 1: You're Listening to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose
Speaker 1: Brought to you by the Seneca Women podcast Network and
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