Muslim workers from a non governmental organisation (NGO) SEWA Bharat have alleged discrimination against the organisation. The women who were terminated from the organisation are mainly from anti-Muslim pogrom hit northeast Delhi.
According to the organisation’s website, SEWA Bharat is a federation of women-led institutions providing economic and social support to women in the informal economy. Part of a women trade union “SEWA Movement”, SEWA Bharat is part of the movement and was established in 1984. With over 2.1 million participating women, SEWA movement is claiming that they are the largest organization of informal workers in the world.
Chand-Bi, a social worker with the NGO was fired in November. Having been associated with the organisation for 13 years, it came as a shock when she said to Maktoob that the organisation started targeting and pressurising her.
Chand-Bi was working under a programme started by the NGO that helped women coming from economically weaker sections to open bank accounts, any identity cards and also avail schemes started by the Union and the state governments.
“In order to secure economic, social, and legal rights for women workers, SEWA supports the formation of member-based organizations of poor working women. The first such organization was the SEWA Bank, followed by diverse cooperatives and producer groups of women with livelihoods as artisans, milk producers, and farmers. Later on, women formed similar cooperatives around health and child-care,” said the NGO’s official website.
“About seven months back, the organisation started pressuring me by saying that I was not doing the work. They wanted me to open new accounts, which I was not able to fulfil. But I assured them I would let this happen,” she told Maktoob.
She further said that meetings also took place where she was humiliated in front of many people. “It did become toxic but I need the job as I am a single mother and my daughter is studying at the moment,” Chand-Bi added.
She said that after a year, the environment of the organisation changed. “Our previous heads were very nice and we were told there will never be any discrimination. However, from the past 2-3 years the women were not only pressured, they were regularly humiliated if they failed to bring in any quota,” she said.
Since she joined in 2010, Chand-Bi’s monthly income was Rs. 8000. “I joined at Rs. 3500 and I started getting Rs. 8000 recently itself,” she said.
“We are very disappointed with what happened with Chand-Bi. It is because of her that I was able to join the organisation and by firing her, we can only assume, the next turn will be ours,” Parveena (name changed on request), who is currently working in areas around Mustafabad told Maktoob.
Along with Chand-Bi another worker has claimed wrongful termination by the NGO. Nazma, 41, who also is a resident of Khajuri Khas, joined the organisation in 2007. However, due to the NGO’s “lack of fund” she was let go, after which she herself resigned in 2017.
“I joined back in 2018 after the NGO asked me to join back again,” she said. Nazma was earning close to Rs.18000, out of which PF was also cut.
Nazma, a mother of three and a husband, who is bound to bed due to his health, said that it is a difficult time for her to be losing her job.
“I was fired because I am a Muslim and I am going to openly say it. Since I joined back in 2018, we have seen a weird environmental change. Some of our seniors are right-wingers and that made us uncomfortable, but we did not say anything as we had never faced any discrimination previously,” she told Maktoob.
While Nazma was fired in July 2022, Chand-Bi was made to resign in November 2022.
“After working for 13 years and more, they suddenly had issues with our work?” asks Nazma.
The programmes running in the northeast Delhi region had seven Muslim women, out of which three have been fired.
In January 2022, a pregnant woman was forcefully made to resign from the organisation. “Before this, no woman was made to resign because of pregnancy,” Chand-Bi added.