Leveraging digital technologies to enable women’s co-operatives: experience of national insurance VimoSEWA Co-operative Ltd.

Abstract

SEWA wage loss insurance research. The action research being implemented in collab-oration with the University of Chicago Trust and Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab (J-PAL) aims at improving existing products through di ff erent premiums and income and wage loss compensation amounts. The study is being implemented in 200 villages of Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar district for which the organisation has adopted a robust technologically driven strategy. Through a decentralised approach, the project will select a number of fi eld organisers or sta ff and contribute to their live-lihood through an incentive-based model, train informal women workers at the grassroots level on digital tools and thereby contribute to their e ff orts at empowerment. Through this intervention, the insurance policies collected from the grassroots level will be translated into digital media through VimoSEWA ’ s application that will strengthen the organisation ’ s reach and business. In addition, the team members are also trained in digital tools such as Google Drive and audio-visual platforms for e ff ective implementation.