Clinton applauds Indian women's networking

Mumbai, Jul 18 (PTI) Appreciating the power of
networking by Indian women at the grassroots, US Secretary of
State Hillary Clinton Saturday said Gujarat-based Self
Employed Women Association (SEWA) was a model for the world.

Clinton, who visited the trade outlet of over three-
decade old SEWA founded by Ela Bhatt, said it was a lesson to
be learnt by everyone that even grassroots skilled women
could successfully link themselves within India and also with
women in neighbouring countries.

"This is clear from the garland (made of threads) I was
presented today by Bhatt which has three kinds of threads --
from Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh," she told the media here.

"This was a real network through threads," she said.

The democratic process adopted by SEWA and the economic
and social empowerment of women across the borders is a lesson
to be taken advantage of by other countries, she said adding
shareholders of SEWA have demonstrated how even the
underprivileged and marginalised women can make global
networking a reality.

"I appreciate the fact that women here are using
technology to save energy and time to carry out business
referring to use of 'Skype' (internet connectivity) and mobile
PCOs for their communication.

This really saves lot of time in travelling and
environment too, she said.

SEWA's Director Reema Nanavaty said "we are also involved
in networking with women in Afghanisatan and there is a lot of
demand for training women in that country."

"So far, we have trained 1000 women and we hope that
they would carry out further networking within their country
to empower the women of Afghanistan", she said.

"Our representative who went to train women in Pakistan
has just returned last week," she said. PTI LV
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