Namya Mahajan is the Managing Director of the SEWA Federation in Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which is part of SEWA, India’s oldest and largest organization working on women’s economic empowerment.

Over the last 25 years, SEWA Federation has organized over 300,000 women into 106 cooperatives with an annual turnover of over USD 46 million. These informal women workers from the most deprived sections of Indian society are now owners, managers, and presidents of their own cooperatives. 

The Federation strengthens and scales up these cooperatives by seeding best practices in management and grassroots leadership. It also incubates innovative cooperatives in new sectors, and brings visibility to poor women as workers and economic agents through research and advocacy.

Namya joined SEWA from McKinsey & Company to pursue her life-long dream of working in development. With her team, she is trying to bring innovations in data and management to the cooperatives while maintaining their strong grassroots character and leadership.