Mahila SEWA Trust (MST) has been working for poor and marginalized women in India since 1975. MST's methodology towards livelihood generation and support for women involves organizing and building alternative economic programs based on local skills and resources. MST's main goals are to organize women workers for full employment and self-reliance. Full employment means employment where by workers obtain work security, income security, food security and social security (healthcare, childcare and shelter). The self-reliance objective is meant to ensure that women should be capable of standing on their own feet, individually and collectively, and build their economic future through their own decision making.

MST organizes women workers to achieve their goals of full employment and self-reliance through strategies steeped with struggle for development. The struggle is against the many constraints and limitations imposed on them by society and the economy, while development activity strengthen women's bargaining power and offers them new alternatives. Practically, the strategy is carried out through the joint action of local women cooperatives and local leaders. Gandhiji's thinking is the essential guiding force for organizing women in the process for social change. SEWA follows the principles of satya (truth), ahimsa (non-violence), sarvadharm (integrating all faiths) and the use of khadi as a symbol of local employment and self- reliance.

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