IWA serves as a platform that brings domestic workers, their employers and housing societies, and the government together to solve systemic issues that keep workers stuck in informality. By bridging the gaps between these stakeholders, we strive to help domestic workers secure legal recognition, social protection, and a collective voice.
The problem
India's informal workforce — domestic workers, waste pickers, street vendors — comprises over 90% of its labour force. Most are invisible to welfare systems, unregistered with statutory boards, and excluded from social protection. The barriers to inclusion are many: poor awareness of entitlements, documentation gaps, weak implementation by the state, and no one to see the process through.
What we do
We work on three levels, with community leadership at the centre.
We identify and nurture grassroots leaders from within domestic worker communities, people who carry deep local knowledge, existing relationships, and the trust of workers. We support them in registering workers with the Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board and facilitating enrolment in relevant social welfare schemes at municipal, state, and national levels.
We engage employers and their housing societies to become active contributors to the welfare of the workers in their buildings, including facilitating scheme contributions where relevant.
We engage the Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board and the state on implementation gaps and worker entitlements. Over time, we also intend to engage gig platform companies to ensure workers have representation wherever decisions about their lives are being made.
Want to help? See how you can get involved →
About Us
Who we are
Informal Workers Association (IWA) is a Section 8 company registered in March 2026, based in Pune. It works with informal workers, with a focus on domestic workers in Pune. It brings together experience in grassroots organizing, community leadership, and systems engagement to empower workers and their families in accessing their rights and improving their workplaces.
Our Team
Co-founders
Sayali Savita Pradeep, Co-founder & Director
Sayali brings over a decade of experience in community leadership, worker organising, and building systems of care from the ground up. After involvement with progressive movements in Pune, she joined KKPKP in 2017. She started with direct work in waste picker communities and over time built and led a team of 19 community leaders. Her expertise in setting up healthcare support strategies was a significant contribution to the organisation's work. She went on to serve as General Secretary of the union, before transitioning out in 2024. Her understanding of what it takes to identify, nurture, and support grassroots leaders is central to IWA's model. Sayali holds a degree in Microbiology from Garware College, Pune.
Aditya Vyas, Co-founder & Director
Aditya brings close to a decade of experience in worker organising, rights-based advocacy, and building organisational systems from the ground up. He began working with informal workers in 2017, first with women's self-help groups in the Santhal Pargana region of Bihar and Jharkhand, and then with KKPKP, the trade union of waste pickers in Pune, which he joined in 2019. At KKPKP, he worked across direct casework, advocacy, and organisational management, and served as Managing Trustee of the trust and General Secretary of the union. Aditya holds a B.Tech in Mechanical Engineering from IIITDM Kancheepuram and was a Young India Fellow at Ashoka University (2016–17).
Community mobilisers
IWA's work in the vastis is carried by community mobilisers from domestic worker communities across Pune. They bring local knowledge, existing relationships, and the kind of experience that makes them a trusted and resourceful presence in their areas.
Triveni Chandanshive
Triveni lives in a vasti in Karve Nagar. She has completed her 12th standard a few years ago and lives with her husband who drives a rickshaw and her father-in-law. Triveni is interested in social work and has done part-time assignments with an NGO a few years ago. She recently completed a course with the Lighthouse Foundation in Pune and is keen to continue learning and upskilling in different areas. She currently provides basic support for documentation-related work to informal workers living near her house. She is keen to work in a more structured manner to understand the issues of domestic workers, and to organise and empower them.
Shama Shaikh
Shama lives in Shastri Nagar vasti in Kothrud. She works as a part-time domestic worker and is raising her daughter on her own. Shama could not study as much as she wanted, but with a basic matriculation education, she has learnt to read and understand English through interactions with her employers. She is very active in her area and is a go-to person for women who need guidance and support on ongoing issues related to health, education, and documentation. Shama wants to continue working for domestic workers and their families, and to ensure that their working and living conditions improve. She is aware of the Welfare Board and has made some efforts to register herself and other workers.
Our Work
Current programmes
IWA's current focus is domestic workers in Pune — a large, predominantly female workforce that is legally recognised but systematically excluded from the welfare infrastructure they are entitled to.
Domestic worker registration
Identifying, documenting, and registering domestic workers with the Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board across our three focus areas. Workers in Pune typically lack any formal record of their employment — registration is the first step to accessing every other entitlement.
Welfare scheme enrolment
Facilitating enrolment in PMC Shahari Garib Yojana (subsidised city hospital access), PMSBY (up to ₹2 lakh accidental death/disability cover at ₹20/year), and PMJJBY (₹2 lakh life cover at ₹436/year). These schemes exist. The barrier is awareness and paperwork.
Housing society pilots
A unique model to facilitate a change in how we look at employer-employee relations for domestic workers. Housing societies, for a nominal amount, can help their domestic workers secure social security benefits. IWA handles all logistics from start to end. In a four week period, IWA will scout and register every domestic worker in the society, run a free on-site health camp, and enroll registered workers in welfare schemes.
Policy engagement
Engaging the Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board and the state government on implementation gaps and worker entitlements. Over time, we also intend to engage gig platform companies to ensure workers have representation wherever decisions about their lives are made.
Research
IWA treats research as an integral part of its work. Understanding the lives and experiences of workers and their families is necessary to doing the work well. Our current research project, in collaboration with the Women and Gender Studies Department at Savitribai Phule Pune University, focuses on youth from domestic worker families in Pune. Many of these young people are the first in their families to access higher education, navigating two very different worlds at once. The study takes a qualitative, longform approach, sitting with young people and listening to their experiences, aspirations, and sense of identity, rather than measuring deficits. The findings will inform what universities can do to better support these students, and what IWA can do to meaningfully support these young people in the future.
Get Involved
Support informal workers in Pune.
We are at an early stage of our journey, and need your support to lay the foundations of our work. There are several ways to contribute — as a donor, a partner housing society, a volunteer, or an institutional funder.
Donate
Fund community leader honoraria and operational costs directly.
Partner
Open your society to a four-week pilot. IWA handles the entire process — from surveys to registrations. Support your workers in securing the rights they deserve.
Institutional funding
We welcome opportunities to collaborate with foundations and impact funders interested in working on informal labour, social protection, or urban livelihoods.
Volunteer
Community outreach, documentation support, translation, and data work. Get in touch if you'd like to contribute time.
Bank details for transfer
- Account name
- Informal Workers Association
- Account number
- 50200118628062
- IFSC code
- HDFC0002808
- Bank & branch
- HDFC Bank, Warje Branch
Scan to pay via GPay / UPI
Get in touch.
For programme enquiries, partnership proposals, media requests, or general correspondence. We aim to respond within three working days.
- Email: informalworkersassociation@gmail.com
- Phone: +91 84850 28839
- Registered address: Flat No-13, Bella 2C, Aditya Garden City Phase 1, Warje, Pune – 411058
- CIN: U88900PN2026NPL253007