Blockchain technologies are often promoted as transformative, though its role in addressing real-world inequities remains uncertain—frequently cast as a solution in search of a problem, more at home in speculative finance than in public service. Much of that skepticism is warranted. Yet a recent collaboration between the SEWA Federation and the Algorand Foundation marks a case where the technology is being applied not to imagined futures, but to the concrete, everyday challenges of marginalized women.
Mirai Chatterjee, Director of SEWA’s Social Security team, recently announced a blockchain-backed initiative aimed at addressing a thorny problem: the lack of documentation that excludes many from India’s welfare systems. Chatterjee has long worked at the intersection of health, insurance, and livelihood security for women in the informal economy—where missing paperwork can mean the difference between receiving care and going without. The initiative is being implemented through the SEWA Federation, a network of 106 women-led cooperatives representing over 400,000 members. It is part of the broader SEWA movement, a union of 3.5 million informal workers across India—one of the largest of its kind globally.
To confront the exclusion caused by missing or unreliable records, the project centers on the creation of a Digital Health Passport—a blockchain-based record that stores key health data securely and can be accessed by women through SEWA’s existing network of community centers. These digital records are designed to be portable, verifiable, and protected from tampering, offering a more stable link to services like insurance, public health programs, and government entitlements.