ELA BHAT

INTRODUCTION

Ela Ramesh bhat was born on 7 September 1933 in Ahmadabad and she is an Indian cooperative organizer and an activist.

 A lawyer by training, Bhatt is a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements and has won several national and international awards

Ela Bhatt has spent her life fighting for the rights and welfare of India's 'invisible' workers. 

Her grandparents worked with Mahatma Gandhi in the non-violent struggle for Indian Independence from the British.

Deeply influenced by Gandhi, Ela has followed his ideals all her life.

HER IDEAS

She has pioneered the idea that people themselves, no matter how poor or uneducated, are able to solve their own problems if they organize together to do so.

Ela started as a lawyer with the Textile Labour Association (TLA) in Ahmedabad. Working in the women's division, Ela soon found that women were doing many of the labor-intensive tasks needed in textile production, as well as in other fields of work. However, as workers, they were invisible.

HER FOUNDING'S

Ela recognized that these women needed the help that they could get only through organizing together as a large group. To meet that need, she founded SEWA(Self-Employed Women's Association in India) in 1972 to organize for better pay and working conditions. SEWA, which today has 250,000 members, helped workers at the lowest level of society become empowered to take control of their lives.

She also founded SEWA Bank, which is totally for woman's and the first step is saving.

THE ELDERS

Ela was a part of a group named Elders. This was a group of world leaders created to

contribute their wisdom, independent leadership and integrity to tackle some of the world's toughest problems.

Ela Bhatt is particularly involved in The Elders' initiative on equality for women and girls, including on the issue of child marriage. 

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

She was one of the founders of Women's World Banking in 1979.

She has served as Chair of the SEWA Cooperative Bank.

She was granted an honorary Doctorate degree in Humane Letters by Harvard University in June 2001.

Ela Bhatt was also awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1985,  and the Padma Bhushan in 1986.

 She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1977 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1984.

On November 2010, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton honoured Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence.

Ela Bhatt was honoured with the prestigious Radcliffe Medal on 27 May 2011 on Radcliffe day for her efforts in helping uplift women, which has had a significant impact on society.

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

AWARDS AND RECOGNITIONS

In November 2011, Ela Bhatt was selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2011 for her lifetime achievements in empowering women through grassroots entrepreneurship.

In June 2012, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton identified Ela Bhatt as one of her 'heroine'. She said, "I have a lot of heroes and heroines around the world and one of them is Ela Bhatt, who started an organisation called the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) in India many years ago".

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