Ela Bhatt, a social impact icon and a dedicated women’s rights activist, has been honoured for her extraordinary contribution to empowering women, at the 18th edition of CNBC TV18's India Business Leader Awards ceremony on May 11, 2023.

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Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), a trade union representing self-employed female textile workers in India. SEWA works to improve their livelihoods through technical training, micro-finance, market linkages and technology.

Bhatt was born on September 7, 1933, in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad. A passionate Gandhian, Elaben, as she was called, passed away November 2, 2022, at an Ahmedabad hospital following a brief illness. She was 89. She was also called a “gentle revolutionary” for her Gandhian practice of non-violence.

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Early Life and Education

Bhatt’s family was deeply interested and active in social causes. Her father Sumant Bhatt was a lawyer and later served as a district judge. He was later appointed as the Charity Commissioner for Bombay and then Gujarat, where he supervised the work of all charitable organisations.

Bhatt’s mother Vanalila Vyas served as the secretary of the Gujarat branch of the All-India Women's Conference for some time. The organisation, founded by Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay in 1927, worked to bring about educational and social reforms.

Bhatt studied at the Sarwajanik Girls High School, Surat in 1948 and graduated from Maganlal Thakordas Balmukunddas (MTB) Arts College, Surat in 1952. She later studied law at Sir L.A. Shah Law College in Ahmedabad and graduated with a gold medal for her work in Hindu law in 1954.

Bhatt taught English at the Shrimati Nathibai Damodardas Thackarsey Women's University in Bombay for some time, but later joined the legal department of India’s oldest union for textile workers -- the Textile Labour Association (TLA) – in 1955.

SEWA, which is among the largest women’s cooperatives and national trade unions in the country, was registered in 1972 and was born out of a textile trade union and boasts of a membership base of more than 2.1 million self-employed women workers from across 18 states and units abroad.

Founding SEWA and SEWA Bank

Elaben, always seen in her Khadi saree and headed for her meetings in autorickshaws, had founded SEWA Bank in 1974. The SEWA Bank helped provide small loans to poor women to start their businesses. The union also provided financial and business counselling.

Bhatt received several awards and honours, including an Honorary Doctorate from Harvard University, a Radcliffe Medal, and Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan awards from the Government of India. Her successful leadership of SEWA won her national and international recognition.

Elaben’s guiding principles seem to be poignant even in today’s climate of anger and hatred, even in the United States, wrote Satchit Balsari, Assistant Professor in Emergency Medicine at Harvard Medical School & Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, while remembering her legacy at the Lakshmi Mittal and Family South Asia Institute, Harvard University’s newsletter.

According to Balsari, “Women, she concluded in the 1950s while working as a lawyer for the Textile Labour Association in Ahmedabad, needed to come together not against anyone, but for themselves. She recognized that “organizing” was the bedrock of creating self-reliant communities. Fifty years later, the two-million-plus SEWA membership boasts of proud, empowered women, who may still have few material resources, but have the tools to navigate the deprivation, exploitation, inequality and injustice that infuses village life, as Elaben noted.”

Active Involvement in Other Social Causes

Elaben was a member of the Indian Parliament and subsequently the Indian Planning Commission. She co-founded and served as chair of two global networks: Women’s World Banking and Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO).

Bhatt was the chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, a more than 100-year-old institution that was founded by Mahatma Gandhi. She started as a young lawyer working for a trade union – Textile Labour Association.

She has been associated with several social entities like cooperatives, Sa-Dhan (the self-regulatory organisation for the micro-finance sector), and was the first president of the Indian arm of the Friends of Women’s World Banking. The link node across all her initiatives has been how to ensure better livelihoods for self-employed poor women so that can lead a self-reliant existence.

(Edited by : Vivek Dubey)