Ela Bhatt, whose SEWA empowered unorganised women workers, passes away

Renowned women's rights activist Ela Bhatt, the founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), died in Ahmedabad on Wednesday due to age-related issues, her associates  said.

Bhatt, 89, a Padma Bhushan recipient, was a pioneer in the field of women empowerment and had received international recognition due to her work.

”It is with profound grief that we announce the passing away of our beloved and respected founder, Smt. Elaben Bhatt, a pioneer in advocating for women workers' rights, we strive to carry her legacy forward,” SEWA Bharat tweeted.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi also condoled her death.

"Sad to know about the death of Elaben Bhatt. She will be remembered long for her work for the promotion of women empowerment, social service and education among the youth. Condolences to her family members and admirers," Modi tweeted in Gujarati.

Bhatt is mainly known for her work through SEWA, a trade union of women working in the unorganised sector, which now has two million members.

Bhatt was born in Ahmedabad on September 7, 1933. After a short stint as a college teacher, she joined the legal department of the Textile Labour Association (TLA), one of the oldest unions of textile workers in Ahmedabad, in the 1960s.

Her association with the TLA led her to organise self-employed women who worked in textile markets.

In 1972 SEWA was established with Bhatt as its general secretary.

SEWA's work gradually expanded to cover the poor women working in other unorganised sectors too. It also started a cooperative bank and pioneered the microfinance movement. 

Bhatt, who was inspired by Gandhian ideals, also served as chancellor of Gujarat Vidyapith, a university founded by Mahatma Gandhi in Ahmedabad, till October this year before resigning on health grounds.

She had been nominated to the Rajya Sabha and also served on the Planning Commission.

Bhatt was also one of the founders of Women's World Banking, Women in Informal Economy: Globalising, Organising (WIEGO) and International Alliance of Home-based Workers (HomeNet).

Besides the Padma Bhushan and Ramon Magsaysay award, she had also received the Right Livelihood Award, Niwano Peace Prize and Indira Gandhi International Prize for Peace.

Bhatt had also been a member of The Elders, a group of global leaders including Nelson Mandela and former US president Jimmy Carter which aimed to promote peace.

She is survived by her two children, Amimayi Potter and Mihir Bhatt, and four grandchildren.

”One fails to not only put her in a category to address, but one also fails to find words potent and pithy enough to describe and approximate her work and thoughts,” her grandson Rameshwar Bhatt said.

She lived by Gandhian principles all her life, he said.

A lawyer and social worker, Ela Bhatt fought for self-employed women's labour rights for over five decades.

A recipient of the Padma Bhushan and Magsaysay awards, Bhatt (89), who died on Wednesday, set up SEWA in 1972 after seeing the suffering of poor self-employed women.

Within three years of inception, SEWA had 7,000 members and was registered as a trade union with the government -- a formidable hurdle to have surmounted. By December 1995, its members numbered almost 220,000, making it the largest single union in India.

Through their organisation and solidarity, SEWA members acquired new negotiating power with their employers and established health, death and maternity benefit schemes to give them security.

The SEWA members set up dozens of cooperatives of various trade groups to share skills and expertise, develop new tools, designs and techniques, and engage in bulk buying and joint marketing. These cooperatives have an average of over 1,000 members each.

Bhatt was born in 1933, became a lawyer, then a social worker and in 1968 was the chief of the women's section of the Textile Labour Association in Ahmedabad. In this position, she witnessed first-hand the conditions suffered by poor self-employed women in the city and elsewhere in Asia.

These women included weavers, cigarette rollers, vendors of fruit, fish and vegetables, firewood and wastepaper pickers and road construction workers.

Many of them were subject to high rents for stalls or the tools of their trade and also to routine exploitation or harassment by money-lenders, employers and officials.

In Ahmedabad, 97 per cent of these women lived in slums, 93 per cent were illiterate, most were in debt and had to take with them to work some or all of their children.

It was to address this situation that in 1972 Bhatt set up SEWA. By December 1995, its members numbered 218,700.

The association established its own bank in 1974. This rescued thousands of women from moneylenders and their personal possessions from pawnbrokers, allowing them to accumulate land, small assets and means of production. Its repayment rate on loans is a very impressive 96 per cent.

The organisation is affiliated with the International Union of Food and Tobacco Workers and the International Federation of Plantation, Agricultural and Allied Workers.

Bhatt was nominated to the Rajya Sabha (1986 to 1989) and was a member of the Planning Commission (1989-1991). She was also a member of "The Elders," a group of global leaders founded by late South African President Nelson Mandela.

In 2010, Bhatt was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize and the first-ever Global Fairness Award. In 2011, Harvard University awarded her the Radcliffe Institute Medal for her life and work. Also in 2011, Bhatt was appointed to the Board of the Reserve Bank of India. The same year, she was selected for the Indira Gandhi Prize.

SEWA's decades of relentless advocacy contributed to the passage of the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Bill in Parliament in September 2013.

This law regulates street vending and provides the vendors with licenses to operate. It also prevents vendors' arbitrary eviction and regulates fines, lessening the possibility of them being harassed by corrupt officials.

The legislation is considered a landmark step towards securing the livelihoods of the country's urban poor.