Renowned women’s rights activist Ela Bhatt, the founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women's Association), passed away in Ahmedabad. She was 89.

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

She was honoured with Padma Shri in 1985 and Padma Bhushan in 1986.

Established SEWA in 1972

• 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.  

• Bhatt is mainly known for her work through the Self-Employed Women’s Association or SEWA, a trade union of women working in the unorganised sector, which now has two million members. 

• 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. 

• Over the years SEWA has grown into a huge umbrella under which lakhs of women working in over 125 different trades are associated. 

• In 1974, Bhatt started SEWA Bank that gave birth to the microfinance movement across the world. 

• 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 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.

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