SEWA founder Ela Bhatt dies

Elaben Bhatt, 89, was chairperson of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and recently resigned as the Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi founded Gujarat Vidhyapith

Elaben Bhatt, 89, a noted Gandhian and renowned founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and leading woman empowerment activist passed away Wednesday in a hospital in Ahmedabad after a brief illness. 

She was the chairperson of Mahatma Gandhi’s Sabarmati Ashram and recently resigned as the Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi founded Gujarat Vidhyapith. 

Recipient of national and international awards like Padma Bhushan and Ramon Magsaysay award, Indira Gandhi Peace Prize and many others. She was globally recognised as a woman leader who founded many institutions and did pioneering work in organising women for their self employment and empowerment not only in India but across the South Asia. 

Founded by her in 1972, SEWA is one of the largest cooperatives working for women with a base of over two million members from around 18 states in the country and in the neighbouring nations. 

She was also member of Rajya Sabha and Planning Commission of India in 1980s. She also served in many international organisations like World Banking (WWB), a global network of microfinance organisations, in which she was the chairperson and also its co-founder. 

In 2012, she was publicly praised by then then U. S. Secretary of States Hillary Clinton. “I have a lot of heroes and heroines around the world and one of them is Ela Bhatt, who started an organisation called the SEWA in India many years ago.”