Elaben Bhatt (1933-2022), the founder of the iconic Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) was among those public figures that are unassuming but forthright, modest but with a phenomenal impact, swim against the current without stoking needless controversies and leave behind an enviable legacy. Elaben died on November 2, 2022 at age 89 in Ahmedabad.
Elaben held a degree in English Literature having got it in 1952 from the Maganlal Thakordas Balmukunddas Arts College, Surat. She was awarded a gold medal two years later when she acquired a degree in law at the Sir L A Shah Law College in Ahmedabad. She met and later married student leader Ramesh Bhatt and theirs was a true partnership of heart and mind. When she had to leave the Textile Labour Association (TLA-Majdoor Mahajan) following a difference of opinion, it was her husband who consoled her, saying it had happened for the better, as Sagari Chhabra writes in the Mainstream weekly. His words were prophetic because she formed SEWA which is considered one of the most influential and much studied movements in the world.
Elaben taught English literature briefly at the SNDT University in Mumbai and in 1955 joined the TLA’s legal department. It was founded for textile workers by Anasuya Sarabhai and its constitution was drafted by Mahatma Gandhi. Elaben learnt a lot in the TLA but also realised that while male mill workers were organised and protected by legislation, it was the women who had no such security.
And thus was it that in 1972 was born the SEWA that gathered women street vendors of fruits and vegetables, home based piece rate workers, labourers, recyclable waste collectors and women workers in many other informal and unorganised areas of Indian society.
Elaben planned and networked, ideated and worked tirelessly to bring agency and self reliance to these marginalised women who depended only on their relentless hard work for their and their families’ livelihoods. She realised that they needed financial empowerment and unrolled the microfinance movement whilst setting up the Shri Mahila Sewa Bank. We speak easily of microfinance now but when Elaben began in 1970s, this was a little known and recognised concept.
Nor was she the kind of leader who believed in gathering the power reins in her own hands alone. She ensured that the activists and other women learnt the ropes of leadership and bargaining. Like all astute but selfless leaders she understood the importance of forging bonds and ties with likeminded people and forces around the world.
Beginning with the women who first hastened to heed her leadership, SEWA today has become a movement of 2.1 million workers across 18 states. No other movement anywhere in the world has perhaps influenced and ensured agency to such a large number of informal women workers. A true expression of women’s empowerment!
It is but natural that such a movement and leadership would only inspire other similarly situated women all over the world. SEWA is emulated and studied worldwide and leading international women leaders in every sphere of life in India and abroad, have acknowledged Elaben’s work as role model, fulsomely.
Just because Elaben was not embroiled in loud controversies does not mean that her path was smooth and even. Such a bold, innovative and against-the-rule book movement was not willingly welcomed in all quarters. It was her graceful dignity, strong minded values and strength of character that led SEWA through the decades and past the vested interests and obstacles.
Once she proved she was not a simple minded idealist who had no idea of the reality that the poorest women workers faced, there was no looking back. As SEWA gained ground and recognition, the accolades and honours poured in.
In 1977, Elaben received the Ramon Magsaysay Award and the Padma Bhushan in 1985 followed by the Padma Shri in 1986. She was appointed to the Rajya Sabha in 1986 and also headed the National Commission on Self-Employed Women, a government body for many years. She was part of many international organisations including the Women’s World Banking. In 2007, she was invited to join the Elders formed by Richard Branson and Nelson Mandela and was a group of global leader working together for “peace, justice and human rights”. Elaben was the Chairperson of Sabarmati Ashram and had recently resigned as the Chancellor of Mahatma Gandhi-founded Gujarat Vidhyapith.
As Mirai Chatterjee, the former SEWA general secretary had written in the Indian Express, “Elaben was also an expert homemaker, cook and impeccable hostess and had a beautiful singing voice which was an instant draw. She was a prodigious writer who penned in Anasuya, our Gujarati newsletter, a play on street vendors, apart from numerous papers and several books in English and Gujarati. One of these was her book We are Poor But We are Many which described her life’s work.”
In her book Anubandh: Building Hundred-Mile Communities, she advocated ‘hundred-mile communities’. The crux of this was that the three basic needs of food, clothing and shelter and the three basic services of primary healthcare, primary education and primary financial services should be met at the local level, within a radius of 100 miles.
Hers was a life that was truly well lived but it was not lived well only for herself and a small circle those around. Hers was a life that benefitted lakhs of people including those who never met or interacted with her. It will continue to live on in the movement that she started, the many people she influenced and the ideas she advocated. India is truly blessed to have felt the impact of Elaben’s life and work.