Ela Bhatt

Ela Bhatt is the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA) in India – a trade union benefiting the poor, which now has
more than 1,000,000 members. Bhatt was a Member of the Indian
Parliament from 1986 to 1989, and subsequently a Member of the Indian
Planning Commission. She has received honorary doctorates from
Harvard, Yale, the University of Natal, and other academic
institutions. She is a member of The Elders, a collection of world
leaders working to address difficult global challenges.

Ela R. Bhatt is widely recognised as one of the world’s most
remarkable pioneers and entrepreneurial forces in grassroots
development. Known as the “gentle revolutionary” she has dedicated her
life to improving the lives of India’s poorest and most oppressed
women workers, with Gandhian thinking as her source of guidance.