About a hundred cooperatives are active in realizing the dream of Ela Bhatt who has been selected by Harvard University which will honour her for her “life and work” that has had a “significant impact on society”.
77-year-old Bhatt, whose NGO has helped over a million women in India gain access to opportunities for themselves and their families, will be awarded the Radcliffe Institute Medal by Harvard University’s Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study on May 27.
Recipient of several prestigious awards, Ela Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972. Conceived as a women’s trade union, SEWA has grown into an NGO that offers micro lending, health and life insurance and child care. SEWA is overseen by more than a hundred women-run cooperatives.
In January 2010, SEWA membership had reached 1.2 million.
Bhatt has been recognised for her long battle for social justice. In November last year, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had honoured Bhatt with the Global Fairness Initiative Award for helping move more than a million poor women in India to a position of dignity and independence.
Ela Ramesh Bhatt is the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA). A lawyer by training, Bhatt is a respected leader of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements who has won several national and international awards.
Ela Bhatt was also awarded the civilian honour of Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1985, and the Padma Bhushan in 1986. She was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 1977 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1984.
She has been chosen for the Niwano Peace Prize for 2010 for her contribution to the uplift of poor women in India.