04 Sewa
MARCH 05, 2017
WOMEN EMPOWERMENT SEWA
DOING A ‘SEWA’ OF WOMEN WORKERS
A lawyer by profession, Ela Bhatt has not only provided jobs to women workers in Gujarat but also gave them self-respect, job security, loan and health insurance as well, bringing about a total socio-economic change
Snapshots Ela started Sewa in December 1971 to provide a regular and better employment to women She started Sewa Bank to mobilise savings of women and provide them cheap loans Women are being trained in various skills and provided health care services
PREM PRAKASH
T
HE year was 1971. A group of women porters working in Ahmedabad’s cloth market went with their problems about housing and wages to the women’s wing of the Textile Labour Association (TLA) Union founded by Mahatma Gandhi. Unable to help them, Ela Bhatt, who headed the women’s wing at that time, approached the media with women porters’ problems. Through the media, she launched a vigorous campaign for higher wages to them. The association bargained with cloth merchants for better working conditions and aid for health and social issues for the family members of porters, many of whom were Dalits and from the most backward castes. Having succeeded in their first venture, Ela Bhatt decided to unite the
cloth porters and together they formed their own union – the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in December 1971. At that time it was part of the TLA. Gradually differences cropped up between the TLA and the women’s association and they decided to part ways. Soon, the women’s association emerged as a separate organisation which now has over 19 lakh members. Its members include milkmaids, vegetable vendors, fish sellers, or women earning from sewing and embroidery work. They constitute most marginalized sections of the
society because they are considered weaker and a liability since they have to tend to their homes, families and cattle. They can’t hire shops as rents are relatively high. Besides, high interest rates on loans don’t allow them to flourish. They rarely have cash to allow for lean days or emergencies like illness, wedding or death Ela Bhatt was born on September 7, 1933 in Ahmedabad. Like many of its citizens, her life too was influenced by Gandhian philosophy. Gandhi on his return from South Africa in 1915, had spent a major part of his life in Ahmedabad. He also set up the
Having succeeded in their first venture,
Ela Bhatt decided to unite the cloth porters and together they formed their own union - SEWA
Satyagraha Ashram here itself. Gandhi undertook his first fast (Satyagraha), for Ahmedabad’s textile workers. The second of three daughters of a High Court judge, Ela was more interested in social causes. She spent her childhood in Surat. Her mother, Vanalila Vyas, was active in the women’s movement. For some time, she was secretary of the Gujarat State branch of the All-India Women’s Conference, an organization founded in 1927 by a Ramon Magsaysay awardee, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay for promoting handicrafts and cooperatives. Ela’s maternal grandfather was a doctor and a Gandhian scholar having been jailed thrice during British Raj. While in college she was chosen as a volunteer during the first national census in 1951. This experience made a deep impression on her. Already influenced by the writings of Tolstoy, Gandhi, Vinoba and the Gandhian economist J.C. Kumarappa, the experience of seeing firsthand the dismal conditions in which the poor lived made her decide that she would devote her life to working for them. A further influence on her during those college days was a fellow student, Ramesh Bhatt, who was an active student leader and a follower of Gandhian ideals. Ramesh encouraged her to take up social work more vigorously and help out the poor and underprivileged. In 1956 Ela and Ramesh Bhatt were married. After receiving a master’s degree in economics Ramesh had joined the faculty of Gujarat Vidyapith National University