Context: Elaben Bhatt, a noted Gandhian, leading women’s empowerment activist, and renowned founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) passed away at the age of 89.

About SEWA

• SEWA, the Self Employed Women’s Association was set up by Ela Bhatt in 1972.

• It is a trade union of Women.

• Former United States first lady Hillary Clinton, and Cherie Blair, wife of former British Prime Minister Tony Blair, have visited SEWA and partnered with it.

• SEWA was born out of the Textile Labour Association (TLA) — founded by Anasuya Sarabhai and Mahatma Gandhi in 1920.

• But it could not register as a trade union until 1972 because its members did not have an employer, and were thus not seen as workers.

• In 1981, after the anti-reservation riots in which the Bhatts were targeted for supporting quotas for Dalits in medical education, the TLA broke up with SEWA.

• With an annual membership fee of just Rs 10, SEWA allows anyone who is self-employed to become a member.

• Its network is spread across 18 Indian states, in other countries of South Asia, in South Africa, and Latin America.

• The organisation took a conscious decision to keep men out.

• In 1974, SEWA Bank was established to provide small loans to poor women — an initiative that was recognised by the International Labour Organisation as a microfinance movement.

• The Unorganised Workers Social Security Act (2008), the National Rural Livelihoods Mission (2011), and the Street Vendors Act (2014), are seen as successes of SEWA’s struggle.

• The PM Street Vendors Atmanirbhar Nidhi (PM-SVANidhi) scheme is seen as being inspired by SEWA’s microfinance model.

• During the pandemic, SEWA launched Anubandh, an e-commerce platform to connect sellers with buyers.

Her work towards Women Empowerment

• SEWA, pioneered by Elaben Bhatt, was one of the most innovative and successful experiments in India in the field of social development. 

• With over 1.6 million participating women, SEWA is the largest organisation of informal workers in the world.

• With an annual membership fee of just Rs 10, SEWA allows anyone who is self-employed to become a member. Its network is spread across 18 Indian states, in other countries in South Asia, South Africa, and Latin America.

• It simultaneously provided employment to women and promoted cooperative production, consumption and marketing of textiles which constituted the core of India’s industrialisation. 

• It also decisively influenced the course of trade unionism and the labour movement in India. 

• She did not believe that employment for women could be created and sustained by a simple banking device. According to her, any sustainable and rewarding employment must involve women’s participation in the process of production, consumption and distribution. In the process, they should acquire education and skills, create institutions of their own and enhance their bargaining strength. 

• As a Rajya Sabha member, she introduced bills for street vendors and home-based workers. Through her efforts, the Street Vendors Bill did become law. 

• She produced the first All-India study called Shram Shakti in 1988.

• She propounded two significant theories, namely, the Hundred Mile Principle and the Grahini Theory of International Relations.

• The Hundred Mile Principle involved the “use of products and services primary to life that are solely produced within a radius of hundred miles”. 

• The Grahini Theory of International Relations combined such elements as the elimination of poverty and deprivation as an essential requirement for establishing peace, a society free of violence and the need to bring nature into the peace process. 

• She has been called a gentle revolutionary. Both her ideas and her actions were revolutionary. She gave the world the path with which to reach out and change the lives of the poorest and she called it “Struggle and Development”. 

• This path has been replicated all over India and even in many parts of the world.

Road Ahead

• Elaben Bhatt left an indelible mark on the course of the history of social development in India. With SEWA, she started a worldwide movement of women working at the base of the pyramid and changed millions of lives empowering not only poor working women, but also many educated and professional women who joined her movement and took it forward.