SEWA founder, women's rights activist Ela Bhatt passes away

• Renowned women empowerment activist, Gandhian and the founder of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Elaben Bhatt passed away on November 2, 2022, following a brief illness. She was 89 years old.

• Elaben founded SEWA which is one of the biggest women’s cooperatives and national trade unions registered in 1972 which was born out of a textile trade union.

• Notably, SEWA has a membership base of over 2.1 million poor, self-employed women workers from the informal sectors across 18 states and units abroad.

• Elaben Bhatt, who was also a qualified lawyer, had served as a Chairperson of the Sabarmati Ashram Preservation and Memorial Trust.