"SEWA organizes women who work in their homes, in the streets of cities, in the fields and villages of rural India, with no fixed employer, carving their small niche in the economy, day by day, with only their wits to guide them against incredible odds of vulnerability, invisibility, and poverty." Where Women are Leaders (Kalima Rose)
I came across this book We Are Poor but So Many, the other day and happen to read some excerpts. Ela Bhatt is one incredible person. She arguably is one of the most important people of our time (I don’t want it to reduced to wo
man, though there is no doubt she is significant). Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has enabled its members to build and own assets, withstand competition, and access health care, child care, shelter, insurance, and credit. SEWA's membership of rural and urban women working in the informal economy has burgeoned from 320 women in 1973, to about 12.5 lakh women across the country as of 2009. Bhatt's vision extended the conventional idea of a trade union to an entirely unconventional terrain. Whereas most trade unions in the world are constituted of workers in medium or large-scale enterprises which are part of the organised industry, SEWA was the first union of its kind whose members were poor, self-employed women from different communities scattered across a variety of trades.
There is a talk on who should be awarded Bharat Ratna, market media will have its self serving choices. My choice (if I have one!) will no doubt be Ela Bhatt. On this year that is being celebrated as International Year of Cooperatives by United Nation it is time to celebrate and cherish contribution of Ela Bhatt. And yes i believe contribution is more important than achievements.
I came across this book We Are Poor but So Many, the other day and happen to read some excerpts. Ela Bhatt is one incredible person. She arguably is one of the most important people of our time (I don’t want it to reduced to wo
man, though there is no doubt she is significant). Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA) has enabled its members to build and own assets, withstand competition, and access health care, child care, shelter, insurance, and credit. SEWA's membership of rural and urban women working in the informal economy has burgeoned from 320 women in 1973, to about 12.5 lakh women across the country as of 2009. Bhatt's vision extended the conventional idea of a trade union to an entirely unconventional terrain. Whereas most trade unions in the world are constituted of workers in medium or large-scale enterprises which are part of the organised industry, SEWA was the first union of its kind whose members were poor, self-employed women from different communities scattered across a variety of trades.
There is a talk on who should be awarded Bharat Ratna, market media will have its self serving choices. My choice (if I have one!) will no doubt be Ela Bhatt. On this year that is being celebrated as International Year of Cooperatives by United Nation it is time to celebrate and cherish contribution of Ela Bhatt. And yes i believe contribution is more important than achievements.
