Ela completed her schooling in Sarwajanik Girls High School in Surat from 1940 to 1948. She completed her intermediate in MTB collage in Surat. She completed Bachelor of Arts in English from Gujarat University in 1952. She received her Law degree and a gold medal for her outstanding work, in Sir LA shah Law College in Ahmadabad from Gujarat University. During her graduation, she participated as a volunteer on the 1951 census. This experience made a deep impression on her. As she had a first-hand experience of the dismal conditions of the poor people, she devoted her life to working for them.
Bhatt's life was greatly influenced by Mahatma Gandhi. Gandhi spent his life in Ahmadabad, after he come back from South Africa. Gandhi established Sabarmati ashram in Ahmadabad. Gandhi carried out his fast on behalf of the textile workers in Ahmadabad, which was a city famous for its cotton mills. Ela was greatly influenced by the writings of Tolstoy, Gandhi, Vinoba Bhave and Gandhian economist JC Kumarappa. She was also influenced by Ramesh, a senior she met while doing her graduation. Ramesh was an active student leader and also a Gandhi follower. He was a guide to Ela. They eventually got married in 1956. Ramesh joined as an economic faculty in the Gujarat Vidyapath National University in Ahmadabad. Meanwhile, she became a coordinator of the Consumer Education and Research Centre. He was active as the president of the Gujarat University Area Teacher's Association and was the founder of the Gujarat Economic Association.
In 1971, Ela received a degree in International Diploma of Labour Cooperative from Afro-Asian Institution of Labour and Cooperative in Tel Aviv in Israel. Ela started her career teaching English for a short time at Shrimati Nathibai Damodardas Thackarsey Womens's University in Mumbai. She realized, teaching was not her profession. She worked for sometime in the Gujarat Government. In 1961, she returned to join in the Labour Ministry of Gujarat as an Employment officer. University Employment and information Bureau of Gujarat University, Ahmadabad gave charge to her to provide vocational guidance and training to candidates in addition to job placement. Next, she was sent as an in-charge of Occupation Information to Pusa Institute of employment and training in New Delhi from 1966-1968. She explored new employment opportunities, reviewed existing definitions of various occupations in the National Code of occupation and framed definition for new occupations. Ela has worked for a long time for Textile Labour Association (TLA) and SEWA.
Ela took on the challenge of helping depressed women. In 1955, she joined in the legal department of the TLA in Ahmadabad. It was founded by the 'Father of modern India,' Mahatma Gandhi, in 1920 with 1,20,000 members in 60 textile mills in Ahmadabad. This association bargained with employers for better working conditions, seeking better health and social and spiritual advancement for members' families, many of whom came from the Harijans or Untouchables. In 1968, Ela became head of Women's Wing of TLA, for four years. TLA had men and women members, but women members were less. Women's wing focused on increasing women members and to improve families' income. It was to retain women workers to get jobs and to train wives and daughters of male workers in specific vocations and trades. Ela went to Israel and studied 'International Diploma of labour and Cooperatives'. This was her first formal training in organizing and managing unions and cooperatives. Impressed to see that every sector of Israeli labour was organized even the wives of workers were union members--she began to think of how to put such concepts into operation in Ahmadabad.
The women's wing had formed four sections-training, production,unionization and research sections. Under training section - it trained women on sewing, embroidery, knitting, doll making, printing, radio servicing and home help services. All these women were under the age of 25years and they had not completed formal schooling. Under production section- women made hand-woven cotton cloth garments to sell to men workers in union stores. This section conducted educational, health and welfare programmes for these women.
Ela has influenced thousands of self employed women. They contributed to the family income. These women included weavers, stitchers, cigarette rollers, fruit vendors, fish and vegetable vendors, fire wood and waste papers pickers and road construction workers. In Ahmadabad, Most women were subjected to high rents for stalls or the tools of their trade and also to routine exploitation or harassment by money lenders, employers and officials. There were state laws protecting only those who were solely industrial workers and not self employed women. She discovered that self employed women were not even included as workers in the 1971 census. And that, Self-employed women were often shuttling between the urban areas and nearby villages, they were unorganized, unprotected, and economically weak and they did not have any bargaining power. She was determined to work for their cause on their behalf.
Ela and her co-worker Grim found that 97% of self-employed women lived in slums. Women had, on average four children and 93% of women were illiterates. Self employed women's monthly incomes ranged from Rs. 50, for the garment workers to Rs. 355, for vegetable vendors. Most Self employed women took money as debt from money lenders- 25% of the junk smiths, 35% of the milk producers, 44% of the garment makers, 46% of the handcraft pullers, 61% of the garment vendors and 79% of the vegetable sellers. Women were taking children to the worksite. Women had common problems like shortage of capital, shortage of raw material, inadequacy of work place and extremely high interest rates on money borrowed.
Ela and Aravind Buch (President of TLA) organized these self employedwomen into a union under the auspices of the Women's Wing of the TLA. Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA) was established in 1972 under the Trade Union Act of 1926, Aravind Buch was the President, Ela served as General Secretary from 1972-1996. Ela organized self-employed women- who often were the wives and daughters of textiles workers with support of Association. Within three years the organization had enlisted over 5000 members and won the privilege of registration with the government as a trade union.
SEWA's goal is to work towards full employment and self reliance. It is working in 14 states of India and 6 other South Asian countries, namely, Sri Lanka, Bhutan, Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Afghanistan. It has 17,32,728 all India members.
SWEA has rescued thousands of women from money lenders and their personal possessions from pawnbrokers, allowing them to accumulate land, small assets and means of production. 96% of members are repaying loans regularly. SEWA was governed by an executive committee and a representative board, made up of elected leaders from the seven different sections of the membership like garment makers, used garment dealers, hand craft pullers, vegetable vendors, junk smiths, milk producers and miscellaneous workers. Each group's leaders met every month for review and they provided the link between the membership and executive committee.
Human labour is much cheaper than mechanical labour in Ahmadabad, as throughout India. Handcart pullers are to transport heavy loads of coal, timber, grain, cloths bales, iron bars, machinery and household items such as furniture and refrigerators from one place to another place. In most parts of India, this work is done by men but in Ahmadabad, it is normally done by women and men together as a team.
They were working in the hot sun and barefoot, the work was very strenuous and tiring. Women were usually married to the men in the same work and frequently continue their hard work up to six months of pregnancy. They get general fatigue, sores on the skin, back pain and breathlessness, as well as other ailments, even under normal conditions. Large percentage of women takes their children along with them to work place.
SEWA helped handcart pullers, with support of LD Engineering College and the National Occupational health Institute, designed a new cart. New cart alleviated some of the problems like reducing excessive strain on abdominal muscles. Also, the new carts included extra space for carrying a baby underneath, as well as a braking system. Women sold vegetables in Ahmadabad, as it is an important part of the daily diet in India. They visit door to door and every nook and corner around the city, women carry vegetable baskets on their heads or on small carts. Skilled black smiths work from their home; they purchase the raw materials such as barrels, tar, chemical tin sheets and other metal goods from scattered shops and factories. The work is hard, hot and demanding but they are the lowest income group. They produced necessary items like buckets, stoves, pans, toys, racks and tin boxes.
Ahmadabad had a dairy to cater to the milk needs of its citizens and it served only a third of the population. Self employed women served milk to citizens for two thirds of the population. These women get up at 4am to feed their cattle, milk them, put the milk in containers and deliver. After that they return home to clean cattle shed, wash containers and take care of the needs of their families. Average milk producers have about five cows or buffalos. Finally, they sleep by midnight. These women joined SEWA as members. At first, 2000 handloom members opened handloom centres in Bhavnagar, now there are 10,667 members in the city. In addition to bringing together women from a variety of occupations, SEWA has been successful in joining women from different tribes--Waghris, Rabaris and Marwaris for example--who were previously divided by religious and cultural differences.
Self employed women depend on money lenders for debt at high interest rate. SEWA's first concern was the protection of its members from exploitation and to alleviate this dependency and provide financial loans to its members. Ela's next answer was creation of the Mahila SEWA Cooperative bank. In 1973, SEWA decided to form a women's Cooperative bank because SEWA members asked SEWA for bank facility. In 1974, Gujarat government inaugurated the Shri Mahila SEWA Sahakari Bank Limited (The Mahila SEWA Cooperative Bank. Ltd). Every member donated Rs 10. The Bank now has over 4,500 shareholders, and some 10,000 women have deposited in this bank. One year later bank capital was Rs 3,00,000 and increased to 10,44,932 by February 1976. Most members deposited modest savings and most can qualify to receive low interest loans of between Rs 250 and Rs 1000. Bank instituted simple identification procedure, each member has a card with her photograph. In the beginning the bank made Its loans through the established nationalised banks; today the bank makes its own loans. The purpose of the bank goes beyond making it possible for members to obtain low interest loans. The bank's function is also to teach members how to make their money more productive, encourage savings and develop a sense of independence; the women are discouraged from bringing their husbands along when they make transactions. In addition, the bank will provide guidance for financial management, marketing of goods and purchase of necessary materials.
Bank puts focus on repayment of loans because it has been a constant concern to the members. Recovery section officers go to field and collect the money from the members on time. Ela found that 44% of the members repaid their installments regularly, 43% irregularly and only 13% were serious defaulters. Ever aware of the need to understand the membership. Ela has studied the major reasons behind the lack of repayments. Most of the time self employed women are unable to make the payment because of family reasons such as recurring sickness in the family, unsteady employment of the husband and frequent pregnancies leading to loss of work time and attending and spending on social customs.
A second major group of reasons for lack of repayment by borrowers, relates to professional difficulties: limited resources for buying goods, lack of marketing skills, inability to find market space and, associated with the latter, police harassment.
Cases of intentional fraud on the part of borrowers have been few and BHATT remains optimistic that members will remain conscientious and honourable. Guiding her is the belief that if SEWA, the union, creates the motivation, and SEWA, the bank, provides financial and managerial skills, the self-employed worker will soon rise and be able to stand on their feet. Ela watched that self employed women were illiterates, if they can read; women become more proficient in their livelihood.
SEWA members have acquired new negotiating power with their employers.They have established health, death and maternity benefits schemes to give them security. They have setup 71 cooperatives of various trade groups to share skills and expertise, to develop new tools, designs and techniques and engage in bulk buying and joint marketing. The cooperative have an average of over 1000 members each.
SEWA has established a literacy programme to teach members to read but has had little positive response; the women's energies are directed towards earning a living. A welfare section focuses upon solving some of the major social problems. It provides a child care center for vegetable vendors and plans for similar centers for other groups. It has been negotiating with the State Housing Board for low cost housing for 1,000 SEWA members. After studying the medical conditions of its participants, SEWA set up the Mahila SEWA Trust which provides health, maternity, widowhood and death benefits for members at a modest price.
Eye checkups are made and glasses have been provided to a number of members. Self employed women were facing harassment by the police. In 1975, there were 796 complaints registered, 745 were solved by the field filed staff with legal support of SEWA.
SEWA works to increase the profit and productivity of workers. Union purchases discarded material from textile mills and sell them to members at cost. This eliminates the middlemen. They bought motorized sewing machines at low cost. Junk smith women work on modern tools and methods of work. Markets provide better facilities for vegetable vendors and milk producers are trained and educated on nutrition,cattle caring and sale of milk.
SEWA sponsored different programmes for the different groups to be aware of their rights as workers and their duties as citizens. At the same time studies are continuously underway to determine the needs of the membership and of other segments of society.
Ela has done studies on the conditions of unemployed textile works andon the indebtedness of textile workers in general and those of the Sarsapur Mills in particular. She has completed research projects on Cooperative Credits societies of the Mills' Employees, the impact of Welfare on the State Transport Employees of Gujarat and Economic participation of Cottonpod openers.
Ela's publications are Gujarat-ni-Nari (Women of Gujarat), The Impact of Education on Women of the Harijan Community and Profiles of Self Employed Women. She has authored 'We Are Poor But So Many' book published by Oxford University Press, NY in 2006.
Ela leads an active and busy life, in her work with TLA and the SEWA union. She is the managing Director of the SEWA bank and Vice President of the Gujarat agriculture Workers' Union, the self Employed Workers' Organization and the construction Workers' Union. She has found time to serve on the advisory boards of the Gujarat State Adult Education committee and the International SOS Village. Because of her experience in developing SEWA, BHATT has often been asked to participate in international meetings and conferences. In 1972, she attended the Women's Leadership Seminar in Japan and in 1975 she participated as a panelist on the topic of "Women at Work" in Mexico in a UN-sponsored International Women's Year Conference. She travelled to the United States in 1973 under a U.S. Agency for International Development (AID) grant, and to England in 1977 as a Study Fellow at the Institute of Development Studies of the University of Sussex where she delivered a paper, "An Approach to the Rural Poor." In 1977 she also became a consultant to UNICEF (the United Nations Children's Fund) for the Bangladesh Women's Department.
As the guiding spirit behind SEWA and its many projects, ELA RAMESH BHATT has shown that the weak and the poor can, through their collective strength, overcome numerous handicaps. Her great confidence in the ability of selfemployed women is seen in the structure of SEWA; it is a grass-roots organization which genuinely utilizes the talents and knowledge of its members. One who has observed her at work has said of ELA BHATT: "She is an extraordinarily calm, strong person whose gentleness and patience with the women is certainly one of the most important reasons for the success of SEWA."
Ela has joined The Elders group. A Gandhian practitioner of non violence, Ela also travelled to the Middle East with Elders delegations in August 2009 and October 2010. She is particularly involved in The Elders initiative on equality for women and girls, including on the issue of child marriage. In February 2012, Ela travelled to Bihar with fellow elders Desmond Tutu, Gro harlem Brundtland and Mary Robinson. Together, the Elders visited Jagriti to youth led project aimed at preventing child marriage and encouraged the state government's efforts to tackle the issue.
Ela, one of the founder of Women's World banking, She has served as chairman of the SEWA cooperative bank, former director of (women in informal employment: globalizing and Organizing) WIEGO and trustee of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Ela was honoured with Ramon Magsaysay award for community leadership in 1977. She was honoured with the Right Livelihood Award in 1984. She was honoured with the Padma Shri by the Government of India in 1985, and Padma Bhushan in 1986. Ela was nominated by the President of India to be a member of the Indian Parliament from 19861989. She was a member of the Planning Commission of India from 1989-91. She was awarded the Niwano Peace Prize and the first ever Global Fairness Award in 2010. Harvard University awarded her the Radcliffe Institute Medal for her life and work in 2011 and she was appointed to the Board of the Reserve Bank of India. And also she was selected for the prestigious, Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development in 2011, for her life time achievement, in empowering women through grassroots entrepreneurship.
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