Ela Bhatt Quotes

All my life I have worked to change concepts, and that begins with how people see and understand the problems.

[SEWA] have been doing many different things, leading the SEWA movement which is about economic freedom for the poor, women, and self employed.

SEWA is about political action, and that has always been at the heart of what we have done. It is about changing the balance of power in favor of the poor. That has meant constant tension, with big farmers, moneylenders, contractors, big traders, government, local panchayats, and so on.

Every human being has something, a spiritual element, that makes them want to do better, to reach higher.

Microfinance is the best example of success in the kinds of systemic institutional areas.

Through women, what exists and is real, what is traditional, historical, modern and cultural, given the opportunity, is upgraded. That is what the challenge to bring peace is about.

The country is moving in a different direction, times have changed. But for me Gandhiji’s values are still the frame, still alive and valid.

I grew up in the time around India’s independence, in the aura of a country fighting for its freedom. It was a heady and idealistic time, and we were all infected with a spirit of optimism, and the spirit of Gandhiji.

SEWA is now the largest union in India, with a membership of around 1.2 million women.

realities of our own countries rather than catching up with the western economic models, [Bhatt urged] the people to follow a principle which ensures six basic necessities- food, shelter, clothing, primary education, primary healthcare and primary banking- are available within a 100 mile distance. If these necessities are locally produced and consumed, we will have the growth of a new holistic economy.

We were rebuilding the nation, looking to a more just society. It was a time when many of us were going to the villages to live there. We were a generation that had no confusion in our minds as to how to do things. Gandhiji had shown the way. This atmosphere infused politics and the way we did things.

Injustice happens at many levels, from the grass roots to the top. And one of the keys of SEWA’s vision and action is linking them.

[So], in 1972, we started SEWA, the Self Employed Women’s Association. SEWA in many respects is a microcosm of the general picture of the informal sector, in India and worldwide.

…Poverty and violence are not God made, they are man made. Poverty and peace cannot coexist.

Systems are needed, for example for management, accounting, skill development and MIS to serve the needs of the working poor.