Remembering Ela Bhatt

Remembering Ela Bhatt

Created: Wednesday, 02 November 2022 17:53

Thank you Elaben

Today our global community and GFI have lost a champion and a friend with the passing of Ela Bhatt, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA). For 20 years GFI has worked in partnership with SEWA to advance the goals of dignity and prosperity for women set forth by Elaben over 50 years ago and she has been the inspiration for our mission to create a more equitable, sustainable world for the working poor. We mourn her loss, but we celebrate the extraordinary good she has done for our common humanity and for countless women whose lives she uplifted.

Elaben was the first recipient of GFI's Fairness Award in 2010 when she decried poverty as a violence against which we must all stand opposed. Throughout her life she lead this struggle against poverty and the marginalization of women, founding SEWA in 1972 and growing it to one of the largest, most influential organizations of working women globally. Her commitment to the principles of self-reliance and collective action are the foundation for the worker empowerment movement today, and through her example countless worker-centered organizations like the Global Fairness Initiative have been launched to advance the mission and model that she set forth.

With her passing GFI has lost a lodestar, but we will always be deeply committed to the organization she founded and to the principals for which she stood. Thank you Elaben, you will be missed.

GFI Board with Elaben at 2010 Fairness Award