Ela Bhatt

Lawyer and organiser Ela Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women's Association, SEWA, in 1972. It organised women whose work often fell outside formal labour protections, including street vendors, home-based workers and other self-employed earners. Her approach treated these women as workers with skills and rights, not simply as recipients of charity.

SEWA combined union organising with cooperative initiatives. Its cooperative bank, founded in 1974, helped women gain access to financial services. Bhatt also helped build wider networks of informal workers. She received the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1977 and the Right Livelihood Award in 1984. Her legacy is a practical vision of empowerment through organisation, financial independence and recognition.