Ela Bhatt Selected as KSG Commencement Speaker
Roya Wolverson
Issue date: 5/18/06 Section: KSG News
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Ela Bhatt, a world-renown grassroots organizer, social worker and former member of the Indian Parliament, will be the commencement speaker at this year's Kennedy School graduation ceremony. Bhatt's speech will take place at 2 p.m. on June 7 in the John F. Kennedy Jr. Forum.
Known as the "gentle revolutionary", Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), South Asia's first labor and trade union for self-employed women workers. SEWA, which means 'service' in Hindi, also serves as a cooperative bank that offers micro credit loans to help women become financially independent and provides legal services, education and child care facilities. The organization, originally a small collective founded in 1972, has since grown to become India's largest trade union and includes more than 700,000 members.
Born in 1933, Bhatt witnessed the untenable conditions facing women in the garment industry when she served as a women's section chief for the Textile Labor Association in Ahmedabad, India, after which she devoted herself as an attorney and social worker to organizing self-employed women. Weavers, stitchers, cigarette rollers, vendors of fruit, fish and vegetables, firewood and road construction workers, Bhatt observed the routine exploitation and harassment of these women by money-lenders, employers and officials.
SEWA gained the power to negotiate with the women's employers through grassroots organizing and established health, death and maternity benefit plans to increase self-employed women's security. In 1974, SEWA established its own bank to release women from their ties to moneylenders and pawnbrokers, helping them to acquire land, small assets and means of production.
"From a miserable passive acceptance of all the injustices, SEWA women, by organizing themselves, have attained the courage to stand up and fight, the ability to think, act, react, manage and lead. Self-reliance is what they ultimately want. There is no development without self-reliance. But there is no route to self-reliance except by organization," Bhatt said.
Dean David Ellwood expressed delight about her selection as this year's commencement speaker.
"We are thrilled to have Ela Bhatt as our graduation speaker this year," he said. "She is truly a dynamic and inspiring leader who exemplifies public service through her persistent efforts for labor and union rights in her native India."
Known as the "gentle revolutionary", Bhatt founded the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), South Asia's first labor and trade union for self-employed women workers. SEWA, which means 'service' in Hindi, also serves as a cooperative bank that offers micro credit loans to help women become financially independent and provides legal services, education and child care facilities. The organization, originally a small collective founded in 1972, has since grown to become India's largest trade union and includes more than 700,000 members.
Born in 1933, Bhatt witnessed the untenable conditions facing women in the garment industry when she served as a women's section chief for the Textile Labor Association in Ahmedabad, India, after which she devoted herself as an attorney and social worker to organizing self-employed women. Weavers, stitchers, cigarette rollers, vendors of fruit, fish and vegetables, firewood and road construction workers, Bhatt observed the routine exploitation and harassment of these women by money-lenders, employers and officials.
SEWA gained the power to negotiate with the women's employers through grassroots organizing and established health, death and maternity benefit plans to increase self-employed women's security. In 1974, SEWA established its own bank to release women from their ties to moneylenders and pawnbrokers, helping them to acquire land, small assets and means of production.
"From a miserable passive acceptance of all the injustices, SEWA women, by organizing themselves, have attained the courage to stand up and fight, the ability to think, act, react, manage and lead. Self-reliance is what they ultimately want. There is no development without self-reliance. But there is no route to self-reliance except by organization," Bhatt said.
Dean David Ellwood expressed delight about her selection as this year's commencement speaker.
"We are thrilled to have Ela Bhatt as our graduation speaker this year," he said. "She is truly a dynamic and inspiring leader who exemplifies public service through her persistent efforts for labor and union rights in her native India."
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