'Poverty Is Violence With Tacit Consent'

Glued to Gandhism, Ela Bhatt believes the principles are even more valid now

- Bhavna Vij-Aurora

She grew up in Ahmedabad during the heady days of India’s freedom struggle and, as a 14-year-old, rose to answer Mahatma Gandhi’s call for Rashtra Nirmaan or nation building. Now, at 83, Ela Bhatt, founder of SeWA (Self-employed Women’s Association of India), believes that the country has lost the opportunity of real freedom or ‘poorna swaraj’ Bapu had envisaged. “Gandhiji wanted each and every person to experience freedom, but that is not the case. Uska anubhav sab ko nahi ho raha (not everyone is experiencing it). A lot needs to be done,” says Bhatt, the recipient of Outlook’s SpeakOut Lifetime Achievement Award. The “gentle revolutionary”, as she is known, the diminutive Bhatt continues to strive for the Gandhian ideal of self-sufficiency and a more just society.

Jyoti Macwan, general secretary of the 1972-formed SEWA, says she does not have to read about Gandhi to know what he stood for. “We at SEWA see Ela Ben living by those ideals. Through her, we understand Gandhi,” she says.

Bhatt has dedicated her life to making visible the contributions of India’s poor and self-employed women, their voices heard. A formidable network of women-run cooperatives she has built also account for advancing modern ambitions. Bhatt calls it the quest for economic freedom in a democratic India.

In her quiet and assured manner that gives a peek into her steely resolve, the graceful octogenarian, draped in a handspun cotton saree, talks about the persisting inequalities in society, the insecurities of the poor, a general sense of cynicism and the “impatient and intolerant” youth. She articulates with equal ease the issues of self-reliance at the grassroots and pitfalls of modern technology, visible most recently in suicidal internet games like the Blue Whale.

Idealism: Gandhian Influence