LASTING LEGACY ON WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT

For more than seven decades, Dr. Ela Bhatt ’99 advocated for the rights of women workers in India as founder of the SelfEmployed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India established in 1972. e lawyer and social activist passed away November 2, 2022, leaving behind a legacy that continues to inspire SEWA’s 2.1 million women members working in the informal sector across 18 states in India, women around the world, and alumni of Coady Institute.

For her leadership, StFX awarded Dr. Bhatt an honorary doctorate during the university’s Fall Convocation ceremony in 1999. e citation highlighted Bhatt’s leadership, success, respect, and compassion as providing “an undeniable reminder of our duty to one another as human beings. Ela Bhatt not only points out the responsibility we have to those less advantaged, in the true Xaverian spirit, she inspires each of us to embrace it.”

Dr. Bhatt dedicated her life to the pursuit of social justice and the empowerment of women, helping them to earn a living and making visible their individual labour or small enterprises. SEWA continues to ght poverty and advocate to protect workers from exploitation. advance gender equality and poverty reduction by enhancing women’s capacity to participate in the social and economic life of their communities in India, Haiti, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Bangladesh. In partnership with the Gerald Schwartz School of Business, the Sears Internship in Social Enterprise initiative helps StFX students learn about Coady’s and SEWA’s approaches to development.

For 40 years, Coady Institute and SEWA have partnered in the co-creation of knowledge about social enterprises and pioneering an asset-based approach to community development. Dr. Bhatt was a member of the Institute’s Honourary Patrons’ Council made up of accomplished leaders who support Coady’s mission to build the capacities of community leaders and organizations worldwide.

Yogesh Ghore, Strategic Partnerships Advisor and Senior Program Teaching Sta at Coady Institute, was a friend of Dr. Bhatt and has worked alongside SEWA with many other Coady colleagues over the decades.

“It’s hard to describe Elaben’s pathbreaking work on women’s empowerment and the kind of in uence she had on shaping my thinking and our work at Coady Institute. is is an end of an era, but her legacy and the strong movement she created continues,” Mr. Ghore says.

Coady is currently working with SEWA on several key initiatives including ENGAGE!, a ve-year project working to

“She gave hope and faith to over two million SEWA sisters in India ghting the good ght every single day, and many more across the world. Her compassionate leadership, simplicity, values, and principles will continue to inspire us.”