CURRENT AFFAIRS

Detailed explanation-1: -Bhatt, 89, a Padma Bhushan recipient, was a pioneer in the field of women empowerment and had received international recognition due to her work.

Detailed explanation-2: -Ela Bhatt was particularly involved in The Elders’ work on gender equality, including on the issue of ending child marriage. As part of Elders’ delegations, and as one of India’s foremost women’s rights activists, she travelled around India encouraging state governments and civil society to vigorously tackle the issue.

Detailed explanation-3: -Bhatt was a cofounder in 1979 of Women’s World Banking (WWB), a global network of microfinance organizations that assist poor women. She served as chairperson of WWB from 1984 to 1988.

Detailed explanation-4: -She said, “I have a lot of heroes and heroines around the world and one of them is Ela Bhatt, who started an organisation called the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India many years ago".

Detailed explanation-5: -Ela Bhatt, Founder and Former Secretary General of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), describes how growing up in the political and social atmosphere of India’s independence and the Gandhian movement led her to found an organization devoted to the advancement of poor, undocumented women in India in the 1970s.