Harbinger of change
INDIA has lost its gentle revolutionary who brought freedom for India’s poorest women. Ela Bhatt founded SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association) 50 years ago. She passed away last week. Inspired by Gandhi, she joined the Textile Labour Association (or the Mazdoor Mahajan). She said, ‘For me, nation-building meant reaching the workers. They are the foundation of the nation, and yet remain poor and neglected.’ She passed the leadership baton of SEWA to many younger women during her lifetime. She leaves behind a large, self-sustaining movement that has brought poorna swaraj (economic, social, and political freedom) to millions of women workers.
When poor people create new institutions together, they acquire more political force for changing the rules of the game and making economic growth equitable.
I had the privilege of knowing Elaben for many years. Whenever I turned to her for guidance, she would say she was no longer the leader. She would introduce me to the new leaders, who would introduce me to yet others. The depth of leadership within SEWA is remarkable. I have learned much about leadership, service, and methods of organising from Elaben and the leaders she nurtured.
Her greatest legacy was her example to show how a movement of change for delivering poorna swaraj to powerless people is built. Many courageous activists demand justice for the powerless — for women, migrants and ‘lower’ caste citizens. They lead protests, call strikes, and move petitions in courts. Elaben started her journey of activism with a workers’ union. She knew the methods of adversarial contest and used them judiciously for women’s rights too. However, SEWA’s members have not obtained sustainable economic and social freedoms by disrupting and demanding their rights from others, but from a deep movement of change to build their own capabilities and self-confidence. SEWA has created several institutions, including a cooperative bank, reinforcing each other within SEWA, thus strengthening the economic independence of its poorest members.
Economic inequalities have been increasing around the world. Though economic growth has made the poor less poor, gaps between the poorest and the wealthiest have increased. The economic system is not fair to all. Paralysis of democratic governments is creating demands for radical change from populists, from both left and right, on all continents.
Elaben’s legacy gives insights for labour unions, civil society organisations, and political parties who want to accelerate change in societal power structures that are leaving powerless people behind. Marx stirred a class conflict in the 20th century. He pitted workers against their capitalist employers. The solution was the rise of communism, which substituted the State for capitalists as the workers’ employer. This eliminated exploitation of workers by capitalists, but created states with totalitarian powers that reduced citizens’ political freedoms.
Elaben was inspired by Gandhi’s vision. Gandhi was not a communist. His vision of poorna swaraj for all Indians was a country of a billion democrats and many millions of tiny capitalists. In his vision, workers would be owners of their enterprises, individually and cooperatively. By their work, they would create wealth for themselves, not for remote investors or large capitalists.
Self-employed women are the most marginalised workers in India. Women suffer discrimination even in the formal economy: they are paid less than men and their need to provide family care is considered a hindrance to productivity. Economists driven to enroll more women in the formal economy to boost GDP do not realise that more women in India than any other country already work to earn. They are mostly self-employed: engaged in farming, weaving at home, selling vegetables on the roadside, etc. There is no employer to provide to them fair wages or social security, or even safe spaces to work. While improving ease of doing business for large capitalists, tiny entrepreneurs are looked down upon.
The shape of economic growth matters, not just its size. Formal trade unions fight for benefits for workers in large, formal enterprises that employ less than 10% of Indian workers, whereas 90% of Indian workers are in the informal economy — in manufacturing, agriculture, and services. Around the world, with changes in technologies and business models, the trend is towards more informal employment. Trade unions and associations representing self-employed women, farm workers, hawkers, gig workers, etc must form a wider movement of change for more dignity and justice for the 90% being left further behind, while policymakers chase trillion-dollar targets to grow the size of the economy.
An insight from Elaben’s work for NGOs, development agencies, and others wanting to improve the conditions of people left behind is that the poor must not be treated as beneficiaries of others’ benevolence. This keeps them in a dependent mode. Powerless people must become agents of change, rather than recipients of compensations for their deprivations. Self-motivated change is economically sustainable too. Moreover, when poor people create new institutions together, they acquire more political force for changing the rules of the game and making economic growth equitable.
HelpAge International, which works for the care of older persons around the world, has learned this lesson too. Improvements in infrastructure, health services and incomes with economic growth enable people to live longer. Also, women produce fewer children. Thus, the ratio of older persons in society to working age persons in the formal economy is increasing. Governments are hard-pressed to find resources for the needs of larger numbers of older persons. When older persons become agents of improvements in their own lives, social change is brought about which benefits the whole community. Democratic and sustainable movements of change for the people must be by the people.
