Summary
India must take its vast informal economy seriously, [Ela Bhatt] argues, despite the attention lavished on its high-tech industries and international call centers. "If it does not invest enough in the informal sector, India will not progress," she says. "India must do this if it wants to be a leader in the world. Otherwise, poverty will always hold you back When the working population remains poor, you can't bring the nation forward."
SEWA is also politically active. Bhatt once served as a presidentially appointed member of Parliament, but SEWA refuses to align with any political party, which is making its political work increasingly difficult. "Public life is changing," she says. "Whatever you do, the party wants to see that they get the benefit. Then the bureaucrats want to control the results." This year, SEWA has been campaigning for incorporating informal sector workers in India's social security system.See the full content of this document
Extract
Organizing the Outsiders
ELA BHATT ORGANIZES the unorganized-the very unorganized.
In 1971, Bhatt was a lawyer and head of the women's wing of the Textile Labour Association, an Indian labor union, when she met a gro...See the full content of this document
Sponsored links
