Ela Bhatt is founder of the Self Employed Women’s Association of India (SEWA), a trade-union which represents the rights of over one million workers. Bhatt has spent forty years helping to mobilize and bring justice to a once-marginalised and factious group of workers. Thanks to SEWA, these workers have secured legal protection for their trade and escaped the exploitation they once suffered at the hands of the police and money lenders.

Bhatt has also received many honours including India’s Padma Bhushan and Japan’s Niwano Peace Prize. She is a member of The Elders, a group of statesmen and social activists brought together by Nelson Mandela to promote peace building and human rights.