President presents Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development to Ms Ela Ramesh Bhatt

The President of
India, Shri Pranab
Mukherjee presented
the Indira Gandhi
Prize for Peace,
Disarmament and
Development for the
year 2011 to Ms. Ela
Ramesh Bhatt of Self
Employed Women’s
Association (SEWA) at
Rashtrapati Bhavan
today (February 18,
2013).

Ms. Bhatt created
the Self Employed
Women’s Association
(SEWA) in 1972,
which has a
membership in excess
of 1.3 million. She
also founded the
SEWA Cooperative
Bank in 1974, which
has an outreach of 3
million women. These
simple figures speak
volumes of the
dedicated efforts of
Ms. Bhatt and her
team in successfully
bringing women out
of poverty into a life
of self-confidence and
esteem.