The Hindu : National : Ela Bhatt presented Lal Bahadur Shastri award

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Friday, Oct 08, 2004

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National

Ela Bhatt presented Lal Bahadur Shastri award

By Our Staff Correspondent

NEW DELHI, OCT. 7. The President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, today presented the fifth Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academics and Management to Ela Ramesh Bhatt, founder general secretary of the Self Employed Women's Association (SEWA).

The Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh, was also present at the function.

'Unending struggle'

The award was presented to Ms. Bhatt in recognition of her outstanding contribution to the cause of women in the unorganised sector, her unending struggle for their emancipation through self-reliance and self-employment, and for upholding the principles of simplicity, non-violence, sanctity of labour and human values. The award carries Rs. 1 lakh in cash, a citation and a plaque, besides an entitlement as a Lal Bahadur Shastri Fellow.

Ms. Bhatt said constant administrative reforms were needed to keep pace with the impact of the changing economies of the world, and communities, when not fully literate, needed better management. Given the opportunity, the poor and working women could innovate and apply new management techniques to suit the ground realities.

'Admired Shastri'

She said she had admiredthe former Prime Minister, Lal Bahadur Shastri, since childhood, particularly his slogan "Jai Jawan, Jai Kisan" and his Gandhian way of life.

She had been influenced by the Administrative Reforms Commission he instituted to streamline public administration.

Several honours

The Gujarat-based SEWA has twogoals — to organise women workers to achieve self-employment, work security, income security and social security; and second,to make them individually and collectively self-reliant and economically independent.It is active in the field of self-employed women's rights, cooperatives, banking, insurance, health and capacity-building.

Recipient of the Padmashree and Padmabhushan, Ms. Bhatt has been honoured with the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 1977, the Alternate Nobel Prize in 1984, the Asia Society Award, the FICCI Millennium Life Time Achievement Award and the Economic Times Award for Business Women, 2003.

She was nominated to the Rajya Sabha in 1989 and was a member of the Planning Commission between 1989-1991.

Many national and international universities have conferred honorary Doctors of Letters, Humanities and Social Sciences upon her.

Ms. Bhatt is also a member of various advisory and governing bodies.

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