May 2010

Ela Ramesh Bhatt Receives 27th Niwano Peace Prize

The Niwano Peace Foundation presented the 27th Niwano Peace Prize to Ms. Ela Ramesh Bhatt of India, founder of the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), a women's labor union with more than 1.2 million members throughout India. Ms. Bhatt was honored for her contributions for more than thirty years to improving the lives of her country's poorest and most oppressed women workers.

The presentation took place May 13 at the Foreign Correspondents' Club of Japan in Tokyo. Some 150 people attended, including Mr. Kan Suzuki, Japan's senior vice minister of education, culture, sports, science, and technology, and representatives of Japanese political and religious circles.

Ms. Bhatt founded SEWA in 1972 to help marginalized women workers and their families, without regard to differences of faith or caste, to obtain full employment and economic self-reliance. Knowing the social position of these women, especially in India, and recognizing the necessity for their economic self-reliance, she has made a major contribution to their empowerment. Her work is imbued with a religious spirit based on a Gandhian philosophy of promoting economic independence and striving for social justice and peace.

At the presentation, Ms. Katherine Marshall, vice chair of the Niwano Peace Prize Committee, described the prize's screening process. Rev. Nichiko Niwano, the foundation's president, presented a citation, a medal, and 20 million Japanese yen to Ms. Bhatt.

After an address by President Niwano, congratulatory messages followed, from Mr. Suzuki; from Mr. Hemant Krishan Singh, the Indian ambassador, read out in his absence by Mr. Ravi Mathur, minister (media) at the Indian Embassy; and from Rev. Nobuhisa Yamakita, chairman of the Japanese Association of Religious Organizations.

Ms. Bhatt then delivered her acceptance address, in which she pointed out that denying the poor their rights is a form of violence, and she described the significance of the founding of SEWA. In conclusion, she said, "SEWA may be a local story or a South Asian story. It is a local struggle, but it has to meet global questions. The local and the global have to combine in new ways and new communities. SEWA, or translations or interpretations of SEWA, will be invented elsewhere. In that sense I recognize the gift of the Niwano Peace Prize as a challenge for us. The challenge today is for SEWA to meet the challenges of Darfur, Afghanistan, or Sri Lanka. The challenge now is to see how women's work and women's idea of community and nature can create new commons of peace."

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