Legendary social activist and founder of Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) Ela Bhatt has been appointed the new Chancellor of the city-based Gujarat Vidyapith.
“Gujarat Vidyapith’s Trustee Mandal, which comprises 23 members at present, today decided to appoint Elaben Bhatt as the new Chancellor,” Registrar of the university Rajendra Khimani told PTI.
She will succeed Narayan Desai, son of Mahatma Gandhi’s diarist Mahadev Desai, who resigned last month. Desai quit due to health-related issues, he said.
According to Khimani, Gopalkrishna Gandhi, grandson of the Mahatma and ex-Governor of West Bengal, too was considered for the post but he declined to head the premiereducational institute founded by the Father of the Nation in 1920.
Bhatt, a Padma Bhushan awardee, is known for seminal work for women’s empowerment through SEWA, an organisation of poor, self-employed workers. SEWA has provided platforms to lakhs of women to get employment in various sectors.
The 81-year-old Gandhian has also taken part in several international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. She has won several prestigious national and international awards, including the Ramon Magsaysay Award (1977), Padma Bhushan (1986) and the Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development.