Ela Bhatt and the meaning of freedom

John Elkington

May 3, 2009

One of our favourite social entrepreneurs, Ela Bhatt of India’s Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), is covered in The New York Times. One of the nicest parts of the profile is where she reflects on the meaning of freedom for SEWA’s poverty-stricken members. For some, it is the ability to step out of the house, for others having a door on the bathroom. Then she tells her personal favourite. Freedom, one woman told her, was “looking a policeman in the eye”.