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Organizing the Outsiders

Indian lawyer Ela Bhatt helps give informal workers a voice

By David Moberg

Ela Bhatt organizes the unorganized—the very unorganized. In 1971, Bhatt was a lawyer and head of the women’s wing of the Textile Labour Association, an Indian labor union, when she met a group of “head loaders,” women who carried loads of cloth on their heads and were paid by the trip, regardless of the time or weight—and paid erratically, at best.… return to article

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