Public Health Heroes Awards Ceremony

While serving as women's section chief for the Textile Labour Association in Ahmedabad, India, Ela Bhatt witnessed the untenable conditions confronting women in the garment industry and resolved to apply her training as an attorney and social worker to organizing self-employed women. The small collective she founded in 1972, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), has since grown to become India’s largest trade union with more than 218,000 members in 71 cooperatives.

Bhatt observed these women—self-employed weavers; stitchers; cigarette rollers; vendors of fruit, fish, vegetables and tea; firewood and waste paper pickers; road construction crews—struggling to make a decent living for themselves and their families. In Ahmedabad at that time, most were subject to high rents for stalls or the tools of their trade and exploitation or harassment by money lenders, employers, or officials. Ninety-seven percent lived in slums; 93 percent were illiterate; and most were in debt and unable to afford child care, which necessitated looking after children as they worked.

As part of SEWA's organized collective, individual members have a fighting chance to become self-reliant and establish security for themselves and their families. They are able to negotiate for health, maternity, and death benefits. They are able to enhance their production potential by sharing skills and expertise; developing new tools, designs and techniques; and engaging in bulk purchasing and joint marketing. They earn more and are therefore better able to afford education, health care, and birth control. They begin to define themselves not solely by their familial relationships (wife, daughter-in-law, mother, caste), but also by their capacity as a worker or small-business owner. Through SEWA's banking arm, the women are able to open accounts in their own names and secure loans, thus allowing them to purchase land, build capital assets, and grow their enterprises.

Ms. Bhatt has also been active on a national and international scale as a member of the Indian parliament from 1986-1989, India's Planning Commission from 1986-1991, and as chairperson of Women’s World Banking.

Award Presenter

David M. Lawrence, M.D., M.P.H., is the former chairman and chief executive of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. Over the years Dr. Lawrence has emerged as a health-care statesman and advocate of managed care's advantages in an increasingly complex medical world. He has been praised for his ability to lead the large and influential organization without compromising his commitment to public health. In 2000 the UC Berkeley School of Public Health named Kaiser Permanente as its organizational Public Health Hero, recognizing it as the nation's largest nonprofit provider of integrated health service.

The Challenge: Improving Women's Health in Developing Countries

In the past quarter century, women across the globe have entered the labor force in unprecedented numbers. Nevertheless, a gender divide persists wherein women earn less and face obstacles to education, social empowerment, and accessibility and availability of medical services.

While the number of women employed worldwide has increased, women's traditional domestic and familial roles have remained unchanged. As a result of bearing and raising children, women's bodies take on physical stresses that place them at special risk for illness and death. Several international women

s advocacy organizations estimate that 1,600 women die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. For every one death, at least another 30 women will sustain significant illness or disability. These maternal mortality rates are tremendously high, considering the modern advances in medicine, and largely attributable to conditions in developing countries, where nearly half of delivering mothers cannot access or afford skilled birth attendants.

Health education to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy is especially critical. If they are not healthy or able to work, women cannot look after themselves or their families. Every year women undergo upwards of 20 million unsafe abortions and 78,000 of these women die. The data on HIV/AIDS contracted by women as a result of unprotected intercourse is beyond staggering and considered by many to reveal the greatest public health failure in human history. It is estimated that only 2 percent of governmental spending in developing countries is spent on health education related to family planning and protection from sexually transmitted diseases.

Organizing themselves allows women to gain influence in decision-making. By negotiating to earn enough to sustain themselves and their families, women are able to respond to crises and plan for the future. Economic stability allows for proper nutrition, healthful living conditions, and preventative health care.

The School of Public Health Responds

Two research centers at the School of Public Health focus specifically on fostering self-sufficiency and improved socioeconomic status as a means to improving women’s health in the developing world.

The Center for Entrepreneurship in International Health and Development (CEIHD) specifically promotes the use of entrepreneurial methods to improve the health of families in developing countries. CEIHD brings the expertise of business and public health professionals to focus on problems related to the unmet need for health services and products. Their goal is to create financially sustainable, modular systems that employ the skills and knowledge of local entrepreneurs as partners and eventual owners of this process. CEIHD works to catalyze market changes that will ultimately provide cleaner, healthier household energy solutions and high-quality medicines and health services for poorer populations that have not had access to innovations at affordable prices.

The Health, Environment, and Development Program (HED)—an interdisciplinary program based in the School of Public Health—strives to help people in developing countries achieve health, reach a reasonable level of well-being, and stabilize their populations, while at the same time protecting the local, community and global environments. Students in this program learn to conceptualize environmentally mediated public health problems at household, community, regional, and global levels; appraise and use statistical and epidemiological data to establish causal links between environmental contaminants and ill health; and forge concise, analytically robust and practical policy recommendations.

	2003 International Hero Ela Bhatt Founder, Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA)	Other 2003 Heroes National Gordon Belcourt, M.P.H. '80 Regional Lester Breslow, M.D., Ph.D. Organizational Homeless Prenatal Program
2003 International Hero - Ela Bhatt While serving as women's section chief for the Textile Labour Association in Ahmedabad, India, Ela Bhatt witnessed the untenable conditions confronting women in the garment industry and resolved to apply her training as an attorney and social worker to organizing self-employed women. The small collective she founded in 1972, the Self-Employed Women's Association (SEWA), has since grown to become India’s largest trade union with more than 218,000 members in 71 cooperatives. Bhatt observed these women—self-employed weavers; stitchers; cigarette rollers; vendors of fruit, fish, vegetables and tea; firewood and waste paper pickers; road construction crews—struggling to make a decent living for themselves and their families. In Ahmedabad at that time, most were subject to high rents for stalls or the tools of their trade and exploitation or harassment by money lenders, employers, or officials. Ninety-seven percent lived in slums; 93 percent were illiterate; and most were in debt and unable to afford child care, which necessitated looking after children as they worked. As part of SEWA's organized collective, individual members have a fighting chance to become self-reliant and establish security for themselves and their families. They are able to negotiate for health, maternity, and death benefits. They are able to enhance their production potential by sharing skills and expertise; developing new tools, designs and techniques; and engaging in bulk purchasing and joint marketing. They earn more and are therefore better able to afford education, health care, and birth control. They begin to define themselves not solely by their familial relationships (wife, daughter-in-law, mother, caste), but also by their capacity as a worker or small-business owner. Through SEWA's banking arm, the women are able to open accounts in their own names and secure loans, thus allowing them to purchase land, build capital assets, and grow their enterprises. Ms. Bhatt has also been active on a national and international scale as a member of the Indian parliament from 1986-1989, India's Planning Commission from 1986-1991, and as chairperson of Women’s World Banking. Award Presenter David M. Lawrence, M.D., M.P.H., is the former chairman and chief executive of Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, Inc. Over the years Dr. Lawrence has emerged as a health-care statesman and advocate of managed care's advantages in an increasingly complex medical world. He has been praised for his ability to lead the large and influential organization without compromising his commitment to public health. In 2000 the UC Berkeley School of Public Health named Kaiser Permanente as its organizational Public Health Hero, recognizing it as the nation's largest nonprofit provider of integrated health service. The Challenge: Improving Women's Health in Developing Countries In the past quarter century, women across the globe have entered the labor force in unprecedented numbers. Nevertheless, a gender divide persists wherein women earn less and face obstacles to education, social empowerment, and accessibility and availability of medical services. While the number of women employed worldwide has increased, women's traditional domestic and familial roles have remained unchanged. As a result of bearing and raising children, women's bodies take on physical stresses that place them at special risk for illness and death. Several international women s advocacy organizations estimate that 1,600 women die every day from complications of pregnancy and childbirth. For every one death, at least another 30 women will sustain significant illness or disability. These maternal mortality rates are tremendously high, considering the modern advances in medicine, and largely attributable to conditions in developing countries, where nearly half of delivering mothers cannot access or afford skilled birth attendants. Health education to prevent disease and unwanted pregnancy is especially critical. If they are not healthy or able to work, women cannot look after themselves or their families. Every year women undergo upwards of 20 million unsafe abortions and 78,000 of these women die. The data on HIV/AIDS contracted by women as a result of unprotected intercourse is beyond staggering and considered by many to reveal the greatest public health failure in human history. It is estimated that only 2 percent of governmental spending in developing countries is spent on health education related to family planning and protection from sexually transmitted diseases. Organizing themselves allows women to gain influence in decision-making. By negotiating to earn enough to sustain themselves and their families, women are able to respond to crises and plan for the future. Economic stability allows for proper nutrition, healthful living conditions, and preventative health care. The School of Public Health Responds Two research centers at the School of Public Health focus specifically on fostering self-sufficiency and improved socioeconomic status as a means to improving women’s health in the developing world. The Center for Entrepreneurship in International Health and Development (CEIHD) specifically promotes the use of entrepreneurial methods to improve the health of families in developing countries. CEIHD brings the expertise of business and public health professionals to focus on problems related to the unmet need for health services and products. Their goal is to create financially sustainable, modular systems that employ the skills and knowledge of local entrepreneurs as partners and eventual owners of this process. CEIHD works to catalyze market changes that will ultimately provide cleaner, healthier household energy solutions and high-quality medicines and health services for poorer populations that have not had access to innovations at affordable prices. The Health, Environment, and Development Program (HED)—an interdisciplinary program based in the School of Public Health—strives to help people in developing countries achieve health, reach a reasonable level of well-being, and stabilize their populations, while at the same time protecting the local, community and global environments. Students in this program learn to conceptualize environmentally mediated public health problems at household, community, regional, and global levels; appraise and use statistical and epidemiological data to establish causal links between environmental contaminants and ill health; and forge concise, analytically robust and practical policy recommendations.