Ela Bhatt, eminent social activist and Founder of SEWA (Self Employed Women’s Association) will deliver the 3rd ‘Dr Verghese Kurien Memorial Oration on Sustainable Development’ in memory of the founder of Amul Dr Verghese Kurien, otherwise known as “the Milkman of India” on September 24 at XlRI campus. She would deliver the oration on the topic living with Anubandh: A Way to Sustainability. Father E Abraham, director of XlRI commented, “Dr. Verghese Kurien was a thinker, a revolutionary and a social entrepreneur who ideated the world's biggest agricultural development programme.
It was his "billion-litre idea" which made dairy farming India's largest self-sustaining industry, with benefits of employment, incomes, credit, nutrition, education, health, gender parity and empowerment, breaking down caste barriers and grassroots democracy and leadership. XlRI instituted the oration in his memory with the aim to commemorate his legacy through propagating and disseminating the idea of an empowered, equitable and sustainable society.” Padma Bhushan Dr. Ela R. Bhatt, a lawyer, is a part of the international labour, cooperative, women, and micro-finance movements. She founded the Self-Employed Women's Association of India (SEWA) in 1972 – a trade union which now has more than 10 lakh members. She served as its general secretary from 1972 to 1996. She is also a member of The Elders, an international group of world leaders to contribute their wisdom, independent leadership.