Aruna Roy is an Indian RTI and social activist, and the founder of the Indian political organization ‘Workers and Peasants Strength Union’. He was awarded the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2000. In 2008, she became the president of the National Federation of Indian Women, the women’s wing of the Communist Party of India.
Contents
Wiki/Biography
Aruna Roy was born on Sunday, 26 May 1946 (age 77 years; as of 2023) in Madras Presidency, British India (now Chennai, Tamil Nadu, India). She studied in various schools including the Orthodox Convent School of Jesus and Mary in Madras, Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in New Delhi and Kalakshetra, a renowned art school in Adyar, Madras. When she enrolled at Kalakshetra, she learned art, Bharat Natyam and Indian Carnatic classical music. In 1962, she earned a bachelor’s degree in English Literature from Indraprastha College for Women in New Delhi. In 1965, Aruna obtained her master’s degree from Delhi University.
An old picture of Aruna Roy from 1974
Physical Appearance
Hair Color: Gray
Eye colour: black
Family
He belongs to a Tamil-Brahmin family.
parents and siblings
Aruna’s father Elupai Doraiswami Jayaram was a lawyer. He belonged to a family of social and political workers. ED Jayaram studied at Rabindranath Tagore’s Santiniketan Ashram in Bengal. He also participated in the Indian independence movement. He became a civil servant and started his career as a librarian in the Law Department of the Government of India and eventually retired as a legal advisor to the Council of Scientific and Industrial Research. Later, Jayaram worked as a film and music critic, publishing reviews in various newspapers. When Aruna’s mother Hema studied in school, she was a very good student. He played Veena and performed in many concerts. On the other hand, she also excelled in education. Aruna Roy is the eldest sister of two sisters and one brother. His sisters’ names are Nayanika Krishna and Manya Jayaram Lindsay. His sister Manya moved to the UK in 1977 where she studied indigenous peoples in the United States and Australia. He also studied the transgender community in India. In January 2020, he died in Hitchin, UK after a long battle with cancer.
Aruna Roy (left) with her younger sister, the late Manya Jayaram Lindsay (right)
husband and children
In 1970, she married Sanjit Bunkar Roy, an Indian social activist and founder of Barefoot College (established in 1972) in Rajasthan. Bunkar Roy was born on 30 June 1945. He was a national level squash champion. In 1986, he was honored with Padma Shri by the then President Giani Zail Singh.
A picture of Aruna Roy and Bunkar Roy
After their marriage, the couple decided never to have children so that they could pursue their passions.
religion/religious views
Aruna’s parents had different religious beliefs. His father was an atheist, and his mother Hema was a theist; However, Aruna and her siblings were brought up with diverse thinking and beliefs. The socio-political activist has been celebrating all the festivals with her family since childhood. Being an admirer of Mahatma Gandhi, Aruna often quotes him saying,
God has no religion.”
livelihood
In 1968, at the age of 21, she became an Indian Administrative Service officer; However, in 1974, she resigned from the post and joined the Center for Social Work and Research, a rural-development organization in Tilonia, Rajasthan. In an interview, Aruna talked about her seven years of experience as an IAS officer and said,
There is no situation when one does not learn, but what my IAS years taught me was what I did not want to do. I also learned about the concept of power and ego that comes with a government job.
Later, he taught 19th century literature at Delhi University for a year. In 1990, she moved to Devdungari, Rajasthan and co-founded ‘The Workers and Peasants Strength Union’ (Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan) with other social activists like Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh to empower workers and farmers. It is a committed organization. , Over the years, MKSS became one of the foremost civil rights movements in India and resulted in the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005.
Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan poster with MKSS symbol; A red and black symbol with the fists of a man and a woman raised together
Aruna Roy with Shankar Singh (left) and Nikhil Dey (right)
literary work
educational books
In 1974, Aruna wrote his first academic book ‘Realistic Motifs in the Ideology of Tagore’, which, as the title suggests, is based on Rabindranath Tagore. He published several academic books, including “Tagore’s Concept of Love” (1976), “Schools and Communities: An Experience in Rural India” (1980), and “Determining Destinies: Building Transparency and Accountability through Citizen Involvement” (2015). Are.
non-fiction books
In 2018, Aruna wrote a book titled ‘The RTI Story: Power to the People’, which explains how ordinary people, if they come together, can overcome great obstacles to make democracy more doable. Are.
‘The RTI Story- Power to the People’, a book written by Aruna Roy in 2018
Aruna is the co-author of the book ‘We the People: Establishing Rights and Deepening Democracy’, which was published in 2020. The other co-authors of this book are Nikhil Dey and Rakshita Swamy (a public policy practitioner).
Awards and Achievements
- 1991: Times Fellowship Award for his work for the rights of rural workers
- 2000: Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership
- 2010: Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Education and Management
Aruna Roy received the 11th Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award from then President Pratibha Devisingh Patil.
- 2011: Listed by Time magazine as one of the hundred most influential people in the world
- 2017: Listed by The Times of India as one of the 11 human rights activists whose life mission is to provide a dignified life to others.
- 2019: Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios Award
Aruna Roy received the Dr. Paulos Mar Gregorios Award from former President Pranab Mukherjee in 2019
Facts/General Knowledge
- Aruna was an insatiable reader since childhood, who preferred reading books rather than playing with her friends.
- When Aruna appeared for her interview at Indraprastha College, sixteen-year-old Aruna told the panel about the books she had read and the panel was having difficulty understanding how one could read books that all Were written by the greatest writers. Time at such a young age.
- Aruna and her family were bilingual and spoke different languages like Tamil, English, French and Hindi.
- Aruna, while talking about the influence of Mahatma Gandhi in her book, said,
I have been with Gandhiji all my life. When I was born he was a living memory. “Gandhi was everywhere when I was young and, in a way, he is everywhere today.”
- At a young age, Aruna read about the Renaissance, Aesop’s Fables, the Russian witch Baba Yaga and Panchatantra folk stories.
- Aruna considers her teachers Sheela Uttamsingh and Rathi Bartholomew, who introduced her to literature, and Shakespeare as her two role models.
Aruna Roy with Sheela Uttamsingh (third from left) and Rati Bartholomew (fourth from left) at Indraprastha College in 2004
- In 1968, when Aruna became an IAS officer, she was one of ten Indian women who qualified for the civil services examination.
- In 1990, when she moved to Tilonia, Rajasthan, she faced many difficulties in adjusting with the village women because of their conservative outlook. Aruna was very broad-minded since childhood and women tended to ignore her views, which they considered “taboo”. Later, she met an old woman named Dhani Bhua, who helped her adjust to rural life, after which she became familiar with it. Later, she began socializing with women and advising them on important issues such as birth control.
- Aruna Roy was a member of the Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council (NAC) until her resignation in 2013. In 2022, he marched with Rahul Gandhi and hundreds of people supporting the Bharat Jodo Yatra, a mass movement started by Indians. National Congress.
Aruna Roy and Rahul Gandhi during the Bharat Jodo Yatra 2022, led by the Indian National Congress
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn