Aruna Roy is a social activist from India. She helped start the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana (MKSS), a group that works to give workers and farmers more power. It is one of the most important civil rights movements in India, and it was a big reason why the Right to Information Act was made (RTI). Before she decided to focus on social and political campaigns full-time, she worked as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service. When she worked for the Administrative Service, she saw how much corruption there was in the Indian government. She learned about the problems of the poor and saw that even though the government tried to help them, not much help was getting to them. She didn’t like the way things were going, so she decided to do something about it. She quit her job as a government worker because she knew there wasn’t much she could do to help the poor. She then joined her activist husband in his work to help the poor. In the end, she and other social activists like Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh formed the MKSS. She was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership, which is a very prestigious award.
Early years and childhood
She was born in Chennai on June 26, 1946. She was Hema and Jayaram’s first child. She is the oldest of three siblings. She was born in Chennai, but most of her childhood was spent in Delhi.
Her father was a lawyer and a civil servant with a strong sense of social responsibility. Her mother was a well-educated woman who thought for herself. Her parents taught her to care deeply about social issues and taught her to think for herself.
She went to school at the Convent of Jesus and Mary, which was run by French and English nuns and was known for its strict rules. After five years of schooling there, her father sent her to Kalakshetra, a famous art school in Madras, which is now called Chennai, where she studied for two years.
After studying for a while at the Aurobindhu Ashram in Pondicherry, she moved to the Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan in New Delhi, where she finished her schooling before going to college.
She spoke Hindi, English, and Tamil well, and her father made her learn French as well. Her parents taught her that all religions were the same and pushed her to question the rules that were already in place.
She chose to study English literature in college. She got her master’s degree from Indraprastha College, Delhi University, and then taught literature from the nineteenth century at the same college for a year. She didn’t love teaching, though. Instead, she wanted to work for the government. In 1967, she took and passed the Indian Administrative Services (IAS) exams to do so.
Aruna Roy’s Career
In 1968, she got her first job. She was sent to Tamil Nadu first, and then to North Arcot, where she lived in a rural area for the first time. Here, she found out how hard it is to be poor and live in the country.
As one of the few women in the IAS, she had to prove herself over and over again. Even though the red tape in the bureaucracy was frustrating, she learned a lot from this experience.
In 1970, she got married. She worked as a sub-collector in Pondicherry at the time she got married. She also took in money and was in charge of other departments.
She was sent to Delhi as a subdistrict magistrate after being moved there. She was in charge of six police stations, and on top of her regular duties, she was often asked to deal with student protests and elections. While she was working in Delhi, she learned how much the government was messed up.
She was then put in charge of finance as a deputy secretary, and in 1973, she became a secretary in the office of the lieutenant governor. She now knew that the IAS wasn’t what she had thought it would be. She was thinking about what to do next in her career after seeing how much corruption there was.
She quit her job to work at the Social Work and Research Center (SWRC), which her husband had started. Aruna’s family and friends didn’t want her to quit her job in the government, but she knew it was time to follow her heart. In 1974, she quit her job with the IAS.
Aruna had a very important time working with the SWRC in Tilonia, Rajasthan. She worked hard with the villagers in the country, living with them and learning about their problems. She realized that she could help rural people more by working with them directly than by working for the government.
She and other social activists like Nikhil Dey and Shankar Singh started the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in 1987. From the start, the members decided that they would work on one or two major issues each year.
Over time, the MKSS grew into one of the most important civil rights movements in India. It worked hard to give workers and peasants more power and asked the government to be more open about what it was doing.
Works of note
She is one of the people who started the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS). This is a social movement and grass-roots organization that was very important in getting the Indian government to pass the Right to Information Act (RTI).
Awards & Achievements
In 2000, she was given the Raman Magsaysay Award for Leadership in the Community.
In 2010, she was given the important Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academia, and Management.
Personal History and Legacies
In 1970, she married Bunker Roy, a classmate from college and a fellow activist. They both chose not to have children and spent their lives helping other people.
Estimated Net worth
Aruna is one of the wealthiest Civil Rights Leader and is on the list of the most well-known Civil Rights Leader. Based on what we found on Wikipedia, Forbes, and Business Insider, Aruna Roy has a net worth of about $1.5 million.