Aruna Roy
Aruna Roy (born 26 June 1946) is an Indian political and social activist who founded and heads the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana ("Workers and Peasants Strength Union").Roy was born to Tamil Brahmin family in Chennai. She grew up in Delhi where her father was a government employee. She did her schooling from Convent of Jesus and Mary, Delhi, and later completed her post graduation in English literature from Indraprastha College, Delhi University.She served as a civil servant in the Indian Administrative Service between 1968 and 1974. In 1970 she married Bunker Roy.She resigned the job to devote her time to social and political campaigns. She joined the Social Work and Research Center (SWRC) in Tilonia, Rajasthan. In 1987, she along with Nikhil Dey, Shankar Singh and others founded the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan. She was a leader of the Right to Information movement through National Campaign for People’s Right to Information, which led to the enactment of the Right to Information Act in 2005. She has also remained a member of the National Advisory Council. In 1970 she married Bunker Roy.In 2000, she received the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership. In 2010 she received the prestigious Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award for Excellence in Public Administration, Academia and Management. In 2004, Roy was inducted into the National Advisory Council, a quasi-governmental body chaired by Sonia Gandhi which was passed by the Indian parliament in 2005. She served as a member of the National Advisory Council of India until 2006 and was part of NAC II.
