Aruna Roy Biography 
Aruna Roy is an Indian social activist. And founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathana. She led the Right to Information movement and this led to the enactment of Right to Information Act in the year 2005.
She was born on 26th May 1946 in Chennai. Her parents are Elupai Doraiswami Jayaram and Hema. Hema was the daughter of inter-caste couple. Though her maternal grandparents belong to Brahmin sect, she was brought up with modern ideals. Her mother studied at Christian School and her father is from the family of lawyers.
Her father is also involved in various social activities and is a civil servant of Government of India. He served as the legal advisor to Council of Scientific and Industrial Research after his retirement. Aruna Roy has two sisters and one brother and she is the eldest of all. She lived in New Delhi most of the time.
She started her education in a Catholic convent and studied at the Convent of Jesus and Mary in Delhi. She then continued her education at Kalakshetra in Chennai. It was there that she learned Bharatnatyam and Carnatic music. Then she studied at Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry and then at Bharatiya Vidya Bhavan in New Delhi.
She joined Indraprastha College in Delhi and there she studied about Renaissance, Tolstoy, Shakespeare and Sappho. After completing the course, she registered for post graduation in University of Delhi. She met Sanjit Bunker Roy whom she married later. She started to teach in the Indraprastha College after her post graduation. In 1967 she passed IAS examination and was one among the 10 women selected that year.
She worked as a civil servant in IAS from 1968 to 1974. Then she resigned the job and devoted her time to social service. She conducted many social and political campaigns. She worked with Social Work and Research Center in Tilonia in Rajasthan upto 1983. She also remained a member of National Advisory Council.
When Congress party won in 2004, she became a member of the powerful quasi governmental body, National Advisory Committee to supervise the working of the common minimum program of UPA II. She served in this position until 2006. She received Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2000 and Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award in 2010.
Published: N/A
Updated: September 11, 2011
