Aruna Roy

She married Bunker Roy, a college classmate and a fellow social activist, in 1970. They both decided not to have any children and devoted their lives to social work.

She was born on June 26, 1946, in Chennai, as the eldest child of Hema and Jayaram. She has three younger siblings. Even though she was born in Chennai, she spent much of her childhood in Delhi.

Her father was a lawyer and a civil servant with a strong social conscience while her mother was a well-educated and independent minded woman. Her parents instilled in her a deep concern for social causes and she was encouraged to be a free thinker.

She attended the conservative Convent of Jesus and Mary which was run by French and English nuns. After studying there for five years her father had her transferred to Kalakshetra, a famous art school in Madras (now Chennai) where she studied for two years.

After studying for a while in the Aurobindhu Ashram in Pondicherry she was transferred to Bhartiya Vidya Bhavan in New Delhi from where she completed her precollegiate education.

She was fluent in Hindi, English and Tamil and on the insistence of her father, also learnt French. Her parents taught her that all religions were equal and encouraged her to question the existing social norms.

She started working in 1968. She was first posted in Tamil Nadu and was then sent to North Arcot where she gained her first experience of living in a rural community. It was here that she learned about the harsh realities of the life of rural poor.

As one of the few women in the IAS, time and again she had to prove her credibility. Even though she was troubled by the red-tapism in the bureaucracy, she also learnt a lot through this experience.

She got married in 1970. At the time of her marriage she was working as a subcollector in Pondicherry. She also collected revenues and oversaw the work of other departments.

She got transferred to Delhi where she was posted as a subdivisonal magistrate. She had jurisdiction over six police stations and was often called to handle student unrest and elections in addition to her regular duties. While serving in Delhi she became aware of the extent of corruption in the government.

She was later posted as deputy secretary for finance and then as secretary in the office of the lieutenant governor in 1973. By now she had realized that the IAS was not what she had imagined it to be. Disillusioned by the rampant corruption she was contemplating the next move in her career.

She is one of the co-founders of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) which is a social movement and grassroots organization which played a key role in pushing the Indian government to enact the Right to Information Act (RTI).