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Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy (2019)
Aruna Roy (2019) Image: Wikimedia Commons. Augustus Binu : flickr / CC BY-SA 3.0

Overview

Aruna Roy is an Indian social and political activist best known for her work on the right to information and rural workers' rights in India. She has been associated with grassroots mobilisation in Rajasthan and with national-level advocacy for transparency, accountability, and social welfare legislation.

Key facts

Name Aruna Roy
Nationality Indian
Known for Activism on right to information and rural rights
Associated organisation Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS)
Primary area of work Rajasthan, India

Background

Aruna Roy began her public service career in the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), which she later left to pursue full-time grassroots work. She moved to rural Rajasthan, where she became involved with organising agricultural labourers and small farmers around issues of wages, land, and access to public records.

Activism and career

Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan

Roy is a co-founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS), a workers' and peasants' collective based in central Rajasthan. The organisation became widely known for using jan sunwais (public hearings) to expose discrepancies in local government records relating to wages and development works. These public hearings became a model for subsequent transparency campaigns in India.

Right to Information movement

The MKSS-led campaign for access to official records contributed to the broader national movement for a right to information law in India. Roy was among the prominent figures associated with this movement, which culminated in the enactment of the Right to Information Act, 2005.

National Advisory Council

Roy served as a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), a body that advised the Government of India on social policy during the United Progressive Alliance period. In that role she was associated with discussions on rights-based social legislation.

Significance

Aruna Roy is widely regarded as one of the most influential figures in India's post-Independence civil society, particularly for linking local-level worker mobilisation in Rajasthan with national-level legal reform. Her work helped popularise the use of public hearings as an accountability tool and contributed to broader debates on transparency in governance, employment guarantees, and welfare delivery.

References