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Grassroots Nation, is a series in which we deep dive into the life, work and guiding philosophies of some of the country’s most great leaders of social change.
The podcast is co-produced by Vaaka Media.
Subscribe to never miss an episode
Part personal narrative, part oral history, each episode gives you, the listener, a chance to revisit watershed moments in India’s past through the eyes of the country’s social architects and find out how they were the catalyst for their life’s calling.
Jagdeesh Rao Puppala - On the Commons In India
This is part 2 of Aruna Roy’s story. Listen to part 1 on our feed.
In part 1, Aruna spoke about her early life and upbringing, her career with the Indian Administrative Service and her move to Tilonia, Rajasthan to work at the Social Work Research Centre where she developed deep friendships with the women of the village, and equally learnt from them.
In this episode, Aruna speaks about her move to Devdungri in 1987, to live by the values of sangharsh, or struggle, in the search for a way to work for the betterment of society through collective action and citizen participation. She recounts how the first few years were spent learning how to live with the hardships of rural life and grappling with earning the trust of the people of Devdungri.
Along with her colleagues Shankar Singh and Nikhil Dey, Aruna founded the Mazdoor Kisan Seva Sanghatana (MKSS) in 1990, where they relied on the mobilisation of collective action in order to secure the rights of the rural poor. She also speaks of the Right to Information movement through the National Campaign for the People’s Right to Information or NCPRI, which resulted in the Right To Information Act in 2005.
Aruna Roy is in conversation with journalist and curator of Ahimsa Conversations, Rajni Bakshi.
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