We invite you to a panel discussion with Aruna Roy on her recent memoir The Personal is Political, at Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.

Aruna Roy is a socio-political activist and Founder-Member, Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sanghathan (MKSS), National Campaign for People’s Right to Information (NCPRI), and the School for Democracy (SFD). She was with the Indian Administrative Service (IAS) from 1968 to 1975. 

In 1975, she visited Ajmer, Rajasthan to work with the SWRC and the rural poor. In 1987, she moved to live with the poor in a village called Devdungri, Rajsamand, Rajasthan. In 1990, she was part of the group that set up the MKSS. 

She has worked towards access to constitutional rights for the poor — Right to Information, Employment, Food Security, etc. She was a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC) from 2004-06 and 2010 – 13. 2014. She was a member of the steering committee of the Open Government Partnership (OGP) till 2014. She is the President of the National Federation of Indian Women (NFIW).

She was the 2016 Professor of Practice at McGill University ISID, Montreal, Canada, and the 2016 George Soros Visiting Practitioner Chair at CEU, Budapest. Awards include the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2000, the Nani Palkiwala Award and the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Award. She was listed as one of the 100 most influential people in the world by TIME Magazine in 2011.

Panellists

• Srishti Yadav: Srishti is a faculty member of the School of Arts and Sciences, Azim Premji University. She is interested in unpacking the power relations that shape the agrarian and small-town economies of India.
• Nithya R: Nithya R is Assistant Director, Income Tax, Indian Revenue Service. Nithya is an alumnus of Azim Premji University who graduated from the BA Humanities programme in 2019.
• Moderator: The session will be moderated by Rajendran Narayanan, a faculty member of the School of Arts and Sciences, Azim Premji University, Bengaluru.