celebrating a life in Public Service.
Aruna Roy’s book discussion at Asia Society India at the historic art gallery, Chemould Prescott at the Queens Mansion in Fort, Mumbai.
Aruna Roy with MKSS Rajasthan, has been the force behind the RTI and MNREGA. Her anecdotes on solidarity building with the villagers for ground up action was priceless. Living with them rather than visiting once would not create any trust. Her views on the syncretic nature of our polity is an important remainder in these polarised times, although she did state that her generation of activists failed to engage with religion unlike Gandhi ji.
Nikhil Dey, her colleague and stalwart, spoke about their work with platform workers and the unravelling of RTI under Digital Public Infrastructure where we are all data and that data is behind administrator login. RTI brought government information to the public, and that powerful legislation which challenges power has resulted in the death of my people.
MKSS has been behind the gig worker legislation in Rajasthan and works for legislative redressal for the worker in the platform era.
MNREGA often criticised in urban areas has brought decency and dignity to rural India and has bipartisan support.
The audience had the legendary P Sainath, founder of PARI and actor Richa Chadha, both of whom i had the honor to chat.
True education is always in an art gallery where the aesthetics are critical to learn.
Change Thinker 