Aruna Roy is an activist and social worker from India. She is the founder of the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) and has been a powerful voice behind the Right To Information (RTI) movement and the Right To Information Act enacted because of it. She recently published a book on the movement titled The RTI Story: Power to the People. On May 24th 2018 she visited the University of Washington with support from the Association for India’s Development and UW South Asia Center.
Roy describes the RTI movement as a ‘success of Indian democracy and a celebration of its people’. Through the creation and critique of state level Right To Information laws, citizens were able to determine the essential components of what would become the national RTI Act of 2005. Read an excerpt from the book published in the Hindustan Times, which recounts the MKSS campaign that resulted in the RTI Act of 2005.