Social activists in India have worked towards uplifting standards of living and to combat communalism, female foeticide and for women’s empowerment. Some are working to combat drugs or alcohol abuse, AIDS and to promote education for the masses and ecological conservation. When Anna Hazare came out to protests against corruption many social activists joined his movement. Biographical sketch of some of them is given for the readers’ benefit.
Arvind Kejriwal
Born in 1968, Arvind Kejriwal is an social activist and crusader for greater transparency in Government. He was awarded Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership in 2006, for activating India’s Right to Information movement at grassroots and social activities to empower the poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding the government answerable to the people.
Arvind Kejriwal was born in Hissar, Haryana in 1968, and graduated from IIT Kharagpur as a Mechanical Engineer in 1989. Later, he joined the Indian Revenue Service (IRS), a part of the Indian Civil Services in 1992, and was posted at the Income-tax Commissioner’s Office in Delhi. Soon, he realized that much of the corruption prevalent in government is owing to lack of transparency in the process. Even while in his official position, he started crusading against the corrupt practices. Initially, Arvind was instrumental in bringing in a number of changes to increase transparency in the Income Tax office.
In January 2000, he took a sabbatical from work and founded Parivartan—a Delhi based citizens’ movement which works on ensuring a just, transparent and accountable governance. Thereafter, in February 2006, he resigned from the job, to work full-time at Parivartan.
Together with Aruna Roy and others, he campaigned for the Right to Information Act, which soon became a silent social movement, Delhi Right to Information Act was passed in 2001 and eventually at the national-level Act the Indian Parliament passed the Right to Information Act (RTI) in 2005. Thereafter, in July 2006, he spearheaded an awareness campaign for RTI across India. To motivate others Arvind has now instituted an RTI Award through his organisation.
The right to information holds as much importance in the lives of the poor as it does for the general public and professionals. Yet, many Indians remain passive spectators in the process of electing governments. Arvind uses the Right to Information Act to equip individual citizens with the power to question their government. Through his organization Parivartan he promotes participation in governance by people.
Kiran Bedi
Born on June 9, 1949 in Amritsar (Punjab) Kiran Bedi is a social activist and a retired IPS officer. She became the first woman to join the IPS in 1972. She retired from the IPS in December, 2007, after taking voluntary retirement. She was the host and TV judge of the popular TV series Aap Ki Kachehri broadcast on the TV channel, Star Plus. This programme features Indian families approaching her TV court and explaining their problems to her. She then offers legal advice and monetary help to solve the problem. This program is classified as an EDUtainment program, as it attempts to simplify and explain legal procedures and Indian law to the viewers.
She has also founded two NGOs in India—Navjyoti for welfare and preventive policing in 1987 and the India Vision Foundation for prison reformation, drug abuse prevention and child welfare in 1994. She is one of the winners of the 2011 Bharatiya Manavata Vikas Puraskar.
She attended the Sacred Heart Convent School, Amritsar, where she joined the National Cadet Corps (NCC). She took up tennis, a passion she inherited from her father, a tennis player. She won the Junior National Lawn Tennis Championship in 1966, the Asian Lawn Tennis Championship in 1972, and the All-India Interstate Women’s Lawn Tennis Championship in 1976. In addition, she also won the All-Asian Tennis Championship, and won the Asian Ladies Title at the age of 22.
Later, she obtained her B.A. in English (Hons.) (1964-68) from the Government College for Women, Amritsar. She then earned a Master’s degree (1968-70) in Political Science from Panjab University, Chandigarh, graduating at the top of her class.
Kiran Bedi married Brij Bedi in 1972, the year she started her career in the Indian Police Service (IPS).
Even while in active service in the IPS, she pursued her educational goals, and obtained a Law degree (LLB) in 1988 from Delhi University, Delhi. In 1993, she obtained a Ph.D. in Social Sciences from the Department of Social Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, New Delhi, where the topic of her thesis was ‘Drug Abuse and Domestic Violence’.
She began her career as a Lecturer in Political Science (1970-72) at Khalsa College for Women, Amritsar. In July 1972, she joined the Indian Police Service. Bedi joined the police service “because of her urge to be outstanding”. She served in a number of tough assignments ranging from New Delhi traffic postings, Deputy Inspector General of Police in insurgency prone Mizoram, Advisor to the Lieutenant Governor of Chandigarh, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau, to a United Nations delegation, where she became the Civilian Police Advisor in United Nations peacekeeping operations. For her work in the UN, she was awarded a UN medal. She is popularly referred to as Crane Bedi for towing the Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s car for a parking violation, during the PM’s tour of United States at the time.
Kiran Bedi influenced several decisions of the Indian Police Service, particularly in the areas of narcotics control, traffic management, and VIP security. During her stint as the Inspector General of Prisons, in Tihar Jail (Delhi) (1993-1995), she instituted a number of reforms in the management of the prison, and initiated a number of measures such as detoxification programs, yoga, vipassana meditation, redressing of complaints by prisoners and literacy programs. For this she won the 1994 Ramon Magsaysay Award, and the ‘Jawaharlal Nehru Fellowship’, to write about her work at Tihar Jail.
She was last appointed as Director General of India’s Bureau of Police Research and Development.
In May 2005, she was awarded an honorary degree of Doctor of Law in recognition of her ‘humanitarian approach to prison reforms and policing’.
On 27 November 2007, she had expressed her wish to voluntarily retire from the police force to undertake new challenges in life. On 25 December 2007, the Government of India agreed to relieve Kiran Bedi of her duties as Director General of the Bureau of Police Research and Development.
Swami Agnivesh
Born on September 21, 1939 Swami Agnivesh is a scholar and social activist. He is perhaps best known for his work against bonded labour through the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which he founded in 1981. Agnivesh is the founder and president of the World Council of Arya Samaj, which he describes as an associate of the original Arya Samaj, and chairperson of the United Nations Voluntary Trust Fund on Contemporary Forms of Slavery.
Born as Shyam Vepa Rao on September 21, 1939, in Sakti, where his grandfather was the Diwan of the erstwhile princely state, now in the Janjgir-Champa district of Chhattisgarh.
Agnivesh received his degrees in Law and Economics from the University of Calcutta; thereafter he worked as a lecturer of Business Management at St. Xavier’s College, Calcutta, from 1963 to 1968. In 1968, he left his home and job at Calcutta and went to Haryana to join the Arya Samaj and on March 25, 1970, Agnivesh took to monastic orders, sanyas, under Arya Samaj. On the same day he also founded Arya Sabha, a political party based on Arya Samaj principles as he described in his 1974 book, Vaidik Samajvad. In 1977, Agnivesh became a member of the Legislative Assembly of Haryana, and served as a State Minister for Education from 1979 to 1982. In 1981, while still a minister, he founded the Bonded Labour Liberation Front, which continues to fight against bonded labour in India, especially in the quarries in and around Delhi; he remains the chairperson of the organization.
Agnivesh has been testifying before the Working Group on Contemporary Forms of Slavery at the United Nations Human Rights Commission in Geneva. A movement led by him is strongly voicing its opinion against child labour. After the controversial sati incident on September 4, 1987 in Rajasthan, he marched up to Deorala from Delhi, and staged dharna outside the village and also courted arrest as a mark of public protest. Later he created a new task for emancipation of womanhood, which brought about the Commission of Sati (prevention) Act of 1987.
In 1993 he got invited to hold a speech at the ethnological museum in Zurich about his work and fight against bonded labour and the influence of the local traditions & religions in India. Agnivesh has remained an advocated against large-scale female foeticide practiced by some medical doctors, and in November 2005, he also led a public march against it through Haryana. He was the main proponent of a challenge to the Shankaracharya of Puri for public debate against his views on sati.
In 2008, he addressed a large gathering at the Anti-Terrorism Global Peace Conference, at Ramlila Grounds, organized by Jamiat Ulema-e-Hind and several Islamic organizations, where he stated, “It is wrong to attribute the wrongdoings of a few individuals to the whole community. I would not mince words to say that the United States is the terrorist number one. To defame the Quran and Islam is the worst form of terrorism. Islam stands for peace and brotherhood and there cannot be a bigger lie than saying that Muslims are terrorists.”
Swami Agnivesh is also a proponent of interfaith dialogue and is a member of the Board of World Leaders for the Elijah Interfaith Institute.
