Bunker Roy, who founded Barefoot College in Rajasthan, dies at 81

Sanjit “Bunker” Roy, the social activist who founded Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, has died at the age of 81, according to reports published on 10 November. He died in Tilonia, in Ajmer district, where he had lived and worked for more than 50 years.

Mr. Roy set up the Social Work and Research Centre, now known as Barefoot College, in 1972. Its idea was simple: poor villagers, many unable to read or write, could learn skills that usually need a degree. The college gives no degrees or certificates.

His work

The centre began with water. Mr. Roy first surveyed water supplies in about 100 drought-prone areas, and the college trained villagers to install and repair hand pumps.

It later became best known for solar power. Women from poor villages, often grandmothers, spend six months at Tilonia learning to build and maintain solar lighting. Kamala Devi became the college’s first woman solar engineer in 1997. Women from Zanzibar, Malawi and other countries have since trained there and brought solar power back to their villages. The college also runs night schools for children who work during the day, many of them girls.

His life

Mr. Roy was born on 30 June 1945 in Burnpur, in present-day West Bengal. He studied at The Doon School and at St. Stephen’s College in Delhi. He was India’s national squash champion in 1965 and played in three world championships before he turned to rural work.

He was a petitioner in a 1983 Supreme Court case that struck down lower famine-relief wages for women. He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1985 and the Padma Shri in 1986, and Time magazine named him among the world’s 100 most influential people in 2010.

He married Aruna Roy, a former IAS officer and activist, in 1970.

Details of the last rites had not been announced when this story was published.