Keynote Speakers

Mrs. Aruna Roy

Aruna Roy was born in 1946. She is married to her classmate in Delhi University, Sanjit (Bunker) Roy, who founded the well known Social Work and Research Centre( SWRC, also known as the Barefoot College), in Tilonia, Rajasthan.

She went to a number of schools known for their innovative approach to education - including the celebrated centre for the Arts, Kalkshetra in Chennai (Madras), Tamil Nadu. After obtaining a post graduate degree in English Literature from Delhi University, she taught for a year at Indraprastha College in Delhi, and then qualified to become a member of the Indian Administrative Service (I.A.S.) in 1968. She left the I.A.S. in 1975 to join Rural Development Work in Rajasthan.

From 1975 to 1983, she worked with the SWRC Tilonia, Ajmer District, Rajasthan. She left the SWRC in 1983, and till 1987 worked on issues of women’s empowerment and training in Rajasthan, and spent some time looking at and learning from peoples movements in India.

Born in urban India, her real education about rural realities took place in the 9 years with the SWRC. Building friendships and relationships with the rural poor, she understood their disenfranchisement from democratic institutions and processes. Through these years of close interaction with a number of extraordinary people in villages, she realised the significance of political and democratic education of the people, and that peoples’ political action was crucial for their own empowerment, both within and outside electoral politics. It became apparent that political action is an organic process based on the strength and resources of the people themselves, and therefore fell outside the framework of funding agencies and projects.

In 1987 she started working in central Rajasthan, with Shankar Singh and Nikhil Dey, to identify issues and mobilize people to evolve their own organization for struggle based empowerment and change. After two struggles for land and minimum wages, the poor of the area got together to establish the Mazdoor Kisan Shakti Sangathan (MKSS) in 1990. The MKSS does not receive any institutional funding, Indian or foreign, and is part of the non-party political process in India. Concentrating on evolving modes of participatory democracy, the MKSS has worked to strengthen democratic processes and build platforms, through which the poor and the marginalized, can participate in democratic processes and institutions and meaningfully impact governance.

The most significant of these processes, have been the campaigns for Transparency and the peoples Right to Information, which began in the early 1990s and more recently, the Right to Work and Right to Food Campaigns. The Right to Information Campaign began with a demand for the transparency of development spending at the Panchayat level, and the right to get copies of documents as a statutory right. As the movement gathered momentum and support and widened in scope including two long dharnas in 1996 and 1997, the demand for a legal entitlement began with provisions being changed in the Panchayat Raj rules in Rajasthan, granting the people of Rajasthan the right to access records of the Panchayat.

The National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI), was born out of this struggle. It has been an important platform for advocacy for the passage and implementation of the Act since its inception in 1996. The draft of a central Right to Information legislation - prepared initially by the Press Council of India, under the Chairmanship of Justcie P.B.Savant, with the NCPRI, promoted broad based participation of lawyers, politicians, social activists, editors of newspapers, lawyers and ex-members of the judiciary and Human Rights activists. This campaign influenced the passing initially of State Laws and eventually anchored the drafting for a Central Right to Information Bill, which was passed by Parliament in May 2005. The Act has been implemented in the whole country from the 13th October 2005.

As the RTI Campaign’s genesis was from a demand for work, joining the campaign for Employment Guarantee was a logical result of the initial campaign. The MKSS became a part of the struggle of the Peoples Action for Employment Guarantee. Along with other supporters including political parties, this Campaign was successful in getting the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, passed by Parliament in August 2005.

Both these campaigns have demonstrated the potential of ordinary people, to exercise their powers in a democratic framework to influence, mould and determine national policy. There is much yet to be done, but this process has brought confidence and hope to the common person, empowering them to change their own lives, using simple principles. The exercise of the democratic sovereign right to ask questions and demand political accountability from those who govern, has taken the RTI and the NREGA campaigns into the broader framework of building a participatory democracy.

Aruna Roy was a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), from 2004 – 2006 set up by the UPA Government to monitor promises made to the people in the National Common Minimum Programme (NCMP). The NAC used the peoples drafts on the RTI and the NREGA to formulate the first draft of the legislation passed in Parliament.

She has also been a member of different public hearings, tribunals and peoples commissions including the “Concerned Citizens Tribunal”, which investigated the organized violence and killings of innocent people in Gujarat in 2002.

Aruna Roy was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Community Leadership in 2000. She has always been a firm believer in collective effort, and she has insisted that the Magsaysay Award rightly belongs to the people who fought for the RTI and the MKSS. The award money has been put into a Trust (Jan Hith Trust) to support the process of democratic struggle. The MKSS has received several Awards for its work with democratic rights.

She is a member of the MKSS, the National Campaign for Peoples Right to Information (NCPRI), Right to Work, Right to Food, NAPM, PUCL and many other campaigns.

Mr. Sachin Pilot

Mr. Sachin Pilot was born in Saharanpur, U.P on 7th September, 1977. He completed his B.A. (Hons.) degree from St. Stephens College, Delhi University.

Mr. Pilot started work with the BBC at their Delhi Bureau. He also worked for General Motors Corporation. He then went on to get his MBA Degree from the Wharton Business School, University of Pennsylvania, U.S.A. He specialized in multinational management and finance.

Mr. Pilot has been actively working towards uplifting the downtrodden, the farmers and the labourers. He travels extensively, especially to remote and interior areas of the country to spread a message of communal harmony, social justice and empowerment to the farming community. He has also been trying to inculcate a sense of social and political responsibility amongst the youth that live in the rural and the semi urban areas of the country.

On 13th May 2004, Mr. Sachin Pilot was elected to the 14th Lok Sabha from the Dausa Parliamentary Constituency of Rajasthan, with a record margin of over 1.2 lac votes. At the age of 26 he became the youngest Member of Parliament in India. Mr. Pilot is a member of the Parliament's Standing Committee in the ministry of Civil Aviation, and a Member of the Estimates Committee of Parliament.

Taking after his father, Mr. Pilot is fond of flying and got his private pilots license (PPL) from NY, USA in 1995. He is also a keen sportsman and has represented Delhi State in a number of national shooting championships.

Mr. Pilot runs a charitable trust that provides monthly pensions to the physically and mentally challenged, war widows, elderly, orphans etc. The trust has also set up numerous student hostels especially for girls in the rural areas to facilitate higher education.

Mr. Sachin Pilot has been elected to the 15th Lok Sabha from Ajmer parliamentary constituency of Rajasthan. He has been appointed as the Minister of State in the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, a portfolio once held by his late father Rajesh Pilot.

Mr. Shiv Khera

Mr. Shiv Khera is the founder of Qualified Learning Systems Inc. USA. An Author, Educator, Business Consultant and successful Entrepreneur, he is a much sought-after speaker.

He inspires and informs people, helping them to realize their true potential. He has taken his dynamic personal messages to opposite sides of the globe, from the U.S. to Singapore. His 30 years of research, understanding and experience has helped people on the path of personal growth and fulfillment.

He has been recognized as a “Louis Marchesi Fellow” by the Round Table Foundation, an award given to, among others Mother Teresa. Lions Club International has honoured Mr. Khera with “Lifetime Achievement Award” for the cause of 'Humanitarian Service to Society'. Rotary Club has honoured him with the “Centennial Vocational Award for Excellence.”

Mr. Shiv Khera's client list includes, among others, Lufthansa, Johnson & Johnson, Motorola, Nestle, GSK, Tetrapak, Phillips, Gillette, HSBC, Carrier, IBM, Ericsson and GM. He has appeared on numerous radio and television shows.

Mr. Khera is also the author of the International Best Seller book “YOU CAN WIN®”, which has sold over One-and-half million copies in 16 languages. His second book “LIVING WITH HONOUR” is on the way to creating new records.

Tens of thousands have benefitted from his dynamic workshops internationally in 17 countries and over one million people have heard him as a Keynote Speaker.

His Trade Mark is
“Winners don’t do different things.
They do things differently.” ® SHIVKHERA