India on an Edge: Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy
Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy is an Indian social activist and educator, and founder of Barefoot College in Tilonia, Rajasthan, India. Roy earned a master’s degree in English from St. Stephen’s College, Delhi, and was a three-year national squash champion representing India internationally. The policy of Barefoot College is to recruit illiterate men and women from especially poor villages and provide them with professional training that enables them to provide basic services and solutions to problems in rural communities, with the objective of making them self-sufficient and sustainable. ‘Barefoot solutions’ are broadly categorized into solar energy, water, education, health care, rural handicrafts, people’s action, communication, women’s empowerment and wasteland development. Born to a wealthy Indian family, Roy received what he described as a "very snobby, elitist, expensive education," which he believes imparts arrogance without providing the kind of practical knowledge needed in poor villages. Roy was selected as one of TIME Magazine’s 2010 Time 100, a list of the 100 most influential personalities in the world. In 2002 he was selected for the Schwab Foundation in Social Entrepreneurship award.
www.wikipedia.org, www.barefootcollege.org