Sanjit "Bunker" Roy, the pioneering social activist who spent five decades engineering rural self-reliance across the globe, died at his home in Tilonia in Rajasthan's Ajmer district early Tuesday morning. He was 81. Roy breathed his last at 6:15 am alongside his wife, noted social activist Aruna Roy, and close colleagues.
"Bunker Roy passed away peacefully at 6.15 am this morning with Aruna and others around him," his associates announced in a statement. "He went as he wanted to, in his own home in Tilonia, surrounded by some of the countless people who loved and cared for him deeply and passionately." Activist Nikhil Dey confirmed the funeral will take place in Tilonia at 4 pm.
Had they formal schooling? None was required. Barefoot College trained illiterate and semi-literate rural women to fabricate, install, and service solar-lighting arrays. These women returned to their hamlets to electrify remote communities off the grid. What began in an arid village in Ajmer eventually scaled internationally, drawing women from several countries across Asia, Africa, and Latin America to Tilonia for technical immersion.
Beyond clean power, the campus ran rainwater harvesting projects, community healthcare, artisan livelihood cooperatives, and evening schools designed specifically for working children who labored during daylight hours. Roy maintained that institutional degrees often blinded experts to local realities.
Colleagues, grassroots workers, and villagers assembled at the Tilonia campus Tuesday afternoon ahead of the 4 pm funeral to bid farewell to the grassroots reformer.