Sanjit 'Bunker' Roy, the social activist who founded the Barefoot College in Rajasthan's Tilonia and spent more than five decades working for rural development and women's empowerment, died at his home in Tilonia in Ajmer district on Tuesday morning. He was 81.

Source: PTI

According to a statement by Sowmya Kidambi, CEO and Director of Barefoot College, Roy passed away peacefully at 6.15 am at his home in Tilonia, with his wife, noted social activist Aruna Roy, and others close to him by his side. '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,' the statement said. No cause of death was made public.

Source: ANI

Roy moved to Tilonia in 1972 after surveying water supplies in 100 drought-prone areas, and began working with local communities on water conservation and groundwater recharge through open wells. That work led to the Social Work and Research Centre (SWRC), which became popularly known across the world as the Barefoot College.

Source: The Times of India, Jaipur

The college built its name on a simple, radical idea: that rural people, including women with little or no formal schooling, hold knowledge and skills that no degree can replace. Its best-known programme trained rural women, many of them grandmothers, as solar engineers who returned to their villages to install and maintain solar lighting, a model that spread from Tilonia to villages in more than 90 countries.

Source: PTI

Born into privilege, Roy was educated at The Doon School and St Stephen's College in Delhi and was a national squash champion who represented India in the 1960s, before walking away from that life for village work in Rajasthan. He was awarded the Padma Shri, and was named among Time magazine's 100 most influential people in 2010 for his work in educating rural Indians. His 2011 TED talk, 'Learning from a Barefoot Movement', carried the Tilonia experiment to a global audience.

Source: The Times of India, Jaipur

Congress leaders Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot were among those who expressed condolences on Tuesday, remembering Roy's contribution to rural development and empowerment. Activist Nikhil Dey said the funeral would take place in Tilonia at 4 pm on Tuesday.

Source: ANI

The Barefoot idea

Founded in 1972, the Barefoot College in Tilonia trained rural women as solar engineers, health workers and teachers, on the principle that the solutions to village problems lie within the village itself — with or without a paper degree.