Bunker Roy, Barefoot College founder, dies at 81 in Tilonia

Sanjit "Bunker" Roy, the social activist and educator who founded Barefoot College in the Rajasthan village of Tilonia, died at his home there on Tuesday, 10 November 2026, at the age of 81, according to his family and the college. Barefoot College chief executive and director Sowmya Kidambi confirmed his death. He is survived by his wife, the activist Aruna Roy. Activist Nikhil Dey said the funeral would be held in Tilonia at 4 pm the same day. Roy founded the institution in 1972 as the Social Work and Research Centre, and it became known worldwide for training rural people, regardless of their formal schooling, in skills such as solar engineering, water and health care.

Bunker Roy's central idea was that knowledge does not have to come from a degree. Barefoot College, as its name suggests, set out to train people who had little or no formal education, many of them from poor rural families, to become skilled workers in their own villages. Instead of bringing engineers and doctors from cities, the college taught villagers to install and repair solar systems, manage water supplies and provide basic health care. One obituary described him as "the man who took Gandhi literally", a reference to his belief in village self-reliance.

The approach mattered especially for rural women. Women's empowerment is one of the college's core areas of work, alongside solar electrification, and its training gave women from villages a route into technical work such as installing and maintaining solar systems.

For Indian education, Roy's legacy is a challenge to the idea that learning only counts when it ends in a certificate. Today's debates about vocational training, skilling and practical education in the National Education Policy echo questions he raised in Tilonia half a century ago: who gets to be called skilled, and who decides.

Roy chose to build his life's work in a Rajasthan village rather than a city, and the Social Work and Research Centre grew from Tilonia into an organisation known well beyond India. Tributes on the day of his death came from activists and from political leaders, including Shashi Tharoor and Ashok Gehlot.

Peepals timeline: Roy founded the Social Work and Research Centre in Tilonia in 1972. In 1986 he received the Padma Shri. On Tuesday, 10 November 2026, he died at his home in Tilonia, aged 81, 54 years after founding the institution (2026 − 1972 = 54).

Short-term: Barefoot College, now led by chief executive Sowmya Kidambi, continues its programmes in Tilonia as tributes pour in from activists, politicians and former trainees.

Long-term: Roy's model of training rural people, especially women, as technicians without formal degrees remains a reference point for skilling and rural development programmes in India and abroad.

Who is affected: Barefoot College staff, trainees and the villages it serves; India's rural development and education communities; and Aruna Roy and the wider family.

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