CHRIS JOSE

Kisan Baburao Hazare, popularly known as Anna Hazare

(January 15, 1940)

Anna

Hazare is an Indian social activist who is especially recognized for his contribution to the development of RALEGAN SIDDHI, a village in Ahmednagar district, Maharashtra, India and his efforts for establishing it as a model village, for which he was awarded the PADMA Bhushan by Govt. of India, in 1992.

He

is also one of the leading figures who championed the cause of RIGHT TO Information Act in India for his crusade towards fighting corruption in public offices.

EARLY LIFE AND BACKROUND

Anna Hazare was born in a poor family. His father Baburao Hazare was an unskilled labourer and his grandfather worked for the army. His grandfather was deployed in Bhingar which made Baburao and family to move to Bhingar, where Anna was born. Anna'a grandfather died in 1945 when Anna's father resigned from his job and returned to Ralegan Siddhi. Anna had completed his education up to fourth standard and also had six younger siblings. The family's financial situation was tough. Baburao's sister, who was childless offered to take care of Anna and took him to Mumbai. Anna's father had to sell off his farmland making life tough for the family. This forced Anna who was in Mumbai and just completed his seventh grade in school to take up a job. Anna worked for a florist at Dadar, Mumbai earning about forty rupees a month. He eventually started his own flower shop. Two of his brothers came to Mumbaii to join him in his business, increasing the family earnings soon to about 700-800 rupees a month.

HIS INHIBITIONS AND ULTIMATE DESIRE

HIS CONTRIBUTION TO VARIOUS PROGRAMMES

1.WATERSHED DEVELOPMENT.
2.RESTORING THE GREEN COVER. 3.UPROOTING ALCHOHOLISM. 4.MILK PRODUCTION. 5.EDUCATION. 6.REMOVAL OF UNTOUCHABILITY.

Active participants in Lokpal Campaign

Anna Hazare Kiran Bedi (retired IPS) Arjun Kejriwal (former Joint Commissioner) Prashant Bhushan ( advocate)

What is Lokpal Bill and what does this mean to a common Indian ?

Lokpal Bill gives us the power to file a complaint against the prime

minister, MPs and other high post ministers found guilty of practicing corruption.

It has so far been passed 9 times in India. The Lokpal bill is an outcome of the findings of the Santhanam
Committee for the Prevention of Corruption in 1966.

In 2004 our current Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh had promised

on this issue, but still nothing has happened so far.

JAN LOKPAL BILL

The Jan Lokpal Bill (Citizen's Ombudsman Bill) is a draft anticorruption bill drawn up by prominent civil society activists seeking the appointment of a Jan Lokpal, an independent body that would investigate corruption cases, complete the investigation within a year and envisages trial in the case getting over in the next one year.

PRESENT

Today Anna has almost acquired the stature of a saint.

He donated his land for the hostel building. He gives his pension money to the village fund. A confirmed bachelor, he lives in the village temple with a bare minimum of personal belongings. He eats simple food normally cooked for the hostel boys. Both his parents and brothers stay in the village but they are no different from him than any other family in the village. This moral authority growing out of his selfless life has made him an unquestioned leader of the village. Anna Hazare was arrested in 1998 when a defamation suit was filed against him by then Maharashtra Social Welfare minister Babanrao Golap. He was released following public uproar.

AWARDS AND QUOTATIONS

* Padmashree award by government of India in the year 1990 * Indira Priyadarshini Vrikshamitra award, by government

of India on November 19, 1986 from the hands of Prime Minister of India Rajiv Gandhi. * Krishi Bhushana award by Maharashtra government in 1989. * Felicitation by Ahmednagar Municipal Corporation 15 January 1987 * Felicitation by Pune Municipal Corporation. * On April 15, 2008, Kisan Baburao Hazare received the World Bank's 2008 Jit Gill Memorial Award for Outstanding Public Service: "Hazare created a thriving model village in Ralegan Siddhi, in the impoverished Ahmednagar region of Maharashtra state, and championed the right to information and the fight against corruption."

QUOTATIONS * Over every huge tree that we see over ground, there always is a seed that had submerged itself into the darkness of the soil. * Ban on consumption and sale of alcohol lays the foundation of rural development. * It is impossible to change the village without transforming the individual. Similarly it is impossible to transform the country without changing its villages. * If villages are to develop, politics have to be kept out. * Education without spirituality cannot help development. * Money alone does not bring development, but it certainly corrupts. * In the process of rural development, social and economic development should go hand in hand. * The work of social transformation is neither easy nor impossible. * The ultimate goal of all politics and social work should be the upliftment of society and of the nation. * Books alone cannot prepare future citizens, it requires cultural inputs to do so. * Educational institutions are not enough to make good citizens, every home should become an educational center. * Indulgence causes disease whereas sacrifice leads to accomplishment. * One should not accept anything free; accepting charity makes one lazy and dependent. * When the person learns to see beyond his self-interest, he begins to get mental peace. * One who performs all worldly functions and still remains detached from worldly things is a true saint. * Salvation of the self is a part of salvation of the people. * It is experience that gives the direction but it is youth that gives the drive to every plan.

THE ROLE OF MEDIA TOWARDS HIS LIFE!!

Anna Hazare's recent arrest and release has rightly generated a sense of outrage and violation amongst the people in India. Anna and his life's message, however, are larger and go beyond this particular issue that has captured media attention. Since 1975 under his leadership, Anna's village, Ralegan Siddhi, has been an evolving as an epitomisation of the Gandhian idiom of a self-sufficient village as an elementary unit of social organisation. Also an important characterisitic of the economic and social transformation of Ralegan is that it has taken place based on the principle of self-help and is concomitant with ensuring social equity, an ideal that is happily at variance with the current fancy for "free market ideals" and "trickledown economics". Ralegan has been hailed as a model village, therefore, with characterisitic bureaucratic simplification attempts are being made to "replicate" the Ralegan miracle. Inconsiderate, the Ralegan experience is extremely relevant for its central tenet, that with the right moral basis and with reasonable inputs, the collective genius of the people is capable of significantly addressing its own needs. For many years now, Ralegan Siddhi has been a byword for model development. However amongst most people I know, there seems to be a general lack of understanding of what really happened in Ralegan and how it came about to be so. When I myself wanted to learn more about Anna Hazare and his role in Ralegan, I did not find any relevant information on the web. Therefore, this page is an attempt to fill this gap and, hopefully, in the future, serve as a clearing house for information on Anna Hazare, his life and its enduring message.