An Indian social worker who is renowned for being the driving force behind the effort to advance rural development, make public service transparent and monitor and punish corruption. He also participated in multiple hunger strikes to help organise and inspire the movement at the grassroots level.
By helping to shape and improve his hamlet, Ralegan Siddhi, in Maharashtra’s Ahmed Nagar district, he has attempted to make it an example for other villages.
His full name is Kisan Baburao Hazare, and he was born on June 15, 1937, into a Marathi farming family in the Maharashtra region of Bhingar, not far from Ahmed Nagar. Since 1975, he has resided in a modest room within the Sant Yadavbaba Temple at Ralegan Siddhi.
During the time of economic hardship, his family began to live in their home village of Ralegan Siddhi by farming a tiny plot of agricultural land. Anna could only complete his education up until the seventh grade. Later, he began selling flowers at the Dadar railway station in Mumbai. He also joined a vigilante group whose goal was to prevent landlords from intimidating the poor in order to prevent them from being taken advantage of, among other things.
In 1960, Anna Hazare began his job as an army truck driver. In 1974, while travelling during the Indo-Pak conflict, Hazare nearly escaped a car collision, which he regards as a miracle of God and claims was a message for him to engage in public duty. In 1992, the Indian government gave Anna Hazare the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian honour.
Ralegan is located in the foothills, so Anna built the watershed embankment to stop the water after persuading the locals to enhance the irrigation, which solved the water problem and promoted the production of crops like pulses, oilseeds, and other low-water-demanding plants. Farmers benefited greatly from this since their revenue grew. Only 70 acres of land had irrigation work done when Anna arrived in Ralegan in 1975. Today, there are 2500 acres under irrigation.
Popular movements of Anna Hazare are:
Anti-corruption protests in Maharashtra, Right to Information movement, Regulation of Transfers and Prevention of Delay in Discharge of Official Duties Act Campaign against liquor from food grains, Lokpal Bill Movement,
Hunger Strikes etc.
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