Anna Hazare (full name: Kisan Baburao Hazare), was born on 15th June 1937. He is an Indian social activist who works for the upliftment of rural areas and tries eliminating corruption from its grass-root level. He is a follower of Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi. He has served Indian army during 1965 Indo Pak war. He became the crusader for right to information act. His journey has been remarkable spanning over four decades and that too non-violently. He is responsible for transforming his village Ralegan Siddhi and made it as a role model for other villages to follow. He empowered grampanchayats and protected honest officers to make the governance more effective in the villages.Childhood
He was born in Bhingar near Ahmednagar, to father Baburao Hazare and mother Laxmi Bai. Parents with two daughters and five sons make the complete family. His childhood was not a cakewalk for him due to financial crises at home. Because of this reason only, he could attend school only upto seventh standard and his siblings never attended school. He started selling flowers at the railway station in Mumbai and then raised to open a flower shop. At the age of 23, he joined Indian Army.
Career
Anna Hazare joined Indian Army in April 1960. He served Indian Army for a period of fifteen years. He enlisted after the 1962 Indo-China war when the government exhorted young men to join the Army. He remained the sole survivor of 1965 India Pakistan battle attack at the border in Khem Karan Sector. He used to read books and got influenced by Swami Vivekanand. By reading his books he found answers to all his questions. Since then he strived for the betterment of people. In 1978, he decided to take voluntary retirement from Indian Army. He then went back to his village and upgraded the economy and ecology of the village.
At Present
Anna Hazare wanted lokpall bill to be passed so that corruption says good bye to the country. His way was non-violent. Thus, his weapon of protest was hunger strikes and his prime targets were politicians. In the year 2011, he fasted for continuously four days and for that matter he gained attention and brought several personalities to ask. He fought for Right to Information and got that implemented. For him this was India’s second freedom struggle.
Recently he was seen supporting Mamta Banarjee during 2014 General Elections.
Awards and Recognition
Indian Government honored Anna Hazare with Padma Shri and Padma Bhushan in 1990 and 1992 respectively.