An activist who won't be labelled: Aruna Roy on speaking up for the poor

Roy tells Arundhuti Dasgupta how she has learnt to turn a deaf ear to the epithets hurled her way

"I am Aruna. A composite human being,” says Aruna Roy whose diminutive frame conceals a spirit of steel. “As feminists we fought to not have our identities fragmented into such labels — wife, mother, daughter. We are human beings and are to be accepted as that. Such labeling is extremely objectionable.” 

Her unflinching gaze dares you to disagree with her. Roy who has lent her name to almost every protest and cause from as long as she can remember has been called everything from a jholawali to a communist and other unprintable monikers. “I return the insults with absolute compliments,”