TIME names Bunker Roy among world's 100 most influential people in 2010

In April 2010, TIME magazine named Bunker Roy, founder of Barefoot College, among its annual list of the 100 most influential people in the world. The recognition brought international attention to a small organisation based in Tilonia, a village in the western Indian state of Rajasthan.

Roy founded the Social Work and Research Centre, later known as Barefoot College, in the early 1970s. Its approach was to draw on the skills of rural people rather than rely on outside experts. The college trained villagers, many of them women with little or no formal schooling, as solar engineers, teachers, health workers and water technicians, so that their communities could run their own services.

The TIME listing helped present this model of grassroots, low-cost development to a global audience. It also raised the profile of the college's programmes, including its solar electrification work, which later brought women from other developing countries to India for training. The recognition is often cited as one of the milestones in Roy's career, which came back into focus after his death.