Acharya Ramamurti

Acharya Ramamurti (22 January 1913 – 20 May 2010) was an Indian social activist, gandhian, educationist and academic. He headed the review committee of 1990, popularly known as Ramamurti Review Committee, for evaluating the progress of the National Policy on Education of 1986. He was the director of Shrambharati, a non governmental organization, engaged in community development, adhering to Gandhian ideals. The Government of India awarded him the fourth highest civilian award of the Padma Shri in 1999.

Biography Ramamurti was born on 22 January 1913 in a small village in Jaunpur district by name, Ardhpur, in the Indian state of Uttar Pradesh in a financially healthy family of farmers. and joined Shrambharati, a social service community founded by Dhirendra Mazumdar, a gandhian and Sarvodaya leader. Ramamurti became associated with it, travelling from village to village, propagating the ideals and collecting land. his involvement with national level politics increased and he was appointed as the chairman of the Review Committee to appraise the implementation of the National Education Policy of 1980, on 7 May 1990. on 9 January 1991 and recommended several changes which included the introduction of a common school system, promotion of women education, Early childhood care and education (ECCE), and Socially Useful Productive Work (SUPW), among others. He received the Jamnalal Bajaj Award in 1998 and the Government of India awarded him the civilian honour of the Padma Shri in 1999. he also delivered several lectures, in India and abroad; the one at McMaster University, Canada, titled Total Culture of Peace, is one among them. The lecture was the 2003 edition of the series, Mahatma Gandhi Lecture on Nonviolence. Towards the fag end of his life, he was involved with the functioning of Mahila Shanti Sena but also held positions such as that of the director of the Institute for Gandhian Studies, Patna, and as the President of the Servseva Sangh. He died on 20 May 2010, in Patna, Bihar, at the age of 97.