Amla Ruia Wiki, Age, Husband, Children, Family, Biography & More

Amla Ruia is a famous Indian social activist who works in the field of water harvesting. She is known as ‘Water Mother of India (Jal Maata);’ for her contribution towards the society. She is the president of ‘Aakar Charitable Trust.’

Wiki/Biography

She was born in the Year 1946 (age 73 years; as in 2019) in Uttar Pradesh.

Family, Caste & Husband

She was born into a Hindu family. She is descendant of the wealthy Dalmias, who built the Dalmia Nagar in Bihar. She got married to a wealthy businessman ‘Ashok Ruia,’ who died on January 2019. They have three children- one son and two daughters. Her son, Atul Ruia is the MD of Phoenix and Palladium Malls. Her daughters, Sharmila Dalmia and Kavita Khaitan are married.

Career/Water Harvesting Work

She was emotionally moved after watching the footage of Rajasthan’s drought (in the late 1990s) on TV, and she decided to help the people suffering there. To solve the problem of water scarcity she founded ‘Aakar Charitable Trust.’ They build their first check dam in Mandawar Village of Rajasthan, which is also the native place of her husband.

They build almost 200 drinking water kunds during 2000 and 2005. Almost 200 check dams in more than 115 villages were built in Rajasthan, by the end of 2017. The trust provides 60-70% of the resources and 30-40% contribution is made by the villagers. They have extended their support in other states as well, some of these states are Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Odisha, and the Dantewada in Chhattisgarh. She joined the NGO ‘Grammangal’ to support educational facilities in rural villages. Their main aim is to promote girl’s education.

Awards & Honours

• IIM Lucknow National Leadership Award (2011): For Community Service and Social Upliftment.

• India Eye International Human Rights Observer Achievement Award (2018)

• Nav Bharat Award (2019)

Favourite Things

• Poet: Maithili Sharan Gupt

• Actor: Amitabh Bachchan

Facts

• She loves reading books and writing poems.

• She was born into a spiritually inclined family.

• When she was asked about her biggest achievement in an interview, she replied,
  

  Some people in the areas where we constructed check dams had not even seen how wheat is grown and now they cultivate wheat. The economic condition of these villagers has dramatically changed, and that gives great satisfaction.”

• In 2019, she appeared in the ‘Karmaveer’ episode (27 September 2019) of Kaun Banega Crorepati 11 (2019) along with the actor Randeep Hooda.