Mayawati - Early Life

Early Life

Mayawati was born on 15 January 1956 at Shrimati Sucheta Kriplani Hospital in New Delhi. Her father, Prabhu Das, was a post office employee at Badalpur, Gautam Buddha Nagar. The family belonged to the Jatav caste, at the upper end of the scheduled castes. The sons in the family were sent to private schools, while the daughters went to "low-performing government schools".

Mayawati studied for her B.A. in 1975 at the Kalindi Women's College and Law faculty, Campus Law Centre, under the University of Delhi, and she completed a B.Ed. from VMLG College, Ghaziabad, in 1976. She was working as a teacher in Inderpuri JJ Colony, Delhi, and studying for the Indian Administrative Services exams, when Dalit politician Kanshi Ram visited her family home in 1977. According to biographer Ajoy Bose, Ram told her: "I can make you such a big leader one day that not one but a whole row of IAS officers will line up for your orders." In 1983 she acquired her LL.B from Delhi University. Impressed by her speaking skills and ideas, Kanshi Ram included her as a member of his team when he founded the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) in 1984. Mayawati was first elected to parliament in 1989.

At Kanshi Ram's funeral ceremonies in 2006, Mayawati said they had both been following Buddhist traditions and customs. She has commented that she will formally convert to Buddhism when the political conditions enable her to become Prime Minister of India. Her act of performing the last rites (traditionally done by a male heir) was an expression of their views against gender discrimination.