Noted social worker Mary Roy dies at 89

Rights activist Mary Roy died at the age of 89 at Kottayam district in Kerala on Thursday.

Mother of Booker Prize winner Arundhati Roy, Mary Roy was known for her successful legal fight against gender bias in the Christian inheritance law.

Born in a Syrian Christian family in Kerala, Mary Roy launched the legal fight as she was denied equal share of ancestral property after her father's death citing the Travancore Christian Succession Act in 1980s. Even as a lower court rejected her plea for equal rights over ancestral property, she approached the High Court in 1986 and secured an order in her favour, which was considered as a landmark judgment.

Mary Roy faced stiff opposition from her community and family for her legal fight.

Mary Roy, who was also an academician, founded the Corpus Christi in 1967, which is now known as 'Pallikoodam' (Malayalam word for school) based at her home district Kottayam.

Daughter of entomologist P V Isaac, Mary Roy held a degree from Queen's Mary College in Chennai. She was married to Rajib Roy. Apart from Arundhathi, the couple has a son Lalit Roy.