Sarasvathy Muthu or Saras as she is called began her involvement in community organizing when she joined the progressive Young Christian Workers at the age of 17. When she started working, the plight of oppressed factory workers drove her to organize unions as that they could be in a stronger bargaining position.

In the early 1990’s, Saras and others founded Alaigal, Perak based community organization. A community organizer par excellence, Saras has organized countless communities in various sectors-plantation workers, urban pioneers(squatters), farmers and workers-educating them on their rights and empowering them to struggle as a united community against whoever opposed them.

Saras was also a founder of Parti Sosialis Malaysia, a party that was formed in 1998 by a group of community organizations that felt need for elected representatives of their own in parliament and in state assemblies. Saras is the Deputy Chairperson of PSM. For her outstanding performance as a social activist, Saras was selected as the ‘Best Female Social Activist by the Semparuthi Publication team in 2011.

She had been detained in solitary confinement for 33days under the doraconian Emergency Ordinance, which allows for detention without trial, when the Bersih 2.0 movement called for a rally on 9th July 2011.