Writer and politician. He was a first-generation Roma intellectual, who started as a factory worker at Ganz-Mávag (building trains) for ten years (1966-76) and became a freelance writer in the late 1970s.

He lived in Debrecen and later moved to Budapest, participating in the first decisive organization of the Roma civil sphere, the Cultural Association of Hungarian Gypsies (1986), but shortly he quit the organization. He was the secretary of the Roma Coordination Committee of the 6th district in Budapest, from 1985-1990. He was one of the founders and the chair of the Phralipe Independent Roma Organization (1989).

After the democratic changes in Hungary, he held several positions: he became the member of the Hungarian Liberal Party (SZDSZ) in 1990, leaving in 1993. He was the spokesperson and later the secretary, of the Hungarian Roma Parliament, and was the founding editor in chief of its journal, Amaro Drom (1991-93).

He became a member of the Roma minority self-government in Mezőladány, in 1994. In 1995 he was elected as a representative of the National Roma Self-Government and later became its vice-president, in 1999. He was the chairman of the National Association of Gypsy Minority Self-Government Representatives, for a year (1994-1995).

He became the spokesman for the Hungarian Solidarity Party of the Gypsies, in 1994. From 1995, he was the secretary of the Gandhi Public Foundation which established the first Romani high school of the country, in Pécs. Osztojkán was an active writer throughout his life. He was the editor-in-chief of several Roma thematic journals: Világunk, Phralipe, and Amaro Drom. For his writing, he received a Bezerédj Prize in 1997. Besides journalism, he published poetry and literary texts as well.