Indians Sanjiv Chaturvedi, Anshu Gupta win prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Awards 2015

• Former AIIMS officer SANJIV CHATURVEDI and Social worker ANSHU GUPTA along with three Asian individuals won the prestigious Ramon Magsaysay Award 2015.
• Kommaly Chanthavong(Laos), Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa(Phillipines) and Kyaw Thu(Myanmar) were the other three asian individuals.
• Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation said Anshu Gupta was recognized for “Enterprising Leadership” and Sanjiv Chaturvedi for “Exposing Corruption”

ABOUT THE WINNERS:

SANJIV CHATURVEDI:

• Chaturvedi is an Indian Forest Service (IFS) officer ,presently working as deputy secretary of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
• From 2012-14, he had served as a Chief Vigilance Officer (CVO) at AIIMS.
• Sanjiv Chaturvedi was recognized for his exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly investigating corruption in public office, and his resolute crafting programmes and system improvements to ensure that government honourably serves the people of India.

ANSHU GUPTA:

• Anshu Gupta was recognized for his creative vision in transforming the culture of giving in India, his enterprising leadership in treating cloth as a sustainable development resource for the poor, and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity.
• He is founder of NGO Goonj based in Delhi which was established in 1999.
• Operated in 21 Indian states, works in disaster relief, community development and humanitarian aid.
• Gupta heads the NGO Goonj, which believes in reusing clothes and other material to turn into a valuable resource, to create a parallel economy which is not cash-based but trash-based.

KOMMALY CHANTHAVONG:

• Kommaly Chanthavong, from Laos is being recognized for her fearless, indomitable spirit to revive and develop the ancient Laotian art of silk weaving, creating livelihoods for thousands of poor, war-displaced Laotians, and thus preserving the dignity of women and her nation’s priceless silken cultural treasure.

LIGAYA FERNANDO-AMILBANGSA:

• Ligaya Fernando-Amilbangsa, from the Philippines is being recognized for her single-minded crusade in preserving the endangered artistic heritage of southern Philippines, and in creatively propagating a dance form that celebrates and deepens the sense of shared cultural identity among Asians.

KYAW THU:

• Kyaw Thu is being recognized for his generous compassion in addressing the fundamental needs of both the living and the dead in Myanmar regardless of their class or religion and his channeling personal fame and privilege to mobilize many others toward serving the greater social good.

RAMON MAGSAYSAY AWARD:

• This award is named after former 3rd Philippine President Ramon Magsaysay who had died in air disaster in March 1957.
• This prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City.
• Ramon Magsaysay Award is Asia’s highest honor and is widely regarded as the region’s equivalent of the Nobel Prize.
• The five 2015 Magsaysay awardees join the community of 307 other Magsaysay laureates who have received Asia’s highest honor to date.