RTI campaigner Kejriwal wins Magsaysay Award

New Delhi, Jul 31: Social activist Arvind Kejriwal, who sidestepped a plum Indian Revenue Service job to give voice to the Right to Information movement in the national capital, today won the Ramon Magsaysay Award for Emergent Leadership.

Mr Kejrival, who heads the NGO 'Parivartan', is among seven winners this year, the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation announced in Manila, the capital of Philippines this afternoon.

The 38-year-old Additional Commissioner of IRS, who is presently on leave without pay to work for 'Parivatan', was cited for ''activating India's right-to-information movement at the grassroots, empowering New Delhi's poorest citizens to fight corruption by holding government answerable to the people''.

The 'Emergent Leadership' category, instituted in 2000 with a grant from the Ford Foundation, honours oustanding work of an individual, who is 40 years or below on issues of social change in his or her community.

''We are very happy and at the same time sad on this occasion,'' Mr Kejriwal told UNI. ''Happy because this award belongs to every RTI campaigner of India and sad because the award is coming at a time when the government is trying to kill the RTI Act through amendments.'' The other winners include Ek Sonn Chan (Cambodia) for 'Government Service', Park Won Soon (South Korea) for 'Public Service', Eugenia Duran Apostol (Philippines) for 'Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts', Sanduk Ruit (Nepal) for 'Peace and International Understanding', Antonio Meloto (Philippines) for 'Community Leadership' and Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation, also for 'Community Leadership'.

Mr Kejriwal joins a list of illustrious Magsaysay awardees from India including Vinoba Bhave, Baba Amte, Mahasweta Devi, Varghese Kurien and Aruna Roy.

In its citation, the Magsaysay Foundation said Mr Kejriwal understood that brazen corruption of the high and the mighty might grab headlines but for ordinary people it is the ubiquity of everyday corruption that weighs heaviest.

Mr Kejriwal founded 'Parivartan', which means 'change', in 2000 appealing first to the tax department he left to make it more transparent and less capricious.

Though he failed in his first attempt, 'Parivartan' strengtened its campaign by conducting 'satyagrahas' against corruption in government offices.

'Parivartan', which has only ten full-time members in its seventh year, ran a successful campaign last year against the Delhi government's move to privatise water supply.

The Ramon Magsaysay Awards, named after the late President of the Philippines, were first presented in 1958. Since then the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation has honoured over 250 individuals and institutions.

Among the other winners, Mr Ek Sonn Chann, who heads the Phnom Penh Water Supply Authority in Cambodia, was honoured for his ''exemplary rehabilitation of a ruined public utility'' bringing safe drinking water to a million people in the Cambodian capital.

Mr Park Won Soon from South Korea, who heads the Beautiful Foundation and the Hope Institute was awarded for his ''principled activism fostering social justice, fair business practices, clean government, and a general spirit in South Korea's young democracy''.

Ms Eugenia Duran Apostol from the Philippines, who is a journalist and publisher, was recognized for her ''courageous example in placing the truth-telling press at the centre of the struggle for democratic rights and better government in the Philippines''.

Mr Sanduk Ruit from Nepal, who heads the Tilganga Eye Centre, was honoured for ''placing Nepal at the forefront of developing safe, effective and economical procedures for cataract surgery, enabling the needlessly blind in even the poorest countries to see again''.

Mr Antonio Meloto from the Philippines, the executive director of Gawad Kalinga, was honoured for ''inspiring Filipinos to believe with pride that theirs can be a nation without slums''.

The Gawad Kalinga Community Development Foundation was honoured for ''harnessing the faith and generosity of Filipinos the world over to confront poverty in the Philippines and provide every family the dignity of a decent home and neighbourhood''.

The awards ceremony will be held in Manila on August 31.

UNI

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