Awards & Honours - Current Affairs for September, 2016

The first Jesse Owens Olympic Spirit Award will recognise the late legendary boxer Muhammad Ali.
Owens award was started in 2016

• It marks the 80th anniversary of Jesse Owen’s 4 gold medal performance at the 1936 Olympics in Berlin
• It is going to honour people who have served as an inspiration
• Granddaughter of the famous athlete Jesse Owens, Margaret Dotch will present the award at the next week’s Best of the Games award ceremony to Ali’s wife Lonnie
• Ali won the gold medal at the Rome 1960 Olympics
• He also took 3 world heavyweight championships in 1964, 1974 and 1978
• James Cleveland Jesse Owens was an American track and field athlete who crushed Hilterian myth of Aryan supremacy
• He was the most successful athlete at the games
• He set three world records and tied another in less than an hour at 1935 Big Ten Track meet in Ann Arbour Michigan, called the “greatest 45 minutes ever in sports”
• His record has never been equalled
• At the 1936 Olympics in Berlin, he won 4 gold medals including 100 and 200m long jump

The 2016 Right Livelihood Award is widely called the Alternative Nobel Prize. It was announced on 22nd Sept 2016 in Stockholm, Sweden. Laureates of the Right Livelihood Award this year include:

i. Syria Civil Defence/ The White Helmets
ii. Egypt’s Mozn Hassan and Nazra for Feminist Studies
iii. Russia’s Svetlana Gannushkina
iv. Turkish daily Cumhuriyet

• The laureates will share the USD 350,000 dollar prize
• The White Helmets for Syria were awarded for their bravery, compassion and humanitarianism in rescuing citizens in Syria from the civil war there
• This marks the first time a Right Livelihood Award was worn by Syrians
• Mozn Hassan and Nazra for Feminist Studies from Egypt won the award for studying and asserting equality/rights of women in circumstances where they are subjected to violence, discrimination and abuse
• Russia’s Svetlana Gannushkina was awarded for her decades long commitment to promoting human rights and justice for refugees and forced migrants as well as tolerance among different ethnic groups
• Turkish newspaper Cumhuriyet was awarded for their fearless investigations and commitment to freedom of expression in the light of censorship and threats
• All winners of the year therefore upheld the fundamental human rights and values despite war and oppression.
• The Right Livelihood Award is a global honour for those offering practical and exemplary answers to challenges faced by the world
• The prize was established in 1980
• It was set up by German-Swedish philanthropist Jakob von Uexkull and is presented in early December
• It was set up after the Nobel Foundation refused to create awards honouring efforts in environment and international development issues

Chairman of Mumbai based Godrej Group, Adi Godrej was honoured with the 10th Annual Clinton Global Citizen Award for leadership in business and philanthropy on 19th Sept.

• Award recognises his leadership in business and philanthropy and the use of Inclusive, sustainable business strategies at Godrej Group
• Some of the other awardees for 2016 included Jon Bon Jovi for the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation in the US, Colombia’s President Juan Manuel Santos and Somalia’s Hawa Abdi.
• Adi Burjorji Godrej is the 405th richest person in the world with net worth of USD 4 billion
• Clinton Global Citizen Awards was established in 2007.
• It embodies the former US President’s call to action by honouring outstanding individuals who exemplify global citizenship through vision and leadership.
• Past recipients of the award include Denis O’Brien, Carlis Slim, Suraya Pakzad and other illustrious figures.

Nobel Peace prize laureate Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar is going to be honoured as the 2016 humanitarian of the year at Harvard Foundation

• She gained international prominence as General Secretary of National League for Democracy in Myanmar in 1990
• Known as one of the world’s most famous political prisoners, she was kept under house arrest for 15 years for participating in protests against a military junta government
• She was supported by her country and appointed role of State Counsellor, equal to PM
• She will receive the Peter J. Gomes Humanitarian Award during a ceremony.
• The Humanitarian award is presented by Harvard University’s Harvard Foundation to honour those who serve as an inspiration and made a massive change to people’s lives.
• Award is given in the name of the Rev. Professor Peter J. Gomes, Plummer Professor and Minister in Harvard’s Memorial Church, and is authorized by the Dean of Harvard College and the President of Harvard University.

Legendary singer Lata Mangeshkar has been honoured with the 2016 Bangabibhushan by the West Bengal government

• CM Mamata Banerjee said the honour was in recognition of her innumerable memorable Bengali songs
• The award will be conferred after Durga Puja
• Trinamool Congress has been conferring this award to eminent people in their fields for contributions since 2011
• Dancer Amala Shankar was the first person to receive the award

Other awardees:
2011

• Mahashweta Devi- Literature
• Sandhya Mukhopadhyay- Music (Bengali Modern Songs)
• Supriya Devi- Film (acting)
• Manna Dey- Music (Bengali Modern Songs and Hindi Film Music)
• Amjad Ali Khan: Music (Indian Classical Instrumental)
• Dwijen Mukhopadhyay: Music (Rabindra Sangeet and Bengali Modern Songs)
• Shailen Manna: Sports (Football)
• Haradhan Bandopadhyay: Film (acting)

2012

• Suchitra Sen: Film (acting)
• Leslie Claudius: Sports (hockey)
• Jogen Chowdhury: Painting
• Rudraprasad Sengupta: Theatre
• Bibhas Chakraborty: Theatre
• Shaoli Mitra: Theatre
• Shirshendu Mukhopadhyay: Literature
• Sanjeev Chattopadhyay: Literature
• Goutam Ghosh: Film (Direction)
• Joy Goswami:Literature
• Ranjit Mullick: Film (acting)
• Pandit Ajoy Chakraborty: Music (Hindustani Classical)
• Ustad Ali Ahmed Hussein Khan: Music (Sehnai)

2013

• Mithun Chakraborty: Film (acting)
• Thankamani Kutti: Dancer
• B.K. Birla: Industrialist
• Ritupurno Ghosh: Film Maker
• Sandhya Roy: Actor
• Sabitri Chatterjee: Actor: Purnadas Baul: Singer
• Subhaprasanna: Painter
• Amitabha Chowdhury: Journalist
• Sourav Ganguly: Sports

2014

• Lepcha tribal leader Sonam Tshering Lepcha,
• Vocalist ArunBhaduri, proprietor of “jatra” (folk theatre) group
• Natta Company Makhanlal Natta,
• Physician Sukumar Mukherjee,
• Film stars Madhabi Mukhopadhyay and Dipankar De,
• Justice Md Abdul Gani,
• Writer Nrisingha Prasad Bhaduri,
• Educationist Felix Raj,
• Singers Haimanti Shukla and Mohan Singh,
• Dancer Alakananda Roy,
• Footballer Bhutia,
• Former soccer internationals Bidesh Bose, Goutam Sarkar, Shabbir Ali and Shyam Thapa,
• Sarod maestro Tejendranarayan Majumder,
• Social activist Md Abdul Wahab,
• Journalist Bachan Singh Saral
• Tribal leader Birsa Tirkey,
• Actors Debashree Roy and Aparajita Adya,
• Singers Srikanta Acharya, Indranil Sen, Swagatalakshmi Dasgupta, Indrani Sen, Lopamudra Mitra, cricketers Laxmi Ratan Shukla and Manoj Tiwary,
• Chess grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly.

The 68th Annual Primetime Emmy Awards was announced on 18th September 2016 at Microsoft Theatre in LA California

• The Game of Thrones won the best drama series at the 2016 Primetime Emmy Awards; Veep won the top comedy award
• The People v OJ Simpson: American Crime Story also earned several awards
• Julia-Louis Dreyfus won the fifth consecutive Emmy in the lead comedy actress category
  
  Here’s the list of winners:
  1. Outstanding Comedy Series – Veep
  2. Outstanding Drama Series - Game of Thrones
  3. Outstanding Variety Talk Series - Last Week Tonight with John Oliver
  4. Outstanding Television Movie - Sherlock: "The Abominable Bride"
  5. Outstanding Reality-Competition Program - The Voice
  6. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Comedy Series - Jeffrey Tambor as Maura Pfefferman on Transparent
  7. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Comedy Series - Julia Louis-Dreyfus as President Selina Meyer on Veep
  8. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Drama Series - Rami Malek as Elliot Alderson on Mr. Robot
  9. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series - Tatiana Maslany as Sarah Manning, Alison Hendrix, Cosima Niehaus, Beth Childs, Rachel Duncan, and MK on Orphan Black
  10. Outstanding Lead Actor in a Limited Series or Movie - Courtney B. Vance as Johnnie Cochran on The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
  11. Outstanding Lead Actress in a Limited Series or Movie - Sarah Paulson as Marcia Clark on The People v. O. J. Simpson: American Crime Story
  12. Outstanding Directing for a Drama Series - Game of Thrones (Episode: "Battle of the Bastards"), Directed by Miguel Sapochnik
  13. Outstanding Directing for a Variety Special - Thomas Kail and Alex Rudzinski for Grease: Live
  14. Outstanding Directing for a Limited Series, Movie, or Dramatic Special - The Night Manager, Directed by Susanne Bier
• Primetime Emmy Awards is a US award bestowed by the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences
• It is even in recognition of excellence in American primetime TV programming and was started in 1949
• Emmy Awards is considered equivalent to Academy awards for films, Grammy Awards for music and Tony Award for Stage
• Awards are divided into three categories- Primetime Emmy Awards for television performance, Primetime Creative Arts Emmy awards and Primetime Engineering Emmy Awards

On 14th Sept 2016, the White House announced the list of medal winners including Mel Brooks, Berry Gordy, Philip Glass and Audra McDonald for the National medal of arts and Wynton Marsalis and Terry Gross for the Humanities honour.

• The recipients for each of the honours are given below:

National Medal of Arts

i. Mel Brooks, Actor, Comedian and Writer
ii. Sandra Cisneros, Author
iii. Eugene O’Neill Theater Center
iv. Morgan Freeman, Actor
v. Philip Glass, Composer
vi. Berry Gordy, Record Producer & Songwriter
vii. Santiago Jiménez, Jr., Musician
viii. Moises Kaufman, Director & Playwright
ix. Ralph Lemon, Dancer, Choreographer, Writer, & Visual Artist
x. Audra McDonald, Actress & Singer
xi. Luis Valdez, Playwright, Actor, Writer & Director
xii. Jack Whitten, Painter

National Humanities Medal

i. Rudolfo Anaya, Author
ii. José Andrés, Chef & Entrepreneur
iii. Ron Chernow, Author
iv. Louise Glück, Poet
v. Terry Gross, Radio Host & Producer
vi. James McBride, Author
vii. Louis Menand, Author
viii. Elaine Pagels, Historian & Author
ix. Prison University Project, Higher Education Program
x. Abraham Verghese, Physician, Professor & Author
xi. Isabel Wilkerson, Journalist & Author

• National Medal of Arts is an award created by US Congress in 1984
• It was created for honouring artists and patrons of art
• It is the highest honour for people of arts on behalf of US
• Honourees are selected by National Endowment for Arts and presented the award by the US President
• Medal for the award was designed by sculptor Robert Graham

Actor Ewan McGregor will receive the Britannia Humanitarian Award at the British Academy Britannia Awards in California.

• The 45 year old Hollywood star has won the award for creating positive social change through his movies
• In July McGregor travelled to Debaga cam to meet children and families displaced by conflict in Iraq and Syria
• He is also a UNICEF UK ambassador
• Scottish star also filmed a video for the UNICEF while at this northern Iraq location
• He is well known for movies like Trainspotting and Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
• He has also essayed the role of Obi Wan Kenobi in Star wars.

One Thousand Hockey Legs, an NGO which seeks to introduce the game of hockey to school kids in India, was given the Rashtriya Khel Protsahan Puruskar by President Pranab Mukherjee.

• It is a volunteer based organisation, which welcomes volunteers and coaches to contribute to hockey and children’s development through this platform.
• Operating in the following Indian cities: Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Puducherry and Kanpur. the NGO trains students in 90 schools and provides free hockey kits, coaching and other facilities for the kids to excel in the sport.
• The NGO’s flagship project One Thousand hockey legs which seeks to introduce the game of hockey to at least 500 school kids every year, especially in schools where low profile and poor kids study came into limelight recently.
• When India failed to qualify for Olympics in 2008, IIT Bombay alumnus and sports writer, Mr. K. Arumugam started the NGO in 2008 after giving up his government job.

Indian American MIT Associate Professor Ramesh Raskar won the 2016 Lemelson-MIT Prize on 13th Sept, 2016.

• He is the co-inventor of radical imaging solutions such as femtophotography, an ultra-fast imaging system that observes corners, creating low cost eye-care solutions for the developing world.
• Camera invented by him also allows users to read pages of the book without opening the cover
• Raskar is head of the MIT Media Lab’s Camera Culture research group
• Born in Nashik, he finished his engineering education from Pune’s College of Engineering
• He finished his PnD at UNC chapel Hill
• He holds more than 50 patents
• The Lemelson Foundation awards prizes to inventors in the US
• The Lemelson-MIT prize endowed in 1994 by Jerome H. Lemelson is the largest
• It is administered through MIT.
• Winner receives USD 500000 making it the largest cash prize for inventors in the US

A revenge drama Ang Banbeng Humayo (The Woman Who Left) on 10th September 2016 won the Golden Lion for Best Film award at the 73rd Venice Film Festival.

• This four hour black and white revenge drama is about a woman wrongfully jail for 30 years
• Russian director Andrei Konchalovsky and Mexican film director Amat Escalante shared the Silver Lion for Best Direction for films Paradise and The Untamed
• Tom Ford’s noir thriller Nocturnal Animals from the US won the Grand Jury Prize.

The complete list of winners is :

i. Golden Lion: Lav Diaz for Ang Babaeng Humayo
ii. Silver Lion Director (tie): Andre Konchalovsky for Paradise and Amat Escalante for The Untamed
iii. Jury Grand Prize: Nocturnal Animals
iv. Special Jury Prize: The Bad Batch
v. Actor: Oscar Martinez for The Distinguished Citizen
vi. Actress: Emma Stone for La La Land
vii.Screenplay: Noah Oppenheim for Jackie
viii. Marcello Mastroianni Price for Young Performer: Paula Beer for Frantz
ix. Luigi De Laurentiis Lion of the Future: The Last of Us

• Venice Film Festival/International Film Festival was founded in 1932
• It is one of the big three film festivals the other two being Cannes and Berlin International Film Festival
• It is the oldest film festival in the world
• It takes place in Lido Venice in Italy in Aug/Sept.

Haryana has bagged the Best Horticulture State award for concerted efforts made by the government of this state to increase farmer’s income in horticulture.

• Award was given at the 9th Agricultural Leadership Summit 2016 organised by ICFA in New Delhi.
• Close to 2.5 lakh ha of land in the state is currently under horticulture
• The decision has been made to increase it to 9 lakh ha
• State has also decided to set up a horticulture university in the state
• It has also decided to set up CoE in horticulture in every district of the state and create 340 horticulture villages in the state
• Haryana is also set to establish the biggest horticulture mandi in the country at Ganaur on the pattern of Rungis Mandi of France and Shenzen Mandi of China

Odisha bagged the 9th Global Agriculture Leadership Award 2016 for its efforts towards developing agriculture and creating rural prosperity.

Seed Replacement Rate in paddy (a key contributor to growth and productivity along with technology inputs) has increased to record high of 35.57 percent in 2015-2016 according to government estimates
• For this remarkable achievement in the food grain sector, Odisha has won the Krishi Karman Award 4 times in the past 5 years
• Global Agriculture Leadership Award is instituted by the Indian Council of Food and Agriculture in 2008
• This award is given to individuals and organisations for leadership towards development of agriculture affecting lives of farmers
• Odisha recorded 22.7 percent growth in food grains from 96.36 lakh MT in 2013-2015 to 118.24 MT during 2014-2015.
• State has recorded achievement in increasing the productivity of food grains
• The state has been awarded the Best Agriculture State for 2016
• The National Awards Committee of the ICFA is led by MS Swaminathan
• He is considered the father of the agricultural revolution in India
• Odisha earned the award for launching numerous programs to revive agriculture leading to higher growth rate, increased pace of overall development and improved farm income.

Blackburn’s novel won the award in the UK on 4th September 2016. Author was presented the award at the HNS Conference in Oxford.

• Book narrates the story of the Apatani tribe of Arunachal Pradesh during British India times and the colonial history of British India
• Into the Hidden Valley explores the impact of colonialism whereby a settled civilisation collided with the British empire
• Into the Hidden Valley was chosen for the award ahead of Helena Page Schrader’s Defender of Jerusalem and Kermit Roosevelt’s Allegiance.
• Blackburn is an author of 16 books on Indian culture and folklore, mostly in S India and NE India
• One book, a study of shadow puppet theatre in Kerala was the runner up for the UK Folklore Book of the Year while a translation of an early Tamil novel won the AK Ramanujan Prize in the US
• He is also director of the 5 year, multidisciplinary grant to study Tibet Burma tribal cultures in NE India providing inspiration for the Hidden Valley
• MM Bennetts was a specialist in early 19th century British History and book critic for the Christian Science Monitor- the award is named after him.

Ex Indian women’s cricket team captain Anjum Chopra has been awarded the honorary life membership of the Marylebone Cricket Club along with Virender Sehwag and Zaheer Khan.

• She is the first Indian woman sportsperson to receive this honour
• 39 years old currently, she has plated 12 tests, 127 ODIs and 18 T20s for India.
• Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) is a cricket club in London, founded in 1787. It owns, and is based at, Lord’s Cricket Ground in St John’s Wood, London NW8.
• MCC was formerly the governing body of cricket both in England and Wales as well as worldwide.
• Since 2005 the MCC has funded six university cricket academies known as the MCC Universities (MCCUs).
• The MCC also produces a bible for cricket called the Coaching Manual
• It has an intake limit of 1800 members

Veteran award winning film director KG George on 6th September 2016 won the prestigious JC Daniel Award for overall contribution to the Malayalam film industry.

• Award will be given along with State Film Awards
• Kulakkatil Geevarghese George is an Indian film director and screenwriter
• He revolutionised Malayalam cinema in the 1970s
• He made his debut with Swapnadanam in 1975 and won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Malayalam
• His well known movies include Mela, Yavanika and Ulkadel
• JC Daniel Award is Kerala’s highest award in Malayalam cinema
• George is also the founder and chairman of the Malayalam Cine Technicians Association
• JC Daniel is widely regarded as the father of Malayam Cinema
• The award was instituted in 1992
• Actor Madhu was the first recipient of this award

Acclaimed Kannada movie Thithi on 6th September 2016 won the Best Film Award at the first BRICS film festival that concluded in New Delhi.

• BRICS film festival was organised as part of the special events planned in the run-up to the BRICS summit to be held in India
• Five day long festival screened movies from India, Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa
• China’s Chengdu city will host the next edition of the BRICS film festival.
• Thithi is a 2016 Kannada film written and directed by Raam Reddy and is a story about three generations of men reacting to the death of their 101 year old patriarch
• Film premiers in 68th Locarno International Film Festival on 8th August 2015 where it won the Golden Leopard in the Filmmakers of the Present category for Reddy as well as the first feature award from Swatch
• At the 63rd National Film Awards, the film also won the National Film Award for the Best Feature Film in Kannada
• Filmmaker Jianqi Huo from China won the best director award for Xuan Zang
• Russia’s Yulia Peresild received the Best Actress Award for the Battle of Sevastopol
• South Africa’s Thabo Rametsi clinched the best actor award for rile in Kalushi

Indian ecological and conservation activist Bibhuti Lahkar on 4th September 2016 became the first Asian to be awarded the prestigious Heritage Heroes Award by IUCN.

• Lahkar received the award at IUCN World Conservation Congress in Honolulu Hawaii
• Indian ecologist was among 5 conservationists across the globe to be nominated for 2016 heritage heroes award
• This award is aimed at recognising outstanding efforts around the globe in making a difference to the conservation of World heritage sites in challenging situations
• Lahkar did his research on the grasslands of Manas National Park in the context of the species called Pygmy hog
• His research work covered Manas National park and Kaziranga National Park in Assam
• He also conducted the first GIS survey of the Royal Manas National park
• Research findings are a critical component in Manas Tiger Conservation Plan

Jan Sikshan Sansthan Malappuram has won the UNESCO Confucius Prize for Literacy.

• Award has been conferred on JSS in recognition of literacy linked skill development activities among underprivileged in rural areas.
• JSS bagged the prestigious international award for applying new technology such as Braille app and talking pen in the field of literacy
• JSS chairman Abdul Wahab will receive the award comprising USD 20,000 a diploma and a silver medal as well as a visit to China on study tour
• JSS has reached out to widows, Adivasis and vulnerable sections of society with its literacy program
• More than 53,000 persons have been empowered since the project began in 2006

A ceremony was held to proclaim Nobel Peace Prize laureate Mother Teresa as a saint in St.Peter’s Square at Vatican City.

• The ceremony drew 100,000 pilgrims from across the world.
• Pope Francis who presided over the ceremony in Latin, said that "For the honour of the Blessed Trinity … we declare and define Blessed Teresa of Kolkata to be a saint and we enrol her among the saints, decreeing that she is to be venerated as such by the whole Church.”
• The pope also said though the nun had been declared a Saint, she will always be Mother Teresa to the Catholic family
• Millions of Catholics revere her as a model of compassion and among the assembled crowd were 1500 poor people looked after by Italian branches of Saint Teresa’s order, the Missionaries of Charity.
• In Kolkata where Saint Teresa was laid to rest, nuns and followers clutching flowers flocked to her tomb for her proclamation.
• Canonisation was also celebrated in Skopje the capital of modern Macedonia where Mother Teresa was born of Albanian parents in 1910 and became a nun at the age of 16.
• The 19th anniversary of her death at 87 is just a single dat ahead of her canonisation.
• Mother Teresa healed an Indian woman from stomach cancer in 1998 and a Brazilian man from brain infection in 2008.

Veteran action star Jackie Chan is one of four people slated to receive an honorary Oscar this year, according to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences
Honorary Oscars are awarded to “to honour extraordinary distinction in lifetime achievement, exceptional contributions to the state of motion picture arts and sciences, or for outstanding service to the Academy.”

• Though these are not considered lifetime achievement wards, the awards were given to individuals with decades of experience under their belts
• Chan has been acting since he was 8 years old and broke into Hollywood in 1996 with the release of Rumble in the Bronx
• He also starred in international hits including Rush Hour series, Shanghai Noon and many more
• Chan has made more than 30 martial arts films in Hong Kong
• Along with Chan, the 3 other recipients of the honorary Oscars are Anna Coates, Lynn Stalmaster and Frederick Wiseman
Coates worked on legendary projects such as Lawrence of Arabia for which she won an Oscar and was nominated for four other awards
• Stalmaster’s 6 decade career as a casting director spans Harold and Maude, Tootsie and the Right Stuff

Cybersecurity Solutions provider TAC Security on 2nd September received the Startup of the Year award in the IT/ITeS category at apex body ASSOCHAM’s Startup Summit and Tech Awards.

• They are a homegrown company providing end to end security solutions
• Award corroborates strength as a startup having a whole array of offerings in terms of network, applications and web security solutions
• Event was organised in association with Software Technology Parks of India, Punjab and Haryana government
• Summit aims at developing the entire startup ecosystem in north India from informing startups about capital requirements, incubation, marketing and financial support to scale up their businesses

Renowned sand artist Sudarsan Pattnaik has won the people’s choice prize for his sand sculpture entitled “Mahatma Gandhi- World Peace” at the ninth Moscow Sand Sculpture Championship 2016. Sudarsan has won the gold medal for the 15 foot high sculpture which was created at the championship held in April 2016.

• Sand art depicted the message of non violence and peace
• In the People’s Choice category, the sand sculpture got 60,000 votes of a total of 80,000 votes
• 20 sand artists from all over the country participated in the championship.
• Organiser Pavel Minilkov congratulated Sudarsan for winning the people’s choice prize.
• Pattnaik has also been honoured with a Padmashri, India’s 4th highest civilian award
• He runs a sand art school in Puri beach in Odisha
• In 2015, the world’s largest Santa Claus sand sculpture was created by Pattnaik.
• It was 45 feet high using 100 tonnes of sand breaking earlier records.
• Sculpture erected in Puri beach was Pattnaik’s 9th record
• He has also secured a place in the Limca Book of Records by carving 100 sand chariots at Puri beach.

Carnatic singer Thodur Madabusi Krishna and campaigner for eradication of manual scavenging, Bezwada Wilson on 31st August 2016 received the Ramon Magsaysay award 2016.
Others who won the award are Conchita Carpio Morales (Philippines), Dompet Dhuafa (Indonesia) Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers
Vientiane Rescue of Laos

• Wilson is the national convenor of the Safai Karamchari Andolan and received the award for promoting the right to human dignity
• He has been leading a grassroots movement to eradicate manual scavenging in India
• Krishna won the award under the Emergent Leadership category for social inclusiveness in culture
• He is a Carnatic music vocalist