Asian Nobel for Indian Educationist
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Sandeep Pandey |
By
Danish A Khan, Special to IslamOnline
NEW
DELHI, August 2 (IslamOnline) - Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as
Asia's Nobel Prize, for the year 2000 has been awarded to Sandeep
Pandey, who got the prestigious award in the Emergent Leader category
in recognition of his services to education and livelihood projects
for poor children and his efforts to defuse tension between India and
Pakistan.
Pandey
hails from a highly-educated, yet low-profile, family at Lucknow in
the north Indian state of Uttar Pradesh. A former professor of Indian
Institute of Technology (IIT) Kanpur, Pandey, after quitting his job
formed a voluntary organization called "Asha" (literally,
hope), and dedicated himself to better the lot of underprivileged
children in the field of education.
The
early news that Pandey had been selected for the Magsaysay award was
dismissed as a prank, he admitted. "It was on July 16 when I
received a mail from the foundation seeking my telephone number. About
a week ago, we got a call from the president disclosing the nomination
and seeking my acceptance. After six days, another call confirmed the
award," informed an ebullient Pandey and his wife, Arundhati
Dharu.
Pandey,
37, said that the recognition had come "somewhat early" for
him. There were more deserving people involved in selfless work who
must be accorded due recognition, he said.
His
parents – father US Pandey and mother Uma Pandey, had a keen desire
that he become officer of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS). He
could not make it to the elite service which forms the backbone of the
Indian bureaucracy. "This award would certainly satisfy
them," he hoped.
Pandey's
father is an officer of the Indian Revenue Service (IRS). His brother,
Rahul, is a professor at Indian Institute of Management (IIM) Lucknow.
His sister, Priyanka, is a professor of economics at the University of
Pennsylvania.
Carmencitat
Abella, president of the Ramon Magsaysay Foundation in the
Philippines, presented the award in recognition of his services which
support education and livelihood projects for poor children,
particularly Dalits (the so-called "untouchables"). The
foundation also acknowledged his efforts to defuse tension between
India and Pakistan and appreciated his proposed visit to Pakistan to
make efforts to improve relations between the two countries.
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| Pandey in a classroom |
Providing
details about the voluntary organization "Asha", Pandey said
that it came into being in 1991 at the University of California in
Berkley with the assistance and participation of his two other friends
VJP Srivatsavoy (died in May 2000) and Deepak Gupta, presently a
professor at IIT, Kanpur. Gupta continues to be involved with Asha.
Asha
was formed with the purpose of becoming a catalyst in socio-economic
change through education of underprivileged children. Its activities
include identifying education-related projects in India and supporting
them with funds and in other ways.
The
organization has 35 chapters in different countries of the world and
has more than 300 active volunteers. So far, it has supported more
than 100 different projects in several states of the country.
Others
who got the Magsaysay awards this week are: chief justice of the
Supreme Court of the Philippines, a Pakistani nun, a doctor from
Myanmar, a Nepalese journalist and a South Korean Buddhist monk.
Ramon
Magsaysay Award was instituted in the late 1950s to honor individuals
and organizations in Asia whose civic contributions and leadership
"exemplify the greatness of spirit, integrity, and devotion to
freedom of Ramon Magsaysay," former president of the Philippines,
who died tragically in an airplane crash.
The
awards are presented in five categories: government service, public
service, community leadership, international understanding, and
journalism, literature, and creative communication arts. Up to five
awards of $50,000 each are given annually by the Ramon Magsaysay Award
Foundation, which is headquartered at Manila in the Philippines.
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