Bezwada Wilson and TM Krishna, the Indian recipients of this year’s Ramon Magsaysay Awards, have a lot in common. Both challenged caste hierarchies to lay the ground for social order where human dignity prevailed over everything else.
Where 50-year-old Wilson, born to manual scavengers in Karnataka’s Kolar, worked to liberate thousands of women from the dehumanising practice, 40-year-old Krishna, a trained Carnatic musician, questioned his art for being the exclusive preserve of Brahmins.
Four others who have been selected for the award are — Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa of Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and ‘Vientiane Rescue’ of Laos.
“My award goes out to all those women who burned their baskets without the promise of rehabilitation from the government. I salute them all,” Wilson told The Tribune from his humble East Patel Nagar office today. His office doubles as his home.
The Award, Wilson adds, will help focus the national attention on lakhs of faceless sufferers still trapped in the inhuman occupation, restricted to Dalits.
“Around two lakh women are still engaged as manual scavengers across India. What’s more — lakhs of cleaners of sewage and septic tanks are suffering silently across our booming cities. No one cares about their deaths. Their liberation and justice to their families is our next goal,” says Wilson, credited with three landmark moments in the history of India’s anti-manual scavenging movement — the passage of the 1993 anti-scavenging law, its replacement with a new 2013 law and a 2014 Supreme Court judgment, which directed the Centre and state governments to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to each family that witnessed death of a ward in a septic tank.
His Magsaysay citation recognises the range of Wilson’s 32-year work. “Awarded for asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity,” it says of the man who led the movement to demolish dry latrines in India through his Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA). He launched this movement from Hyderabad with Narayan Amma, the legendary scavenger whose stories are now part of school curriculum.
The citation also mentions how of the estimated six lakh scavengers in India, SKA liberated three lakh. The practice still involves 180,000 Dalit households cleaning 790,000 public and private dry latrines across India.
For TM Krishna, born to a privileged Brahmin family in Chennai, the Magsaysay Citation says: “Awarded for social inclusiveness in culture”.
The Award recognises Krishna’s urge to liberate his art form from the clutches of caste and make it inclusive. “He questioned the politics of art; widened his knowledge about the arts of the Dalits and non-Brahmin communities; and declared he would no longer sing in ticketed events at a famous, annual music festival in Chennai to protest the lack of inclusiveness…Krishna is resolved to break barriers of caste, class or creed by democratising music,” declares his citation also mentioning how Krishna was the sole Carnatic musician to hold music fests in war-torn Northern Sri Lanka.
Source:-tribuneindia
Viewmore:-Punjab Mobile Number Database
Where 50-year-old Wilson, born to manual scavengers in Karnataka’s Kolar, worked to liberate thousands of women from the dehumanising practice, 40-year-old Krishna, a trained Carnatic musician, questioned his art for being the exclusive preserve of Brahmins.
Four others who have been selected for the award are — Conchita Carpio-Morales of the Philippines, Dompet Dhuafa of Indonesia, Japan Overseas Cooperation Volunteers and ‘Vientiane Rescue’ of Laos.
“My award goes out to all those women who burned their baskets without the promise of rehabilitation from the government. I salute them all,” Wilson told The Tribune from his humble East Patel Nagar office today. His office doubles as his home.
The Award, Wilson adds, will help focus the national attention on lakhs of faceless sufferers still trapped in the inhuman occupation, restricted to Dalits.
“Around two lakh women are still engaged as manual scavengers across India. What’s more — lakhs of cleaners of sewage and septic tanks are suffering silently across our booming cities. No one cares about their deaths. Their liberation and justice to their families is our next goal,” says Wilson, credited with three landmark moments in the history of India’s anti-manual scavenging movement — the passage of the 1993 anti-scavenging law, its replacement with a new 2013 law and a 2014 Supreme Court judgment, which directed the Centre and state governments to pay Rs 10 lakh compensation to each family that witnessed death of a ward in a septic tank.
His Magsaysay citation recognises the range of Wilson’s 32-year work. “Awarded for asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity,” it says of the man who led the movement to demolish dry latrines in India through his Safai Karmachari Andolan (SKA). He launched this movement from Hyderabad with Narayan Amma, the legendary scavenger whose stories are now part of school curriculum.
The citation also mentions how of the estimated six lakh scavengers in India, SKA liberated three lakh. The practice still involves 180,000 Dalit households cleaning 790,000 public and private dry latrines across India.
For TM Krishna, born to a privileged Brahmin family in Chennai, the Magsaysay Citation says: “Awarded for social inclusiveness in culture”.
The Award recognises Krishna’s urge to liberate his art form from the clutches of caste and make it inclusive. “He questioned the politics of art; widened his knowledge about the arts of the Dalits and non-Brahmin communities; and declared he would no longer sing in ticketed events at a famous, annual music festival in Chennai to protest the lack of inclusiveness…Krishna is resolved to break barriers of caste, class or creed by democratising music,” declares his citation also mentioning how Krishna was the sole Carnatic musician to hold music fests in war-torn Northern Sri Lanka.
Source:-tribuneindia
Viewmore:-Punjab Mobile Number Database
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