ELECTION 99
US EDITION
COLUMNISTS
DIARY
SPECIALS
INTERVIEWS
CAPITAL BUZZ
REDIFF POLL
DEAR REDIFF
THE STATES
YEH HAI INDIA!
ELECTIONS
ARCHIVES

Search Rediff

Baba Amte wins Gandhi Peace Prize

Baba Amte, the 85-year-old social activist devoted to the care of lepers and the uplift of the poor has been awarded the Gandhi Peace Prize for 1999. The award, which carries a Rs 10 million solarium, a citation and a memento will be presented to him by President K R Narayanan at the Rashtrapati Bhawan in the first quarter of the year 2000, Union Minister for Culture, Youth Affairs and Sports, Ananth Kumar, said at a press conference in New Delhi today.

Describing Amte as ''one of the great Gandhians of the country and a humanist,'' Ananth Kumar said his nomination was decided unanimously by a jury chaired by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Amte, who had done yeoman service for the care and treatment of lepers, has accepted the award, Ananth Kumar said.

The Gandhi Peace Prize, launched by the government on the occasion of the 125th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi in 1995, is given in recognition of efforts promoting global peace and harmony.

The previous awardees include Dr Julius Nyerere, the late president of Tanzania, Dr A T Ariyaratne, former president of Sarvodaya movement in Sri Lanka, Dr Girhard Fischer of Germany and the Ramakrishna Mission (India).

The opposition leader in the Lok Sabha, the chief justice of India, former president R Venkataraman and Dr A T Ariyaratne were the other members of the jury.

In his crusade against leprosy and the popular misconceptions about the disease, Amte has established Anandvan, a model of social reconstruction.

UNI

Tell us what you think of this report