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July 27: The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation, which felicitates stellar work in various fields internationally, has this year shortlisted two Indians in their final list of awardees for 2016- social activist Bezwada Wilson and Carnatic musician TM Krishna. While Krishna will be honoured with the prestigious award for “social inclusiveness in culture”, Wilson will be felicitated for “asserting the inalienable right to a life of human dignity”, through his Safai Karmachari Andolan. The two Indians are keeping up the legacy of several others who have won accolades for the country in various fields.
In a society, which still exhibits deep fissures along the lines of caste, Krishna’s music was an integrating force. According to a report in The Hindu, the citation for Krishna reads, “He saw that his was a caste-dominated art that fostered an unjust, hierarchic order by effectively excluding the lower classes from sharing in a vital part of India’s cultural legacy. He questioned the politics of art; widened his knowledge about the arts of the dalits (“untouchables”) 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.” ALSO READ: Ramon Magsaysay Award Winners: List of renowned Indian personalities in the past
Wilson, who is the National Convener of the Safai Karmachari Andolan, has done some remarkable work in liberating scores of people engaged in manual scavenging across the country. “Fifty years old, Bezwada Wilson has spent 32 years on his crusade, leading not only with a sense of moral outrage but also with remarkable skills in mass organizing, and working within India’s complex legal system. SKA has grown into a network of 7,000 members in 500 districts across the country. Of the estimated 600,000 scavengers in India, SKA has liberated around 300,000”, Wilson’s citation reads.
Bezwada Wilson and TM Krishna from India get Ramon Magsaysay Award for 2016
— ANI (@ANI_news) July 27, 2016
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