Magsaysay award winners to use their prize money to help poor

Thursday July 30, 2015 , 2 min Read

Ramon Magsaysay award winners Sanjiv Chaturvedi and Anshu Gupta said they would utilise the prize money for the benefit of poorer sections of the society. While bureaucrat Chaturvedi, who had initiated probe into alleged scams at AIIMS before being booted out as its Chief Vigilance Officer, wants to donate the entire amount of nearly Rs 19 lakh to an AIIMS account which supports poor and needy patients, founder of NGO Goonj Gupta plans to help deserving children facing financial constraints get quality education.

“I will donate the entire prize money which amounts to nearly Rs 19 lakh to an AIIMS account which supports poor and needy patients,” Chaturvedi told PTI. For Gupta, it is the education sector where he wants to contribute money to help deserving children facing financial constraints get quality education. “I went through a very rough phase as my parents had passed away at an early age. After having the award money, I would like to contribute to the education sector, so at least a few children do not have to face hardships for quality education due to financial constraints.

“I would also like to support new initiatives involving young people. These initiatives would be beyond what we are doing through Goonj. What area or sector they would be, it doesn’t matter, bringing change is the agenda,” he said. Forty-year-old Chaturvedi, an Indian Forest Service officer and currently the deputy secretary of AIIMS, has been selected for the award under the ‘Emergent Leadership’ category for his “exemplary integrity, courage and tenacity in uncompromisingly exposing and painstakingly exposing corruption in public office”.

Gupta, who left his corporate job to start Goonj in 1999, has been selected for the award for his creative vision in transforming the “culture of giving” in India and in reminding the world that true giving always respects and preserves human dignity. Goonj collects used clothes and household goods and distribute them to the needy.

Image Credit: Shutterstock