An Indian nun, who is a social worker, was one of the four recipients of this year's 45th Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards 2023 for their outstanding work in various fields.
Sister Sudha Varghese, a member of the Patna province of Sisters of Notre Dame, is a social worker and Catholic nun in India who has devoted herself to the Musahar, the Dalit of Bihar, and Uttar Pradesh for three decades.
Sister Sudha Varghese has dedicated her life to helping the Musahar, who are a type of Dalit people. Many people think of them as "untouchables" because they are in one of the lowest-scheduled castes. Their basic rights and schooling are often ignored. The Indian government gave her the Padma Shri ("Lotus Honor") in 2006. It is the fourth-highest citizen award in the country.
The awarding event took place in Mumbai, western India, on December 7.
The Chief Justice of India, D.Y. Chandrachud, gave away the prestigious 45th Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards 2023 to four eminent personalities—three Indians and one Bangladeshi.
The winners were Dr. Regi George and Dr. Lalitha Regi, trustees of the Tribal Health Initiative in Tamil Nadu, for their good work; Dr. Ramalakshmi Datta, joint director of the Vivekananda Institute of Biotechnology in West Bengal, for using science and technology to help rural development; and Sister Sudha Varghese, secretary of Nari Gunjan ("Women's Voice") in Bihar (an NGO), for her work to help women and children grow and be healthy.
The International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside of India was given to Raha Naba Kumar, who is the Director and CEO of Gandhi Ashram Trust in Bangladesh.
As an honor to Ramkrishna Bajaj's 100th birthday, each winner got a cash prize of two million Indian rupees. They also got a trophy and a citation.
The awards are named after Jamnalal Bajaj, who lived from 1889 to 1942. He was a famous industrialist, a freedom fighter, and a generous person. After that, Ramkrishna Bajaj (1923–1994), Jamnalal Bajaj's second son, also believed in Gandhian ideas and spent his whole life serving the country in many ways. To honor his father, he founded the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation.
Radio Veritas Asia (RVA), a media platform of the Catholic Church, aims to share Christ. RVA started in 1969 as a continental Catholic radio station to serve Asian countries in their respective local language, thus earning the tag “the Voice of Asian Christianity.” Responding to the emerging context, RVA embraced media platforms to connect with the global Asian audience via its 21 language websites and various social media platforms.
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