New Delhi: Journalist/social activist and this year's Magsaysay award winner Palagumni Sainath has dedicated a part of his award money to support the families of farmers in distress.
The rural affairs editor of The Hindu has dedicated the remaining part of the yet-to-be-released prize money for the welfare of freedom fighters and to document their role in the freedom struggle, his friend and Vidarbha Jan Andolan Samiti (VJAS) president Kishor Tiwari said, reported IANS.
Sainath won the 2007 Ramon Magsaysay Award - regarded as Asia's equivalent of the Nobel prize, for his contributions to journalism, literature and creative communication arts.
Announcing the award, the Board of Trustees of the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation (RMAF) said that Sainath is "among the seven individuals who have been awarded in recognition of their achievements in various fields."
Sainath who writes on social issues like farmers' suicides in Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra was will receive his award on August 31 in a ceremony in Manila.
Fifty-year-old Sainath completed a Master's degree in history before turning to a life of journalism.
In his bestselling book of 1997, Everybody Loves a Good Drought Sainath wrote about a world that "belied the giddy accounts of India's economic miracle."
Other winners include Jovito R Salonga of Philippines, who is awarded for government service for tirelessly fighting for the rule of law; and Mahabir Pun of Nepal, who received the community leadership prize for his innovative application of wireless computer technology that brought progress to remote mountain areas.
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