Ramon Magsaysay Award:
Former Kerala Health Minister and Communist Party of India (Marxist) [CPI(M)] central committee member K.K. Shailaja, MLA, has declined the Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation’s offer to consider her for the international honour in 2022.
- The foundation wanted to honour her for the public service and community leadership during the Nipah outbreak and COVID-19 pandemic in Kerala.
- However, Ms. Shailaja felt she could not accept the offer extended to her as an individual since the effort was collective.
- The Ramon Magsaysay Award, widely considered to be Asia’s equivalent to the Nobel Prize, recognises outstanding leadership and communitarian contributions in Asia.
- The prize was established in April 1957 by the trustees of the Rockefeller Brothers Fund based in New York City with the concurrence of the Philippine government.
- The Ramon Magsaysay Award is presented in formal ceremonies in Manila, Philippines on August 31st, the birth anniversary of the much-esteemed Philippine President whose ideals inspired the Award’s creation in 1957.
- From 1958 to 2008, the Award was given in six categories annually: (1) Government Service, (2) Public Service, (3) Community Leadership, (4) Journalism, Literature, and Creative Communication Arts, (5) Peace and International Understanding and (6)
- Starting in 2009, the Ramon Magsaysay Award is no longer being given in fixed Award categories, except for Emergent Leadership.
- Prominent Indians who have won the award include Vinoba Bhave in 1958, Mother Teresa in 1962, Kamaladevi Chattopadhyay in 1966, Satyajit Ray in 1967, Mahasweta Devi in 1997.
- In recent years, Arvind Kejriwal (2006), Anshu Gupta of Goonj (2015), human rights activist Bezwada Wilson (2016), and journalist Ravish Kumar (2019) have won the award.
