19th UN Brahma Soldier of Humanity Award conferred to P. Sainath

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KOKRAJHAR: The Upendra Nath Brahma Trust (UNBT) has conferred the 19th UN Brahma Soldier of Humanity Award, 2022 to Palagummi Sainath, eminent journalist, writer, columnist and a human right activist. The citation of the award was given by CEM of BTC, Pramod Boro, memento by minister UG Brahma, Aronai by ABSU president Dipen Boro and cheque of Rs 1 lakh by the chairman of UN Brahma Trust, Dr Subung Basumatary respectively.

In his welcome address, the chairman of UNBT, Dr Subung Basumatary said Sainath had extensively written on rural India. His notable interests included-poetry, structural inequities caste discrimination and farmers' protests. He founded the People's Achieve of rural India (PARI) in 2014 –an online platform that focuses on social and economic inequities, rural affairs, poverty and aftermath of globalization in India. He was a senior editor at The Hindu until his resignation in 2014. He has received many awards for his journalism. The economist, Amartya Sen called him one of the world's great experts on famine and hunger. His book Everybody loves a good drought is a collection of his field reports as a journalist and focuses on different aspects of rural deprivation in India.

Basumatary said Sainath became the first Indian reporter to win the European Commission's Lorenzo Natali prize for journalism in 1995. In 2000, he won the inaugural Amnesty International Global Human Rights Journalism prize. That same year, he was awarded the United Nation's Food and Agriculture Organization's Boerma prize. He was also awarded Ramon Magsasay award for journalism literature and creative communications arts in 2007. He was given the award for his passionate commitment as a journalist to restore the rural poor to India's national consciousness.

On June 28, 2021, P Sainath won the Fukuoka Grand prize, one of Japan's most prestigious international awards that honours individuals or groups or organizations who create well as preserve the many distinct and diverse cultures of the Asian region. In the 31-year history of the award, P. Sainath is the first Grand Prize Laureate from the field of journalism. He was awarded a Doctor of Letters (D. Litt) degree honoris causa by the University of LBERTA in Edmonton in 2011 and another D. Litt by the St. Francis Xavier University, Nova Scotia in 2017.

Chaired by former chairman of UNBT and minister UG Brahma, the keynote address was given by the president of ABSU, Dipen Boro while CEM of BTC, Pramod Boro delivered a speech on the award. The president of Bodo Sahitya Sabha (BSS), Taren Boro also spoke on the occasion. State Information Commissioner Samudra Gupta Kashyap attended and spoke on the occasion as the chief guest.

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