Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards
Dr. Justice C. S. Dharmadhikari (Retd.), felicitates 39th Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards winners
by Suman Gupta
New Delhi, 7th November, 2016: The Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation honoured awardees on the occasion of the 39th edition of the Jamnalal Bajaj Awards. The four awardees were felicitated by Chief Guest Dr. Justice C. S. Dharmadhikari (Retd.), Chairman, Council of Advisors of the Foundation in the presence of Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Board of Trustees.
Since the institution of these awards, every year the Foundation memorializes the birth anniversary of Shri Jamnalal Bajaj. As a tribute to this special occasion the Foundation felicitates achievers in the fields of humanitarian activities and Gandhian constructive programmes by presenting them with a Citation, a Trophy and a prize amount of Rs. 10,00,000 in each category. The Foundation continues to serve the ideals to which Shri Jamnalalji had dedicated his life to and promotes the kind of Gandhian constructive activities, in which he himself was deeply involved during his lifetime.
The 2016 Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation awards were presented in the following categories:
Award Category
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Awardee Name and Title
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State / Country
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Award for outstanding contribution in the field of Constructive Work
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Shri Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, Convenor, Vrikshamitra
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Maharashtra
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Award for Application of Science & Technology for Rural Development
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Shri BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar, Founder, Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI)
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Maharashtra
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Award for Development and Welfare of Women and Children (Instituted in memory of Smt. Jankidevi Bajaj)
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Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi, Founder Secretary, Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer & Chetana Charitable Trust
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Andhra Pradesh
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International Award for Promoting Gandhian Values Outside India
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Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi, President, Ennahdha (Renaissance) Party
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Tunisia
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Mr. Rahul Bajaj, Chairman, Board of Trustees, Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation speaking at the occasion said, “There is an utmost need to identify those who unswervingly dedicated their entire existence in propagating and perpetuating the noble ethos and philosophy of Gandhian values. They deserve to be felicitated for their everlasting efforts in moving the lives of individuals emotionally, economically and socially thereby personifying Gandhian principles with resilient conviction. The Jamnalal Bajaj Awards is a means to commemorate these selfless and courageous real life heroes.”
About the winners
· Shri Mohan Hirabai Hiralal
Born on the 31st December, 1949, Shri Mohan Hirabai Hiralal, an active member of Jayaprakash Narayanji’s Chhatra Yuva Sangharsh Wahini and a believer of Gandhiji-Vinobaji’s thesis of people’s power, set up ‘Vrikshamitra’ in 1984 in Gadchiroli District, Maharashtra with the objective to propagate the cause of environment, forest livelihood and self-rule. During his search for unanimous decision making villages and study on `People and Forest’, Mohan Hirabai Hiralal came across Mendha (Lekha), a tribal village in Gadchiroli, Maharashtra where mutual co-operation existed amongst its people. As a Sahayogi Mitra (Collaborator friend), he guided and facilitated the people of Mendha (Lekha) with the process of effective and systematic adoptive management broadly emphasizing three major aspects, viz. forest conservation, sustainability, equity and security.
Mohan Hirabai Hiralal helped villagers to focus on women’s participation, alcohol prohibition, forest conservation and rights, fight against corruption, cultural rights, youth empowerment, sustainability, equity and security. The villagers were enlightened on their traditional Nistar rights (forest produce rights for domestic consumption) and supported by Mohan Hirabai Hiralal in their fight to acquire them. Mohan Hirabai Hiralal’s knowledge and direction helped the people of Mendha (Lekha) in making the Gram Sabhamore inclusive, participatory and active. Today the revolutionary slogan of Mendha (Lekha), `In Delhi and Mumbai we have our Government but, in village we ourselves are Government’, exemplifies the spirit of the village and its people.
In 2013, after persistent efforts of Mohan Hirabai Hiralal and the villagers, all legal formalities of Gramdan of Mendha (Lekha) were completed and the village went on to be the first village in the country to become a Gramdan Village under Maharashtra GramdanAct 1964. An important aspect of Mohan Hirabai Hiralal’s work is to creatively and effectively utilize, the laws that are beneficial to the villagers in their quest for self-rule. He created Study Groups and initiated discussions which resulted in villagers arriving to valid conclusions and solutions with purity of means and non-violence. Mendha’s Gram Sabha is a manifestation of dormant potential present in human beings, which can be replicated.
· Shri BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar
Born on the 17th July, 1931, Shri Bonbehari Nimbkar, was brought up with a feeling of nationalism. He studied at the Rajkumar College, Rajkot before going to his maternal grandfather’s home in USA, in 1945.
On finishing high school, he went to the College of Agriculture at the Rutgers University and then returned to India on his father’s wishes to carry out farming. BonBehari Vishnu Nimbkar has been a silent-beginner and self-motivator, who has been contributing to the society without breaks. He set up the Nimbkar Agricultural Research Institute (NARI) in 1968, with an objective to use the best tools of science and technology for solving rural problems, and contribute to constructive policy development.
A team of crop breeders and agricultural engineer from the Rockfeller Foundation (RF), who in the early sixties were in India to initiate the green revolution helped Nimbkar to set up the seed company. Thus, he was able to grow thousands of acres of seed crops, process them and market the seeds all over India. Nimbkar also learnt how to convert CSH-1 (the first sorghum hybrid released in India) to Vasant-1, by changing the pollinator. Vasant-1 is still on the list of approved varieties in Maharashtra. He used the same technique used by the RF viz. the foreign germplasm suitably modified for Indian conditions. Sweet sorghum was another crop introduced to India by Nimbkar, and work on which, along with that on safflower is continuing at NARI under the All India Coordinated Research Programme, funded by the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR).
NARI obtained all the germplasm for the sweet sorghum project from United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). Research was carried out on the initial breeding to improve the quality and quantity of grain in sweet sorghum, and in the 1980s and 1990s, protocols for production of syrup, jaggery and ethanol from sweet sorghum and lanterns and stoves for use of ethanol for lighting and cooking, was developed.
In 1990, Nimbkar directed his interests away from irrigated agriculture to dryland farming. In India, sheep produce only one lamb at a time. He conducted research during 1998-2008 on introducing the gene of the Garole breed of sheep in West Bengal into Deccani sheep, to produce two lambs instead of one. This successfully resulted in the production of the prolific ‘NARI Suwarna’ sheep. Nimbkar also introduced crossbred Boer goats. They have resulted in increased productivity and profitability to goat owners in India. The impact of this research on small ruminants is the most lasting of all of Nimbkar’s activities so far. Nimbkar, is known for his pioneering work in the field of agriculture and animal husbandry for over five decades; and has been instrumental in increasing crop and animal productivity and taking their benefits directly to farmers and animal rearers.
· Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi
Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi was born on the 1st of July, 1937 in Tenali, Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. She did her post-graduation in History and Education and obtained her Doctorate in Early Childhood Education.
Later, she joined in Government’s Women and Child Welfare Department which gave her an opportunity to undergo training at Gandhigram in Madurai – where she physically witnessed the practicing of Gandhian principles. After that, Dr. Manga Devi was motivated to get trained in Montessori System of Education.
Subsequently she set up a Montessori House of Children, Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer (SVBK) in Brodipet, the first of its kind in Guntur with a single girl child in 1965 along with the a close friend who also shared the same ideologies.
She was convinced that children had to be nurtured with care, love, information, skills and education to bring out the best out of them. She left her Government job to walk this new path. By 1975, the phenomenal success of the first school at Brodipet which became Co-Educational English Medium Secondary School motivated her to start another branch at Shyamalanagar which is affiliated to the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE). By the 80s, Dr. Manga Devi was a trend-setter in pre-school innovative teaching techniques, wherein she integrated various aspects of nature and art into the informal teaching modules.
Later in life, Dr. Manga Devi met with Saint Teresa who brought a sea-change in Dr. Manga Devi's vision which led to the formation of Chetana Charitable Trust, a multi-purpose rural project in Chowdavaram village near Guntur, in 1990 with the motive to serve the needy women and children. She initiated this to emphasize on Security, education, development and welfare of children; Rehabilitation and employment of the destitute women; Shelter and solace for the old in the lively company of the little ones from the Children’s Village. Dr. Nannapaneni Manga Devi is the Founder Secretary of Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer and Chetana Charitable Trust. There is human and nature centered progress in her work.
· Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi
Sheikh Ghannouchi was born in a modest farmer’s family in Gabes in Southeastern Tunisia on the 22nd of June, 1941. He completed his early education in his village, and later he studied in the Zaytouna College and University, learning an Islamic curriculum in Gabes and Tunis after which he went to Egypt, Syria and France for further studies. After his return to Tunisia in 1969, Sheikh Ghannouchi focused on promoting religious and social reforms in his country. By the late 1970s, his focus of concern gradually shifted to politics as nationwide discontent against the increasingly authoritarian regime was growing. In June 1981, he formed the Islamic Tendency Movement known in Tunisia by its French acronym, MTI, which aimed to reform Islam and to revive Tunisian society in the intellectual, social, political, cultural and educational spheres. The MTI gained instant popularity among many Tunisians. In 1988, in response to changes in laws in Tunisia which allowed the creation of a multi-party system, the movement changed its name from the MTI to Ennahdha (Renaissance) party, to focus on the political arena.
Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi showed sagacity, patience and broad mindedness combined with courageous and empathetic leadership skills through the later years of Constitution-drafting.
He worked tirelessly to reduce the mutual suspicion and acrimony between secularists and Islamists, in matters connected to the Constitution, other laws, and social morals including consistently emphasizing respect for different ways of life and the duty of the State to respect all citizens and their private choices. His thoughts on the sanctity of non-Muslims’ rights in an Islamic society are presented in his book “Citizenship Rights: The Non-Muslims’ Rights in a Muslim Society”.
Sheikh Ghannouchi was the only leader who had to, and did, achieve two different, critically important, “bridging tasks”. He produced a political transformation in Tunisia by guiding it through a difficult time of transition from an unstable, polarized and acrimonious context towards a durable democracy; by using Gandhian methods of tolerance and empathy to other’s views, forgiveness to acts of transgression and being flexible in negotiations. Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi has repeatedly displayed a generous spirit of accommodation in the larger interests of the nation, and emerged from great oppression to become a champion of broadmindedness and democracy. He emphasises the importance and relevance of ijtihad, or human interpretation, in Islamic thinking and also believes that freedom is a principle at the heart of Islam and a foundation to establishing pluralistic, democratic systems. Sheikh Rached Ghannouchi is the President of the Ennahdha Party, the largest political party in Tunisia.
About The Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards : Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation continues to work towards propagating Gandhian values and Shri Jamnalal Bajaj’s ideologies. The awards for outstanding contribution in the field of Constructive Work, Application of Science and Technology for Rural Development, instituted in 1978, and Development and Welfare of Women and Children, introduced in 1980 in the memory of Smt. Jankidevi Bajaj, wife of Shri Jamnalal Bajaj, and Gandhian constructive work are given to Indian nationals. The International Award, instituted in 1988 in celebration of the birth centennial of Shri Jamnalal Bajaj is presented to an individual with foreign nationality for promoting Gandhian values outside India.
Nominations are invited for 2017 Awards
Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation has commenced nominations for the 40th Edition of its Awards which will be held in 2017. If there is / are any individual/s you are aware of who have performed exemplary work based on Gandhian values in any of the four categories, kindly apprise them about the Jamnalal Bajaj Foundation Awards. For more information on the awards criteria and nomination format, visit http://www.jamnalalbajajawards.org/nomination-forms
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