LONDON: Indian Sarvodaya couple, Krishnammal and Sankaralingam Jagannathan are among four prominent people to share this year's prestigious 'Right to Livelihood Award', also known as the "alternative Nobel".
The Jagannathan couple and their organisation, Nagapattinam based Land for The Tillers Freedom (LAFTI) will share Swedish 2 million Kroner (USD 290,000) award with a US journalist, a German gynaecologist and a Somali, an announcement made in Stockholm.
The Indian couple would receive the award, "For two long lifetimes of work dedicated to realising in practice the Gandhian vision of social justice and sustainable human development."
For this dedication, the organisers have referred to them as "India's soul".
Krishnnamal Jagannathan, the octogenarian Sarvodaya leader in Nagapattinam district in Tamil Nadu, is already a recipient of Padma Shree and was also chosen as one of the three recipients of the 'Opus Prize-2008' given by the Seattle University in US.
She is married to Sarvodaya leader Sankaralingam Jagannathan, an active participant of the 'Bhoodan Movement' of late Vinoba Bhave. She started her organisation LAFTI at Kuthur village in Nagapattinam district in 1981.
The other recipients of the award, founded to recognise work organisers felt was ignored by the prestigious Nobel Prizes, are US journalist Amy Goodman, who hosts a popular show 'Democracy Now' and Somalia's Asha Hagi, who was honoured for leading women's participation in her war ravaged country.
The fourth recipient is a German gynaecologist, Monika Hauser, who has been working to help sexually abused women.
