A decade ago Sandeep Pandey quit his job at the Indian Institute of Technology-Kanpur, and plunged into working for Asha -- an education programme for underprivileged children.
His years of dedication brought him the Ramon Magasasay award -- the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. He was selected in the 'Emergent Leadership Category,' and is among five others to have won the coveted award this year.
At 37, he is also the youngest Indian to have been conferred with the award.
It was in the summer of 1991 that Pandey, along with two other friends, founded Asha during his student days at the University of California, Berkeley. Today, the organisation has 35 chapters in India, USA and several other countries. Volunteers in each of these chapters identify education-related projects in India, and support them through funds and other means.
Squatting on his drawing room carpet, at his modest joint-family accommodation in Lucknow, he spoke to Sharat Pradhan about his crusading journey so far and the goals ahead.
What led you to leave your career as a mechanical engineer and IIT professor to take up the task of a social activist?
It was a report prepared by MIT whose experts had found that more than 50 per cent of India's children remained totally uneducated and never went to school. I was still at California where together with two of my colleagues we decided to do something to bring some hope in the lives of that deprived lot. That's when Asha -- our voluntary organisation was born.
What brought you back to India?
Initially, it was the professorial assignment at IIT Kanpur, but soon realisation dawned that true service to the downtrodden could be rendered only by working physically at the grassroots level. So I decided to leave IIT after a year-and-a-half and headed straight for my paternal grandparent's village in Ballia district [in Uttar Pradesh] where the first Asha non-formal education centre was born.
Today we have three more such centres in Hardoi, Kanpur and Varanasi, besides scores of other such centres supported by Asha.
How did your family react to your quitting a prime assignment at an IIT?
My father, who had dreams of seeing me as a civil servant, was surely somewhat shaken when I took this decision in 1993, yet, he was always confident I would still do something worthwhile. My wife Arundhati, herself an associate of Medha Patkar's Narmada Bachao Andolan, always stood by me.
What is your concept of non-formal education?
Conventional education is only oriented towards jobs, therefore it is based on competition, which in turn gives rise to pride, prejudice and conflict. My idea of education is based on empowerment by imbibing the spirit of cooperation instead of competition.
How do you propose to achieve your goal through a handful of your schools?
Firstly, we are not running schools. We have our centres where we see to the overall development of young minds. And it is not just four institutions, we have over a hundred institutions spread across the country where we are trying to promote our type of education.
How did you feel when your heard that you were selected for this prestigious award?
I did not believe my ears when I received the call from Manila. Initially I felt someone was trying to play a prank. After all, there were many more deserving people than me. Yet it was a great feeling to find your work being recognised at levels which you have never dreamt of. But all the same I must confess, it is not my lone effort. Much of the credit goes to my colleagues who had been with me in this mission all along.
I believe you have been involved in other social movements as well.
I participated in the Pokharan to Sarnath march that was organised to express our protest against the nuclear tests. More recently, I undertook a similar protest march together with my friends and coactivists from Chitrakoot to Ayodhya to express our concern about the recent happenings in Gujarat .
What plans do you have for the immediate future?
I am planing to undertake a peace mission to Pakistan because I strongly feel the need for peaceful ties between the two nations. This cannot be achieved through nuclear missiles and tanks, but through a genuine hand shake.
Design: Dominic Xavier; Photograph: Ajay Saxena
[This is a local copy of an article originally posted in Rediff.com]
Magsaysay has come too
early, says Pandey
At 37, Magsaysay award winner Sandeep Pandey feels recognition for him has come early in a country where there are scores of more deserving people involved in selfless social work.
Pandey quit a lucrative career overseas to found an NGO -- Asha -- for educating under-privileged children.
"It took over two days for my family and volunteers at Asha to convince me that this award would not just be a ceremonial thing, but would give credence to my work as well," Pandey said.
Pandey said he never imagined that the work he started with two fellow NRI students from California 11 years ago would earn him international recognition.
"At that time it was primarily the concern of contributing something for the [development] of children back home that had led us to establish the organisation," he says of Asha founded in 1991 for educating and running livelihood projects for children in Uttar Pradesh.
Today, Asha has spread its wings all over the globe with at least 35 chapters in the United States, and a few in Hong Kong, Australia and some other countries.
In India, Asha funds as many as 120 projects in Guwahati, Chennai, Kanpur and Mumbai, besides running schools in quake-hit Kutch, riot-hit parts of Gujarat and insurgency infested areas of Assam.
Pandey, who won the award in the emergent leadership category, did his mechanical engineering from the Benaras Hindu University and completed a doctorate from the University of California-Berkley.
The idea of quitting a permanent job to get involved in spreading education among Dalit children did not find favour with his father. But his mother, Uma provided the support as she saw shades of her own father, a prominent social worker, in Sandeep.
His work is not just confined to bread and butter issues or livelihood projects. A man of strong political views, he took up the fight against communalism in the aftermath of the Babri demolition in 1992.
He is now planning a 'padayatra' from Delhi to Pakistan's port city of Karachi through Punjab and Kashmir sometime in 2004 or 2005.
A strong votary of peace, Pandey is critical of the country's nuclear policy and holds the "wrong policies" of the governments of India and Pakistan responsible for the deteriorating ties between the two nations.
He said by making A P J Abdul Kalam the country's President, the government had tried to justify its nuclear policies. Asha is committed to working for nuclear disarmament, he added.
PTI
[This is a local copy of an article originally posted in Rediff.com]
Activist Sandeep Pandey wins Magsaysay award
Sandeep Pandey has bagged this year's Ramon Magsaysay award in the 'Emergent Leadership Category' for his work 'towards the upliftment of the poor and the underprivileged in India'.
He is among five others to have won the coveted award this year.
Pandey is the founder of the Non-Governmental Organisation Asha (Hope), which supports education and livelihood projects for poor children in India, particularly dalits.
Other winners include a Philippine Supreme Court chief justice, a nun from Pakistan, a doctor from Myanmar, a Nepalese journalist and a South Korean Buddhist monk.
Philippine Justice Hilario Davide won the award in the 'Government Service Category' for promoting democracy in his country. Ruth Pfau, a Catholic nun born in Germany but living in Pakistan, bagged the award in the 'Public Service Category' for improving the treatment of leprosy patients at the Marie Adelaide Leprosy Centre in Pakistan.
Cynthia Maung, born to an ethnic Karen family in Myanmar, won it in the 'Community Leadership Category' for treating thousands of refugees on the Myanmar-Thai border. Bharat Koirala, founder of the Nepal Press Institute, won the award for journalism, literature and communications for 'developing professional journalism' in his country, while promoting the use of mass media for development. Buddhist monk Sukho Choi won the 'award for peace and international understanding' for his efforts to rally assistance for the people of North Korea.
Agencies