New
York,
NY, June
24,
2010—
Pratham
USA
announced
today
the
selection
of
Amartya
Sen as
the
recipient
of the
second
annual
Pratham
USA
Award
for
Outstanding
Service
in
Education.
The
Award
serves
to
recognize
the
remarkable
ability
of an
individual
to
effect
change
and
dramatically
impact
the
delivery
of
education
to the
underprivileged.
Amartya
Sen is
Thomas
W.
Lamont
University
Professor,
and
Professor
of
Economics
and
Philosophy,
at
Harvard
University
and was
until
recently
the
Master
of
Trinity
College,
Cambridge.
He was
formerly
Honorary
President
of OXFAM
and is
now its
Honorary
Advisor.
The
influence
of
Amartya
Sen’s
work,
particularly
in the
field of
welfare
economics,
is far
reaching
and
speaks
specifically
to the
social
reforms
implicit
in
Pratham’s
agenda.
“Since I
greatly
admire
the work
that
Pratham
does, it
is very
nice for
me to
become
associated
with
Pratham
in this
wonderful
way,”
said
Amartya.
The 2009
Award
was
presented
jointly
to
Nandan
Nilekani,
Chairperson,
Unique
Identification
Authority
of India
and
Chairman
Emeritus,
Infosys
Technologies,
Ltd.,
and
Rohini
Nilekani,
Chairperson,
Pratham
Books
and
Chairperson,
Arghyam
Trust.
Among
the
awards
he has
received
are the
“Bharat
Ratna”
(the
highest
honour
awarded
by the
President
of
India);
the
Senator
Giovanni
Agnelli
International
Prize in
Ethics;
the Alan
Shawn
Feinstein
World
Hunger
Award;
the
Edinburgh
Medal;
the
Brazilian
Ordem do
Merito
Cientifico
(Grã-Cruz);
the
Presidency
of the
Italian
Republic
Medal;
the
Eisenhower
Medal;
Honorary
Companion
of
Honour
(U.K.);
The
George
E.
Marshall
Award,
and the
Nobel
Prize in
Economics.
Atul
Varadhachary,
President
of
Pratham
USA
commented,
"We are
delighted
and
honored
to
recognize
Dr.
Amartya
Sen with
our
Outstanding
Service
Award.
Pratham
has a
rich
history
of
collaborating
with
academics,
philanthropists
and
governments
in our
quest to
strengthen
education
and
learning
among
India’s
underprivileged
children.
We are
proud to
present
this
Award to
a
visionary
whose
life’s
work
embodies
and
helped
inspire
Pratham’s
mission.
The
Award
will be
formally
presented
to
Amartya
Sen on
October
21st at
the
Pratham
USA
Tri-State
Gala to
be held
at the
Pierre
Hotel in
New York
City.
About
Pratham:
Pratham,
which
means
"first"
in
Sanskrit,
was
founded
in the
slums of
Mumbai
in 1994
with
UNICEF
support.
Today,
Pratham’s
direct
urban
programs,
including
pre-schools,
community
libraries
and
remedial
learning
programs
reach
hundreds
of
thousands
of
children
every
year.
In
2007,
with the
support
of the
William
and
Flora
Hewlett
Foundation,
Pratham
launched
the Read
India
campaign,
an
innovative,
low-cost
effort
to reach
the
~100
million
children
in India
who
cannot
read,
write or
do basic
math.
With
the
continued
support
of the
Hewlett
Foundation
in 2010,
the Read
India
campaign
has
entered
its
second
phase,
focusing
its
attention
at the
village
level
and
teaching
more
advanced
learning
skills.
Pratham's
Annual
Status
of
Education
Report (ASER)
evaluates
India's
status
of
education
through
direct
testing
of over
700,000
children
in
16,000
villages
across
India. ASER
is the
only
annual
measurement
of basic
literacy
and
numeracy
conducted
at scale
in India
today
and its
widespread
dissemination
has
helped
focus
government
attention
on the
issue of
learning.
To
support
newly
literate
children
across
India,
Pratham
Books
has
developed
and
published
over 130
titles
and
printed
over 3
million
children's
books in
local
Indian
languages.
Pratham's
programs
have
been
recognized
internationally
for
their
innovation
and
impact.
Recently,
Pratham
won the
CNN-IBN
Indian
of the
Year
Award in
the
public
service
category
and the
Henry R.
Kravis
Leadership
Prize.
With an
annual
budget
of less
than $15
million,
Pratham
combines
large-scale
impact
with an
extremely
efficient
use of
funds. Pratham
USA (
www.prathamusa.org),
a
501(c)(3)
nonprofit
organization
with a
four-star
rating
(the
highest
possible)
from
Charity
Navigator,
accepts
tax
deductible
contributions
from
U.S.
donors.