KARMAVEER PURASKAR- National Awards for Social Justice & Citizen Action
are being commissioned to recognise individuals who have been pivotal for leading
change beyond their business as usual by being committed on individual levels to
work on social issues. The awards shall be given to individual for their contribution
to promote social justice and action. The individuals shall be chosen from various
sectors (refer to page 9 of awards booklet).
In a country of almost 1.2 billion Indians very few people have the
COURAGE OF CONVICTION and COMPASSION to stand up, speak out and lead the change
with an I CAN DO attitude. However while we have many awards for movie stars and
other achievers awards launched by tobacco, FMCG, media and beverage brands as marketing
campaigns, we have yet to recognize the REAL LIFE UNSUNG HEROES who believe that
it is better to light a candle than curse the darkness by
leading change. These awards are given to change dreamers
& doers who practice Philanthropy for social justice
i.e. not by JUST GIVING a little money but by investing justly and getting involved
to understand social issues and trying personally with others to RIGHT every WRONG
thus making a difference for the cause. We firmly believe that it is not charity
but justice that is wanting in the world and that the few people who dream &
do can BE THE CHANGE..
Karmaveer Puraskaar is the peoples' award instituted by iCONGO – Confederation of
NGOs- and KHEMKA FOUNDATION with all other sectors and partners like TISS, BCCI,
CMS, NECCI, NASSCOM FOUNDATION, PHDCCI, FISME, RAI, AIESEC, Open Space NDTV, Outlook,
Asian Age, Business World, Dataquest, Big FM, Tehelka and various other esteemed
sectors and organizations was announced and at the curtain raiser 2006-07 event
on 10 th March 2007, wherein we felicitated some well and little known citizen change
dreamers & doers dubbed as ' THE NOBLE LAUREATES'
These awards are for INDIVIDUAL CITIZENS from the various sectors for Excellence
and best practices in promoting social justice & action in their sector/ environment
by being and leading the change . The idea is to nominate and select citizens in
the corporate, government, media, SME, students & other sectors who have contributed
to social justice & action by going beyond BUSINESS as USUAL and thus been the
change that they want to see in the world. The award is given to citizens individually
for their contribution in leading change by going beyond their regular business
and is not for any organization.
We invite people to send in their nominations by downloading the booklet and nomination
form or to nominate others you may know who have decided to BE THE CHANGE. People
who have applied earlier or been nominated earlier may also send in nominations
again as doing good for society is a continuous process and the KARMAVEER PURASKAAR
awards are instituted to inspire and motivate social justice and citizen action.
More details of the philosophy, values, objectives, rationale and processes involved
in the awards are in the links with the attachments.