NEW DELHI: The founder of
Sulabh International,
Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, has been honoured with the
Nikkei Asia Prize in Japan for his contribution to Asia's development, an official statement said today.
Pathak is among the three who have been conferred with the award.
According to an announcement made by the Nikkei Asia Prize Secretariat this morning in Tokyo, he has been described as "an Indian social reformer tackling two of his country's biggest challenges — poor hygiene and discrimination".
Nikkei Inc., one of the largest media corporations in Japan, has been presenting the awards since 1996 to honour people in Asia who have made significant contributions in one of the three areas: Economic and Business Innovation, Science, Technology and Environment and Culture and Community.
The prizes will be awarded on June 13 in
Tokyo in Japan. Dr Pathak founded the
Sulabh International in 1970. It is an NGO that works to promote human rights, environmental sanitation among other social services.
The foundation has built Sulabh flush composting toilets throughout India, contributing to better sanitation, safety for rural women and freedom from the manual labour of removing human waste.
