Delhi Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia was awarded the “Mahatma” award for promoting excellence in education.

Speaking on the occasion, Sisodia said that Mahatma Gandhi played a crucial role in the independence movement by involving the people with privilege in the service of disadvantaged people. “The role is being played today by the folks involved in Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) following the Gandhian principles,” he said.

Mahatma Award is instituted by Aditya Birla Group to celebrate the work of social impact leaders and change makers.

Rajashree Birla and Ratan Naval Tata have been some of the recipients of this award in the past. The other awardees this year included Azim Hashim Premji, Founder Chairman of Wipro and Shabana Azmi, Indian actress among others.

Deputy CM Sisodia acknowledged that quite a lot of work has happened in improving the education system since our independence. “It is unfortunate that the current education system caters to only five per cent of our students. These students have become highly capable after passing out and earned accolades across the globe. However, we have still not been able to cater to the rest 95 per cent of our students,” he said.

“We have not been able to set a minimum benchmark of quality education in our country because of which many of our students are deprived of quality education. Delhi Government is working towards setting up a minimum benchmark for quality education for our schools,” he added.